COPPEL in Leon Home Depot mall - Do NOT use a credit card!

[Jzmackenzie]

As many of you know, Tierra de Verano (Summerland) bought school uniforms for kids in the rural village of Cajones, SE og GTO, GTO. Due to the generosity of several on this site, We were able to outfit seven children.

We bought $92.77 of the clothing in Leon, Guanajuato, at Coppel, a department store near Home Depot and across from Costco. We gave the clerk, who had the floor manger at her side, a Capital One card (the one card that does NOT charge for currency exchange in Mexico). The card was declined as we had just made a large purchase at Home Depot. We were not surprised, so we handed the clerk our other card. She reported that it was also declined. The floor manger fell all over himself apologizing and we paid cash.

Back at home I called Capital One about both cards. The first was declined due to the Home Depot charge but the second one went through for $92.77 WITHOUT my signature. I explained that I had a paid receipt for over $1,230 pesos but Capital One said, "Just tell the store to stop the charge."

Jolene called Coppel and was assured by a floor manger Antonio Avalos that the charge would not be made, but it was without my signature. Now Capital One wants a letter sent from them to arrive by the 22 in the USA, back to them by September 4 or they will not dispute the charge. Jose Antonio Garcia, the nice Coppel man from the original charge, was called yesterday. Although we had been told in a second call that we HAD to drive back to the store to get a "form to fill out" Mr. Garcia has promised an email. We will let you know what occurs, but in any case the lost time and money is a hassle.

BTW. Since early 2008, we send a letter every year to every credit card company explaining that our nonprofit is located in Arizona, but our charity work is in Mexico so the charges are usually in Mexico. We pre-call before charging if we leave Mexico. Most of the time the letters never get in our files and the traveling call is ignored. I appreciate those who, like ourselves, want to think that we are lacking in trust in this process, but the fact is we have tried very hard to make this financial arrangement work for us.

We have spent $35 in phone calls as our relay phone cannot make collect calls, Capital One will not call Coppel. We have now had unauthorized charges on the first declined card, so it was cancelled. We hate the fact that now we wonder if both numbers were kept - I hate this as we want to be trusting of the store. The proof is attached so that when the GoogleGroups GTO Connect monitor asks, you can tell her that you saw the proof here.

Better to keep our credit cards in our pockets in Mexico.