Good things come to those who wait - and in MX, that's a common malady!
Not to leave y'all hanging with regards to my banking fiasco, I have good news and darn well earned I might add, but good news - I'm not broke, well not rich, but not broke which I realize is only good news to me, but being the warm little fuzzball I am (normally) I just wanted to "share"?
It only took 3 trips to the Village to see my personal banker Beto, 2 trips to my vice-personal banker Phoebe (whom you may recall I hollered at last week) and 2 phone calls to 1-800- Inglish-HelpLine to get it all resolved and this time I didn't holler at anyone, not once.
To cut to the chase my ATM card which is a key to all things great and peso here in MX was old, passe etc - which I thought was perfect, fit me to a tee? But no, when they came up with this stupid new cheezy calculator number thingy they also whacked all the old cards, you now need a new ATM card with, of course, a new number to memorize and then there is the little RFID embedded chip (which was why I didn't want a new card). Then, new security agreements, signoffs on cancelling the old cards etc. (Mexicans absolutely LOVE paperwork, makes them feel muy importante don't you know?).
One of the problems when I was talking to HELP ME POR FAVOR was that 4 years ago when I opened the account they asked a question which was ID'd as "home"? I have no idea what I said at that time, was it Texas, or Riberas, or? - and turns out it had to be 8 letters or more long, I told Beto I never lived in any place big enough to have 8 letters in it's name for gosh sakes. But now I have a new question, a new answer and I wrote it on the inside of my arm so no one can steal it - hope it's in water proof ink?
I asked Beto if my old money was still in there or if I had to fill it with new money - he was mildly amused. But, that's how things go in Mexico, just takes time, perseverance, patience, tolerance and it does help if you don't yell at the local folk.
I was so excited to be "in the chips" again I went straight out to the ATM and got a wad of pesos and paid my annual mailbox rent, so my address is good for another year - whether I am or not.
And, I've been in and out of the account several times, I can transfer money, what more could an old gringo hope for?
It only took 3 trips to the Village to see my personal banker Beto, 2 trips to my vice-personal banker Phoebe (whom you may recall I hollered at last week) and 2 phone calls to 1-800- Inglish-HelpLine to get it all resolved and this time I didn't holler at anyone, not once.
To cut to the chase my ATM card which is a key to all things great and peso here in MX was old, passe etc - which I thought was perfect, fit me to a tee? But no, when they came up with this stupid new cheezy calculator number thingy they also whacked all the old cards, you now need a new ATM card with, of course, a new number to memorize and then there is the little RFID embedded chip (which was why I didn't want a new card). Then, new security agreements, signoffs on cancelling the old cards etc. (Mexicans absolutely LOVE paperwork, makes them feel muy importante don't you know?).
One of the problems when I was talking to HELP ME POR FAVOR was that 4 years ago when I opened the account they asked a question which was ID'd as "home"? I have no idea what I said at that time, was it Texas, or Riberas, or? - and turns out it had to be 8 letters or more long, I told Beto I never lived in any place big enough to have 8 letters in it's name for gosh sakes. But now I have a new question, a new answer and I wrote it on the inside of my arm so no one can steal it - hope it's in water proof ink?
I asked Beto if my old money was still in there or if I had to fill it with new money - he was mildly amused. But, that's how things go in Mexico, just takes time, perseverance, patience, tolerance and it does help if you don't yell at the local folk.
I was so excited to be "in the chips" again I went straight out to the ATM and got a wad of pesos and paid my annual mailbox rent, so my address is good for another year - whether I am or not.
And, I've been in and out of the account several times, I can transfer money, what more could an old gringo hope for?
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