Mexico Series Part 3

While in Mexico, we’re becoming quite disenchanted by the wireless possibilities. Since TelCel has made their Pay-Per-Call service almost unattainable, we tried Movistar’s more consumer-friendly services. However, our first hurdle was Movistar’s inability to offer English-speaking prompts…at least we think that’s the case. We can’t through to ask.

However, Movistar has a whole web page dedicated to roaming on their network, written in good English, claiming that while roaming on their system, you can call their customer service, “*611”, and your calls are answered by English-speaking “executive agents” who will help you with any problems you might have. And they also have a handy toll-free “800” number you can call for the same helpful information.

So we slipped in our T-Mobile SIM to give Movistar’s “executive agents” a try at getting us English prompts and a Pay-per-Call plan. But when we call *611 nothing happens. If we call “611” we get T-Mobile’s customer service, or AT&T’s, depending on the phone. That’s great, but we want to talk to Movistar. Not to be thwarted, let’s pay the $2 charge on our hotel phone to use that handy-dandy Movistar “800” number. Guess what? No English and no “executive agents.”

We really tried to give Movistar our business, but we should have listened when, in our search for a Movistar “chip” (SIM), a shopkeeper at an electronics store asked “Why? Nobody uses Movistar here.” I guess that will include us. But our trip isn’t over, yet. More? yes...