Sunday, February 1, 2009

Fool’s Gold

An Ontario woman staying in the RV Park in Chetumal with us bought a “gold” chain in Cozumel a couple of weeks ago. She talked the “jeweller” down from his original asking price to what she thought was a more reasonable $800 USA. After wearing the chain for a couple of days she noticed her neck turning black and the “gold” rubbing off the chain.

She had made a couple of mistakes. One, she bought in a cruise ship port where prices are highly inflated and most customers are going to be long gone before the “gold” wears off and two, she paid with cash so had none of the protection credit cards offer.

They immediately called the store and were given the “no refunds, no returns, all sales are final” policy. A relative of the owners of the RV park went into the store on their behalf and was given the same “no returns” line. The couple were discussing their option of hiring a lawyer when the bartender at the restaurant attached to the RV park offered to help. He had been a cop in a previous life and offered to go with them to talk to the store owners. They loaded him into their car and made the long road and boat trip to Cozumel.

When they arrived at the store the bartender told the couple to let him do the talking. He had a chat with the owners in Spanish and came away with $800 USA in his hand. He said he just quietly discussed the situation with them and they agreed with him that the nice Canadians deserved a refund. No problema! These Mexicans have a way with words!

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