"Where do I go to get someone to work on my transmission?"
"Well Tito is the best, but you could go to see Josue."
"Who is Tito or Josue?"
"Right."
"Right."
"Well, does either one speak English?"
"Why don't you take it to the dealership in Guad?"
"I'll ask someone at the doughnut shop."
I have this conversation on a surprisingly regular basis. It isn't always about transmissions. Sometimes it's about doctors, or lawyers, or plumbers, or just about anyone. It isn't that I despair that the folks I am talking to don't know the people but rather that they apparently have never figured out how to tell if someone knows what they are doing or not. I have to assume that the person I am talking with doesn't know what he is doing either.
I guess it must be difficult to figure out if a mechanic really knows his stuff and charges fairly for his services. Though it seems that every other person I talk with has some horror story about how they paid for 90% of the quoted price up front. Haven't they every heard of the word "No"? If that person was in the U.S. and someone asked for 90% up front I'm pretty sure they would go somewhere else and in a hurry. Is this some kind of masochistic guilt thing? Is it a power trip? Whatever it is -- I don't get it.
It is normal here for a service provider to charge up to 50% up front for materials but even then I ask for some type of accounting. Even a few quasi-knowledgeable questions will establish that the seller is going to be held accountable by the buyer. I don't know about other people but I listen to what the prospective seller is saying (and especially what he is not saying) so that I can determine if he is unduly interested in my money, or if his interest is in completing my work.
You see I have a lot of difficulty believing that when someone comes across the border into Mexico that he loses all semblance of common sense. I am little more jaded than that I guess. I think that these people who overpay for a transmission repair, or a plugged toilet, or an over-priced shyster are indulging in a wee bit of one-upmanship. I think they are "trying" to show the poor Mexicans that they can pay anything because they are rich. I suppose that this activity can even be rationalized as some sort of help to their Mexican neighbors.
Whatever happened to teaching a starving man to fish? If it costs nothing to ask a sucker to overpay for a service what's the down side to asking? If the sucker is likely to pay, then you might be throwing away a golden opportunity. However, if the sucker turns out to be a shark, then it is likely that the next time you are asked to provide your service, you might remember a certain set of teeth.
I don't know how many people I have heard claim out of one side of their mouth that they, "just want to be a good neighbor and not do anything that would make the Mexicans think badly of them," while out of the other side they complain bitterly about the injustice of Mexican attitudes that border on prejudice. I say those people should climb down off their white horse and enter the real world.
I will gladly stipulate that the Mexican culture is difficult to understand and it does take a while to overcome culture shock in all of its forms including how much something costs. But I will not agree to the idea that there is an anti-American feeling that is endemic to Mexican culture. People who claim such sentiment as common should have their mouths washed out with soap. Such attitudes can only fester ill will. This is a pleasant part of the world, which is surprisingly free of hate and dissent. Let's keep it that way.
"Well, just tell me where they are and I'll go myself."
