Shopping Adventures in Mexico

Before Papi arrived I had the fantastic opportunity to "set up house". This included the purchase of a new stove, refrigerator, sofa (which we have not owned one since leaving the states) & a bed (yes I know we own a bed but now we have 2 bedrooms). Of course Papi & I had looked & priced the kitchen appliances so I knew what he wanted & in what price range.

So off I go, Yee Haw! Chedraui (pronounced Ched-ra-we) is a like an upscale Walmart. They have everything from groceries (including a fantastic selection of wines & cheeses), to hardware, housewares, appliances & furniture. I found the stove & refrigerator I wanted and with my Spanish dictionary in hand approached a store clerk to help me. He had no problem understanding what I wanted. "Neccesito esta y esta" (pointing works well too). Now the hard part, I need it delivered today. "Neccesito es entragar hoy" (not the best grammer but he got the gist). I gave him the address & cross street, made the purchase & nervously left the store. Low & behold, as promised a truck pulled up at 1pm and in came the new stove & refrigerator!! BUENO!!

Now here is the other end of the spectrum. A week or so later I go shopping for a sofa & bed. A store in the same Mall (YES we have a MALL!!!) named Coppel has a fairly large selection of furniture. I looked through there and thought I found what I wanted but just to be sure I had seen all that was available I asked a friend here (Rosa) to take me to where she would shop for a sofa & bed. Turns out we went to the same places. The advantage is that she could communicate the details for me. We find a clerk, show her what I want, she tells us it can be delivered in 2-3 days. (Note: I can't give you the Spanish because they said way to much for my comprehension) OK not as good as the first purchase but ok. When I went to pay for it, the clerk punches it in to the computer and then says, "oh, .., this can not be delivered for 10-14 days. Rosa says, that's no good, we will arrange someone to come in a truck & pick it up. (This is on a friday) Clerk says, OK - Tuesday, it will be in the store Tuesday, but call first and make sure it arrived from the main warehouse. Bueno!

On Saturday I ran into one of the restaurant owners & his wife that we have become friends with and I explain (in my broken Spanish way) that I have bought a sofa & bed at Coppels and need a truck to pick it up on Tuesday. Jose says, "Sure, I can help you with that".  Papi came for a visit on Sunday and his Spanish is much better than mine, so we stop in at Lauva and he speaks to Jose's wife Teresita to explain that I will come to the restaurant Tuesday morning and if she would make the call to Coppels to be sure the stuff is in fact at the store it would be very helpful. (the only thing harder than communicating in Spanish in person is communicating over the phone - no sign language assistance).

Tuesday comes, I go to the restaurant & Jose is there also, so I show him the receipt with the invoice number & phone number - he calls, no answer. Jose, Teresita & I have breakfast together and try a few more times, ....no answer. OK,.......... maybe the people in that dept don't start work until later so they agreed to call again later and I would come back around 4pm (Jose finishes work at 5 and the store is open til 9). I return at 4 and Teresita explains that they have called all day and no answer, DANG, this is not going as planned. So, I go see Rosa and explain whats going on. She says she needs to go near there to pick up her daughter, that I should come with her and we will stop in at Coppels and find out what the problem is. At Coppels the clerk can not explain why nobody answered the phone but after looking in the computer says that it is there and we can pick it up tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5pm. Bueno!!

Papi arrived on Wednesday morning (for good - YAY), so this is even better, he will be with us when we pick it up (it's a manly job). So we went to Lauva and when Jose finished work we went to Coppels to pick up the furniture. Now remember, the day before we were also set to do this but I was told to call & make sure the furniture was there, so called & called & called all day, but nobody ever answered the phone so finally Rosa took me to Coppels and they looked it up in the computer & said, "Oh yeah, its here" so arrangements were made to pick it up at 5pm Wednesday.
 

So we get there, I hand them the receipt, they look it up in the computer & nod (yes its here) the guy goes into the store room, after a while he returns and looks it up again in the computer, gets another guy to verify, goes back to the store room (you see where this is going right??) Finally I see them pulling the mattress out & then they tell us the sofa isn't there - it SHOULD be there, but its not. we load the bed in the truck and then Jose TOTALLY rips the guy a new one (all in Spanish but there was no mistake about what he was saying LOL). It went like this:
"You tell her to call, she calls,  I call, all day we call, no answer, you NEVER answer the phone, how can you do business if you never answer your phone. You tell your customer something is ready and its not. How do you stay in business, if I did that I would starve. NOW you say it 'might' be here on Monday, and we should call. You never answer your phone and you said it was here today and its not, how are we to believe you" 

This went on a good 10 minutes. So Papi & I will probably GO there on Monday (because they never answer their phone) and if they say its there we will ask to SEE IT, then we will call Jose to come pick it up. I didnt have any issues at Chedrauri, I paid for the stove & fridge in the morning, it was delivered in the afternoon. Don't think I will be doing any more shopping at Coppels, BUT, .................. its all part of the adventure and we are blessed with  

GOOD friends here in Mexico.