Where Do You Go When Things Go Wrong in Mexico?
Updated August 2023
PROFECO (Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor) has teeth.
Consider the following scenarios. You are renting in Mexico and your landlord doesn’t honor the terms of your lease. Or you go to the hospital and are presented a ridiculous bill and bogus charges. Or a restaurant has reneged on a promotional offer. Who you gonna call?
Well, just like with anything else that goes wrong in Mexico, it's doubtful you'll call the police or a lawyer. The country doesn’t have much a legal system. Fortunately, as an expat, that’s unlikely to effect you as long as you limit major transactions to people whom you know well, or hire those referred to you by people you know well and trust, preferably Mexicans. But in the case you fall victim, is there anything you can do when you’ve been ripped off?
What can that can be worth it de vez en cuando when you run into such a situation in Mexico is a visit with PROFECO (Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor). PROFECO is the agency where consumers, any consumer, including an expat or visitor, can make a complaint if they have been cheated. Common miscreants that are brought to the attention of PROFECO are
retail stores
landlords (as long as a there is a rental agreement in Spanish)
timeshare companies
utility companies
hospitals or clinics
pharmacies
Remember when Americans used to use the threat "I'm going to call the Better Business Bureau!" thinking "That'll-scare-'em"? Today most people know that the BBB doesn't do anything for consumers in the U.S. The BBB works in the interest of its due-paying business members. In the last few years, it hasn't even received high marks from them. The misperception by many is that PROFECCO is Mexico’s BBB. It’s actually more than that.
PROFECO in Mexico is more akin to small claims court in the U.S., (including the delays, paperwork and appearance dates, where you make your case.) Unlike our small claims courts however, filing a claim with PROFECO is free. Once in a while PROFECO, like a taunted mongoose, bares its teeth and is surprisingly effective.
Any consumer complaint that you might turn to a lawyer and the court system for in the United States you would probably be directed to PROFECO instead in Mexico. You do need to go prepared.
How to prepare your case.
Hire a lawyer to write it up in Spanish
Lawyers in Mexico don't have any power. That's why a session with a Mexican attorney will cost you 400-500 pesos ($30 dollars) and not $200 an hour. But like U.S. lawyers, they write pretty well. The one thing a lawyer in Mexico can do for you is to put your complaint in proper Spanish, which of course they speak beautifully, even if it doesn’t do them much good in an actual courtroom.
An attorney can write out a step-by-step detailed description of what transpired and why it's unfair. This is invaluable and well worth the pesos even if you have to find a translator to go to the meeting with you. [Note: Instead of attorneys, notaries serve the same function in commercial transactions as lawyers do in the U.S. and have more status than lawyers.]
Get your paperwork in order.
Things you will need for your visit are:
- Supplier's name, address, phone, e-mail or other contact information date of purchase, cost of the product or service, amount you are claiming, your name and signature.
- Copy of your ID (Passport or Driver´s License)
- Copy of your contract or payment invoice
- Copy of your bills, credit card slips or receipts as evidence of your payments
- Copy of all the documents available to support the complaint
Sizing you up.
The meeting with PROFECO
Once you are taken before the PROFECO official (and you've butchered their Spanish as much as they've butchered your English), present your beautifully executed Spanish-language document ( Do this with some flourish, saying "Todo que sucedió está en este documento!" (Everything that happened is in this document!).
After you hand them said copies of these documents, demonstrate the intention to wait patiently while they read them (Try to find a book in Spanish with a high-brow title to make them wary.)
Draw !
After presenting your complaint you may get directed to the Office of Tourism, City Hall, some other government agency. Or you might even be invited back for a formal hearing at their offices to make a case against the accused!
According to Q-roo Paul who writes the blog Two Expats In Mexico, you can also file a complaint to PROFECCO in English via live chat. I prefer a hands-on approach as an excuse to rumble with the natives.
Other tips to prepare for your visit
When you do see people during the process to present your complaint, try to get business cards and clearly written email addresses from everyone you meet. It is much easier to at least try communicate via email rather than over the phone. With email, you can look Spanish words and phrases up that pertain to your complaint. Keep the emails as you will need them for your third (and fourth) trips to PROFECO.
In making complaint against a medical clinic in Mazatlán, I needed to provide proof to PROFECO of what was charged on my credit card. One free tool that can come in extremely handy for these situations is Skitch. Skitch is one of a number of free online tools that enables you to make a screenshot, make arrows and comments on screenshot and save it as a file.
I confirmed my translation of the comments into Spanish on Linguee, a site that translates entire phrases, and made notes on the screenshots. I also made printed copies, in case the official wouldn't open the attachment in the email.
With these documents, I made complaints at the Office of Tourism, American Consulate, PROFECO and one other agency dealing with specifically medical issues, the Comisión de Arbitraje Medico del Estado de Sinaloa.
Transactions and legal processes in Mexico take much longer
Great fun is poked at Mexican tramites (bureaucratic processes), as you will see in this hilarious video, specifically the high level of red tape, paperwork and ambiguity [Even though the video is based in Spain, it’s exactly the same in Mexico.] Things take much longer to get accomplished. Your results depend to a high degree on who you're talking to, and what kind of day they're having. You just have to be patient, do what you're told and still expect to be frustrated.
The odds are still low.
Ultimately, on a scale of 1-10 as far as a just outcome, PROFECO would probably rank an impressive 4, the highest rating ever received by any agency in Mexico having to anything do with punishing criminal activity. However, you might be encouraged by forum posts like this one on ExpatsExchange.com about PROFECO. You can see how good notes and records are important (as they would be in the U.S.).
When we moved to Mexico I had a cheapo LG cdma flip phone I purchased for about $3 on ebay. I put a new IUsaCel sim in the phone for Mexico and it worked great. Then AT&T bought IUsacel and converted everything to GSM - rendering my phone useless and eating my 4000 peso credit balance.
We visited PROFECO and filed a complaint, My wife kept great notes on all our interactions with AT&T. I think it took 2 visits to PROFECO the last with one of their lawyers who acted as an intermediary with an AT&T lawyer on the other end of the phone.
In the end - they agreed to reinstate our 4000 peso credit balance AND gave us a new GSM phone of our choice.
It was not a lot of money - but they should not have acted in the manner they did, AND - it was a great learning experience for us !!
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About the author:
Kerry Baker writes this blog and has published several books on how to set up a life in Mexico. Most recently she released, The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico. In Mexico you must cook to maintain a healthy diet. Over 150 recipes and tips on how to shop and much more.
"If Only I Had a Place," the go-to book on renting luxuriously in Mexico for less than you ever dreamed. The book gives you a system to not just rent, but rather establish a foundation for the richest expat experience.
Her second book is “The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico.” This is one how-to book that won’t leave you numb. Te juro,