In a recent trip to the Playa del Carmen area, my son was travelling from the Wyndham Maya to the Sandos resort and the taxi stopped to exhort more fare, which was a setup as the police showed up in a minute without a call and my son ended up in a Mexican jail overnight. All his funds in his wallet ($140US) were confiscated to exit jail and continue his 7 day vacation at Christmas. With 127 hotels in the Cancun and Playa area, surely the hotels should be able to track guests leaving by which taxi, which drivers/taxis are taken and refuse to use those companies or drivers. The tourist association should be concerned about this behavior. The Wyndham claimed they cannot be responsible for taxis and washed their hands of the event. This makes it dangerous for their guests but it appears they don't care. Maybe we should avoid the Wyndham.
"... how can we travelers pressure the tourist association and hotels to consider measures (cutting off certain taxis drivers?) from doing business with their guests for bad behaviour?..."
Honestly, you're beating a dead horse. The Mexicans don't care.
Cheers,
Terry
welcome to third world business practices...not just in Mexico.
Very true, but Mexico is (almost) in a league of their own, haha... especially considering their huge tourist and expat industry...
Cheers,
Terry
Actually Mexicans do care. This is not proper behavior and 99.99% of the population disagree. Especially in Playa del Carmen most of the population lives from tourism.
Of cours it´s impossible to get the money back, but the police offer gets fired and the Taxi driver might loose his license. Keep in mind that you need to go as high as possible from the beginning. Once there is a federal file local authorities can´t hide stuff like this. Here is what you can do:
1) Complain with the Profeco (federal office that protects consumers)
2) Complain with the Policia Federal. They are more honest and the highest authority.
3) Complain at th board of tourism.
Please let me know what the outcome was.
Kudos to you for trying to put your country (and livelihood) in a better light Olympus-Tours, but suggesting that a gringo tourist lodges complains with 3 separate levels of federal bureaucracy kinda backs up the earlier comments... you're beating a dead horse.
All the best to you.
Cheers,
Terry
Olympus Tours, thanks for the direction. The next step would be transparency - why isn't this "complaint procedure" more available on the Playa Tourism site (well - who'd want to sell bad news) and secondly, where is there any transparency for the number of incidents. It's all fine to complain or provide the tools to complain, but until some significant Mexican group cares (Prefeco, board of tourism or the hotel association), the police or taxi behavior won't change.
Actually Mexicans do care. This is not proper behavior and 99.99% of the population disagree. Especially in Playa del Carmen most of the population lives from tourism.
Of cours it´s impossible to get the money back, but the police offer gets fired and the Taxi driver might loose his license. Keep in mind that you need to go as high as possible from the beginning. Once there is a federal file local authorities can´t hide stuff like this. Here is what you can do:
1) Complain with the Profeco (federal office that protects consumers)
2) Complain with the Policia Federal. They are more honest and the highest authority.
3) Complain at th board of tourism.Please let me know what the outcome was.
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