28 replies to this topic

[Jistme]

Happened at Walmart twice last week. Shortchanged 10 pesos, and 5 pesos. Not a lot of money, but as someone said, it could add up
to a sizable amount over time.
I decided to have a word with the manager about these discrepancies, but he was nowhere to be found.
Maybe if we approached him every time this happened, he'd realize the damage to Walmart's goodwill.

[simpsca]

I have decided to stop going to Walmart for awhile. If enough people did that maybe they would get the message.

[johanson]

I've discovered that if I shoot the bull with the staff, using not school Spanish, but street Spanish, you know kidding around using slang, that if I don't get all of my change back, it's less than a peso. Also, I found the best and easiest solution was when they told me how much I owed, I would give them an amount close to what was owed.

For some reason, many of us senior citizens tend to pay with very large bills and often don't have the approximate change.

By having the approximate change, there is less room for giving back too little change.

[Alex]

The discussion above reminds me. Four years ago, I had a post titled "Honest, friendly Mexican store clerks" on my blog. Here it is:
http://kvsmith.com/?p=85

Enjoyed reading the blog entry.

[halcon]

i wonder if they "size you up " first, or just go for it on a consistant basis and then what ? at the end
of the day, how do they know how much of the till they're "entitled' to. and how to not be conspicious ?

[mexart]

In Puerto Vallarta a little more complicated hustle at the Farmacia GDL on Insurgentes. The clerk starts to hand you a pile of coins and bills and at that time exactly the two little checkout baggers start a commotion between them...but not a very convincing one..something told me to count the change and sure enough a generous discrepancy. I was pissed and the clerk sheepishly gave the money correctly but the bad part was getting the young kids involved. Many customers would just try to get away from the commotion and stuff the change into their pocket without counting. While my experience has been that people dealing with gringos for the first time, usually people in my generation, are very honest, the kids who've grown up with gringos as part of their life much less honest in their dealings and in their attitudes in general towards gringos. To them we are fair game, even preferred targets.

[jorgensen]

I just pay with my credit card at Soriana, Walmart, and Farmacia Guad. Problem solved.

[Luke]

Paying with a credit card only solves your problem if the credit card is then not compromised. We used our credit card at Guadalajara Pharmacy in Ajijic and wound up having to cancel the card and wait weeks for a new one to arrive. It had to have been scanned right there behind the counter. Never again.

[Ginger]

Same thing happened to me at Walmart when I first arrived. Several thousands of dollars charged to the card which was cancelled & reissued. I never use credit cards here.