I’m writing this to warn the Chapala community of the unscrupulous business practices of La Pueblita Retirement Center in west Ajijic. My mother is 85 years old and was living alone in the US. It became clear that her health was declining, so I convinced her to move to Ajijic so I could get her the care she needed and I could be nearby. La Pueblita is very close to my home, and so I went there to see what they offered. Their staff told me La Pueblita offered all levels of elder care, from independent living, to assisted living, to memory care. I told them I needed to get my mom here soon, and they said no worries, their cafeteria would be open in 2 weeks, and they would be opening the memory unit also very soon. I moved my mom her February 25 into a “casita” at La Pueblita. In order to do so I had to pay $4800.00 in membership fees, plus a $2300.00 security deposit and one months rent , for a total of about $9000.00. When my mother arrived the casita was filthy with construction dust, so I had to hire a maid to clean the place. The internet did not work. The cafetería was still not open, and the staff seemed oblivious to the concept of caring for elderly people. Quickly it became obvious that my mother needed assistance, as she was suffering from considerable memory loss. La Pueblita had no possible way of assisting her. They had no laundry service, no food service, no cleaning service, and no internet. On March 12, just 2 weeks after I moved her in, I moved my mother to a facility that actually was equipped to take care of assisted living residents, and I asked La Pueblita for a refund. They put me in contact with Lucas, who told me there was a 90 day waiting period for refunds. After 90 days I contacted Lucas, and he started making all sorts of excuses for why they couldn’t pay, and told me per our agreement only 75 percent of the membership fees would be refunded. After several weeks of calling over and over La Pueblita returned $3500 out of the $9000.00 I paid to have my mother there 2 weeks. Lucas advised they could not refund my security deposit at that time because there was a delay with the banks due to covid. It’s now been almost 5 months and they are still in possession of $5500.00 for my mother to stay in the casita 2 weeks. I know someone else who is experiencing a very similar situation with La Pueblita, so please be extremely careful if you intend on dealing with these people.