John Shrall

Early in ATM processing there was post on completion. That meant the ATM received the OK that funds were available but the account wasn't debited until the machine responded that the funds were actually disbursed. That caused a lot of extra traffic on very slow (by today's standards) connections to be replaced by post on authorization. Once the authorizing bank receive the request and money was available the account was debited and a response sent to the ATM to disburse. As far as the authorizing bank was concerned the transaction was complete. It was then up to the ATM to say no, I couldn't disburse so refund the money. If the ATM never received the OK or the failure to dispense message wasn't received, the authorizing bank assumed all went well. As to #2, yes. This scenario can occur, and the ATM owner has the info needed to authorize the credit should they take the time to research the claim. The ATM was out of balance based on cash remaining in the cannisters versus the amount settled from the network. Unless the money was no longer in the cannister but stuck on the way out.

Normally there are only 2 ways to end up with an ATM debit and no cash. Your account got charged because the ATM sent a request to your bank for the amount you specified. Your bank authorized that amount and reduced your checking balance. Then one of two things happened. One possibility is that the response from the bank to the ATM didn't make it. After waiting a certain amount time (it used to be 30 seconds) the ATM times out and gets ready for the next person. No money was dispensed because the ATM never received the OK. The other possibility is that there was a malfunction at the ATM where money could not be disbursed. The ATM is supposed to send a message back to your bank saying sorry, no money disbursed at which time the bank credits the original amount back. In either case your bank did nothing wrong and the failure rests with the 3rd party that balances the machine. There should be some fault recorded in the log showing there was a problem at which time Ci Banco should have told your bank to refund the money. The other rare possibility which happened to me once is that the money is actually dispensed but gets jammed in the dispensing mechanism. In this case the ATM should go out of service. The next time the 3rd party comes to fix or balance the machine there's the cash which can easily slip into a pocket. In that case you're out of luck.

My Weber grill has been connected to my 500 liter gas tank for over 15 years also. No problems and in fact at least for me, connecting to a larger gas tank works better than a portable tank.

Thanks. After I finish getting the water under control I'll check them out. Unfortunately it takes several days to undo this sort of neglect.

My pool guy apparently disappeared while we were on a month-long cruise. I came back to a pool and jacuzzi that are totally green. Since the original post, has anyone come across a guy that can keep pool water clear?

Omar (33-3019-9829) installed a complicated sprinkler system at our house. Due to the layout of the property he and his crew installed 2 control panels, one with 12 zones and the other with 2. He used a variety of pipes, tubes and heads to cover grass, plants and even pots with plants and vegetables. When a couple of the zones weren’t getting enough pressure he split the zones adding new ones to get water coverage. We had to install a new 1hp pump that could deliver 50 liters per minute because the old pump couldn’t push enough water even though it was the same size. When a herd of cows came down the street unattended and pulled out a sprinkler head trying to eat the grass he made the repair with no complaints. The entire job took a little more than 2 weeks and included plumber/electrician services to install the new pump as well as new breakers for the control panel and the pumps. He did a good job although he loves to explain every detail of what he is doing.

Generally Gualberto and Carlos are good at making repairs but at times struggle diagnosing a problem, especially one that is intermittent. We went round and round with a GE Profile problem and finally went to Tio Sam and got on the list for a technician from Guadalajara. He diagnosed the problem as an faulty igniter. He happened to have the part in the car and got everything in working order in under 30 minutes.

Does the OP have a US address? If so it is easy to open a credit card that does not rely on US cell text messages. I just applied for a Barclay’s credit card while on an American Airlines flight. Unlike Capital One that forces you to have a non VOIP number for texts, other financial institutions offer phone calls or optionally the answers to security questions you set up in lieu of texts. Citi Visa also supports telephone calls for security using a VOIP service like Magic Jack. If you don’t have a US address then perhaps a brokerage account like Ameritrade or Schwab could be an option. I have had an Ameritrade account, soon to be Schwab, for over 20 years. I don’t know if they do credit cards but they do offer debit cards and haven’t objected to my address in Mexico.

We have been in Guayabitos since late last week and even though we haven't seen rain, every afternoon dark (rainless) clouds build up. In a normal year these clouds would bring a storm so here's hoping that some day soon we'll get some of that liquid sunshine we need.

In the early days of ATM processing, banks (commercial banks S&L, Credit Union and Savings Banks) each had their own network of ATMs for sole use by their customers. That was pretty restrictive so up pops regional networks that a group of banks could join. As a bank customer you could use any ATM in that network. As networks grew that too became a impediment for people traveling outside their network. In 1982 Plus and Cirrus were formed to connect regional networks as well as being the jump off point for international activity. In 1987 Master Card bought Cirrus and Visa acquired Plus. Look at the back of your debit card or possibly ATM card to see which network logos appear. For a sense of regional networks still alive in the US. check out this list. https://www.atmscrip.com/processing_networks.html

Plus, Cirrus or Visa are the switches that convert local currency to the destination currency as the ATM transaction leaves Mexico heading toward the authorizing bank. This is as long as you decline the conversion at the acquiring bank. It doesn't matter if you're in Mexico, Argentina or Kenya. It works the same way everywhere. Surcharges are assessed at the ATM and are just added to the amount you requested. The amount is shown on your receipt and nowhere else . Currency exchange fees are assigned by Master Card or Visa based on the card logo. This type of fee shows up as a separate charge on your statement.

Trying to eliminate the possibility of a hardware problem, I had a thought. Why not run the speed tests while connected to a VPN and see what happens? When connected to Nord and Windscribe in both the US and Mexico the download speeds were a slower which was expected, but all the upload speed test results were north of 100mb. After closing the VPNs the upload speeds dropped again to 3. The term throttle comes to mind. With the same hardware, cables and modems returning 2 different results, it appears Totalplay is fooling with the upload speeds somewhere along the way. Now to see if Totalplay responds.

Since switching from ILOX to Totalplay about 3 months ago, my upload speed on my desktop PC using an Ethernet cable has been really good and then really bad. I have the 600mb play which was just bumped to 700mb download. No issues there. The good upload speed has been north of 100mb, sometimes at 150mb. For the last week and about a month ago it's been about 2mb. The odd thing is that wireless devices like an iPhone and laptop have download speeds of 300-400mb, they also get 130mb up. A call to Totalplay was very non-committal - no idea and looking to blame my network card even though it was working fine a couple of weeks ago and for 3 years with ILOX. If anyone else is connected to Totalplay via Ethernet, please run a Speedtest (or fast.com or nperf) to check your upload speeds. Sad...

The Bank of Mexico has an interest rate meeting this coming Thursday. After 15 straight interest rate increases, the consensus is that the current rate will remain unchanged at 11.25%. https://tradingeconomics.com/mexico/interest-rate

I can't speak to Intercam's capabilities, but BBVA (Bancomer) offers Retire Sin Tarjeta where you can get a code and pin number for a specific amount from a cell phone app or online portal. You then send the info to your employees and they can go to a BBVA ATM and withdraw the funds. I use it all the time for 3 employees at my house in Guayabitos. Many utilities accept SPEI transfers which are normally used to transfer money from one bank to another but can act like a bill payer if the receiver supports it. I see Totalplay accepts SPEI payments and I know in the past I've paid CFE and Telmex bills from my checking account using their online portal. A Mexican credit card also works very well for recurring payments.

Amen to that. Then when the water turns green and they need clarifier they're puzzled. I'm not sure putting a few drops from the yellow/red bottles directly into the pool is an accurate way to measure chlorine and ph.

When I switched from Telmex DSL to fiber optic in my house at the beach, I had to drive to the Telmex office in Bucerias to request the service. Fiber uses a different modem than DSL so it would be unlikely that a random Telmex installer would have an extra in his truck. Anything's possible of course. Note that when you switch to fiber you'll lose your copper based land line which will be replaced with VOIP service. The copper phone jacks in the house will no longer work forcing you to a portable phone system. The portable phone base is plugged into the modem. If you switch to Telmex and the internet goes down, your phone won't work either.

You could try taking the piece to the iron guys on the mountain side of the carretera east of Tempisque or take it to Toncho on 5 de Febrero between Hidalgo and Ocampo on the west side of the street. I've used Toncho a lot for iron projects over the last couple of years. He's talented and creative. Spanish only of course. Best of luck.

Rodrigo Estrada is at Home Services west of Ajijic 331-465-8200 Froilan Parra also installs and repairs filtration systems. 33-3952-4175. His store is at the west end of the strip where Sherwin Williams is located in Ajijic.

I was told that the Plaza Patria office is the only one in the Guadalajara area that has printing equipment on the premises allowing for same day pickup.

For anyone interested, we renewed our Mexican passports today for the first time. Things have changed a little and surprisingly, for the better. You have to call for an appointment. There is a website for appointments but at the moment it only works for Mexico City. The office to choose is located at Plaza Patria, north of the Country Club between Av de las Americas and Avila Camacho. After spending a lot of time getting copies of different sized cartas, they didn't even look at them. Once your docs are examined and OK'd, you're sent into a noisy room with about 200 people either sitting or standing. Since there was no signage or help you have to figure out that the line for drop off is on the right side of the room in a roped off area with a single row of chairs. Think of the snaking chair car tag process in Chapala before they went online. There were 6 windows with employees taking your docs, making notes and in short order sent you to the second waiting area, that being for the photo, retina scan and signature. No more fingerprints. Names are called over the PA system sending you to one of many photo stations. If you're tall be prepared to bend your knees a lot because the camera setup is rigid and not designed for you. When that is complete, you're sent to the final waiting area for your completed passport. The lady calling names wore a mask and couldn't project so with the PA and noise from all those in the waiting area it was impossible to hear her. Often, she identified people by the photo and called them up. With a couple of signatures and about 2 hours after we arrived, we walked out with renewed 10-year passports. If you're over 60 the passport is half price which is $1,890 pesos.

Center of town in Guayabitos last night. Three times as bad is probably an understatement. The beach was full too, not to mention all the coastal roads.

For those that are interested I'd like to clarify a couple of points. First, a debit card can serve 2 functions. One, it can be used to withdraw money from an ATM and two, it can be used in place of a credit card for merchant purchases in a Point-of-Sale device. All routing uses the first 6-9 digits of the plastic card where those beginning with 4 belong to the Visa system and 5 use Master Card. There are hundreds of merchant types covering restaurants, department stores, services and many others. Any card that is used in a POS device sends transactions to the authorizing bank using the Visa, Master Card or Maestro networks. A couple of posts back covered how the exchange rates work. These transactions can also cause a currency exchange fee to be assessed. One very odd twist is what they called a dual currency exchange fee. Let's say you're in a touristy part of Puerto Vallarta and you buy something in a store that prices merchandise in dollars. To make it easier on the visitors perhaps. There can be a fee to convert the dollars to pesos and then a second fee to convert pesos back to dollars. Kind of nuts but know to avoid making that type of purchase. A currency exchange fee will appear as a separate line item on your bank statement as it is technically interest. Surcharges do not appear on your statement, only the ATM receipt. One other POS oddity is using a debit card to purchase gas although it works the same for a credit card. Once you swipe your card and maybe enter your zip code the POS device at the pump sends a pre-authorization request for an amount determined by the station. It used to be $100 but it could be more now, but it would be enough to cover a tank of gas. No returns allowed. If you have enough to cover the pre-auth then a hold is placed on your account. When you finish the POS sends what's known as a force post message. The bank cannot deny it. The authorization system also releases the original hold. If the transaction never finishes the hold is released after a certain amount of time passes. While POS devices use the Visa and Master Card networks, ATMs use networks like Plus and Cirrus to complete transactions.

Whichever international network passes the transaction from the host country to the receiving country sets the exchange rate. This could be Plus, Cirrus, Maestro, Visa and possibly some new ones I'm not familiar with. Normally the international switches logos are printed on your debit card. The surcharge is determined by the owner of the ATM. If you let the acquiring bank determine the exchange rate all bets are off.

The land used for this construction used to be part of the 2 clay tennis courts which were part of the yacht club property. It was my understanding, and I could be wrong, that the original plan was approved for 3 stories. Once the building far exceeded the original permitted height it was shut down. For years. It sounds like 5 might have been the compromise between 3 and 7.