Vallarta Blog

Has Vallarta found another excuse for not paying their bills?

“We got robbed, no money for you buddy, hasta mañana” might be the next excuse in Vallarta. There have been some rumours stating an ATM fraud in Olas Altas, Nuevo Vallarta and the entire Banderas Bay. No this is not the fraud from a year ago about the “insider job” nor the other one with the fake card reading attachments on the doors giving access to ATM booths; there are no card reading attachments anywhere in Vallarta anymore, but this is more about a new supposed kind of “Super ATM Hacking”.

It’s said that some people have been victims of this new ATM fraud by using the ATM machine in Olas Altas, which I use everyday without problems besides the fact that it is surrounded by people going to La Playa store and PvCafé. The claim is that somebody has managed to cash more than 3 times the withdrawal limit on the ATM machine and has robbed accounts being used by local people living in the area of Olas Altas.

There is no official statement, but some people assume that somehow the robbers had put fake keypads and card readers on the ATM machine, to get secret pin numbers and card info, which still leaves the excessive withdrawal without any explanations.

However, these scams or frauds happen all over the world and it seems PV has been talking about it more and more lately, even if there is no actual bank statement that proves or warns about this. Make sure you cash your money in a safe place, better in the same Bank and think twice whenever somebody tells you they couldn’t pay you because they have fallen victims of an unknown, illogical, irrational fraud at the ATM machines in Olas Altas.

If you have been to Puerto Vallarta more than a few times and in different seasons, you know that every year it’s the same thing: Low season is no money season. Hotels, Boats, Tours are all packed with money-spending tourists, but still you can notice the absence of money on the streets. There is no excessive tourism and many stores close their doors before 10pm if not located near a tourist zone. What locals experience every year is nothing new to them, but it is to every new business down here.

If you are planning to open a business in PV, be aware of the low season. Not so much because of the low tourism or the ATM frauds, but more because of other businesses. If they are in debt with you, you will most likely hear the same excuse to not pay you, over and over again: Low season. This excuse sometimes takes other less recognizable forms like “Mañana” (Tomorrow). Many people won’t tell you directly in your face that they won’t pay you… instead they will just tell you that they will pay you “tomorrow”.

A “mañana” in Mexico, or at least in PV can mean everything from a month to a never and there is nothing you can do than learn from it and move on. Try to find the kind of people that mean what they say and say what they mean, because the summer can and will bring a lot of heat into many people’s heads, that can and will result in unreasonable, illogical behaviour and or excuses.

Once you have accepted and gotten used to the fact that low season means no money, no work, no payments and a lot of unsatisfied locals and new businessmen grabbing on to their wallets (as if the world was coming to an end); you can still find a lot, and I mean A LOT of business down here in low season that won’t tell you they can’t pay you because of some fraud.

Many Hotels towards the north of Vallarta are packed and many tour operators like Vallarta Adventures can’t even handle the amount of people coming in. Badly this results in other hotels and tour operators south of Vallarta ending up with almost no clients and firing employees temporarily until there is more tourist activity in PV.

The only way to stop this is to stop doing business with irresponsible companies and people. Especially when excuses like “tomorrow we’ll pay you” or “We’re victims of the ATM fraud” are becomeing more common.

Hasta Mañana