What Do Consumer Rights and the Price of Frosted Flakes Have in Common?

In Mexico, turns out a lot

Consumer Rights in Mexico

In Mexico, a vendor (store, restaurant, gas station, etc) must adhere to the following laws related to consumer rights and protection:

• Item prices must be displayed to the consumer. Prices cannot be quoted verbally.

• Prices must be displayed in pesos. They may also include exhibited prices in other currencies, but pesos must be one of them.

• Service charges and tips cannot be added to a bill or to the price of goods sold. A restaurant bill, for example, must only include the items ordered.

• Restaurants and bars cannot enforce any kind of minimum consumption rule.

• Exhibited prices must be the out the door price; that is, exhibited prices must already include taxes, commissions, insurance, interest.

This is by no means a complete list, but it does reflect the laws that are most commonly violated.

If you notice a violation of your consumer rights - for example, a gas station overcharges you, or a restaurant adds a service charge to your bill - you should point it out to the person with whom you are performing the transaction. Most of the time, simply pointing out the violation will resolve it.

But what if pointing out the violation doesn't end up getting it corrected. You've argued your point, but the business is standing their ground. There must be someone you can turn to. Some silent guardian. A watchful protector...

Soy Batman

Sorry. As cool as it would be, Batman isn't going to intervene on your behalf here. So if you are sure, if you are quite certain, that a business is violating your consumer rights and is refusing to correct it, simply do this: inform the proprietor or manager that if the violation is not resolved, you will file a complaint with PROFECO. And that should pretty much do it. Mentioning PROFECO will typically get the problem resolved on the spot.

Who Is This PROFECO?

PROFECO is an institution of the Mexican government, administered by the office of the Attorney General. PROFECO, which is an acronym of Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor (Federal Prosecutor for the Consumer), was established to oversee and enforce Mexico's Consumer Protection Law, which was passed in 1976. PROFECO has offices in every state in Mexico, and a main office in Mexico City.

If you believe that your consumer rights were violated - if you were charged too much, given false pricing information, sold a faulty product, etc - and you were not able to settle the dispute directly with the business involved, then you can contact PROFECO with your complaint. You will need to provide dates, name and location of businesses, receipts, and any other evidence of the transaction and the violation involved. Unlike many government agencies the world over, PROFECO is not a black hole. They have a pretty amazing track record of resolving complaints - with the vast majority of complaints being resolved in the consumer's favor, and with the vast majority of overcharges or wrongful charges being credited back to the consumer. In addition to reimbursing the consumer (at the business' expense), PROFECO may also temporarily close a business or issue a stiff fine if the business is found to be in egregious violation. This is why even mentioning the word "PROFECO" will typically cause a business to resolve the issue with you directly.

Contacting PROFECO

You can file a complaint with PROFECO on PROFECO's government website here.

If you are not comfortable enough with Spanish, you can go here to see how to file a PROFECO complaint.

The phone number of the main office in Mexico City is: +52 (55) 5625 6700

Remember, most of the time you can settle a violation of consumer rights directly with the business. Don't walk away fuming that you were charged a service fee without saying anything, knowing that you can contact PROFECO later. Deal with it on the spot. Although PROFECO does a good job, you're still dealing with bureaucracy, which should never be one's first attempt at a solution. And don't file claims that aren't the result of a violation of consumer laws; for example, don't complain to PROFECO that advertised prices are too high. If you don't like the advertised price, you can always go elsewhere.

Personally, I think filing a complaint to PROFECO about the lack of posted prices is pretty much unwarranted as well. People selling things on the side of the road, out of their cars, on the sidewalks - this is normal, and no - they won't typically have their prices posted on their merchandise. It's fine. Similarly, shops and small tiendas - especially in tourist areas - often do not post prices. Whatever. It's all fine. People are struggling to make ends meet, and it is't anyone's duty to interfere with that. PROFECO is there to protect against the egregious offenses - illegally overcharging, fraud, taking advantage of people on a large scale.

What Else Does PROFECO Have Up Its Sleeves?

Great question - and here is one rather remarkable answer: PROFECO actually maintains a database of prices for consumer goods at various retailers across Mexico and makes this database searchable and accessible to anyone with an internet connection. I'll give you a minute to recover...

Yes, you heard me right: a government institution in Mexico actually puts in the time and energy to collect pricing information from all of your favorite stores - Soriana, La Comer, Bodega Aurrera, Walmart, etc - and puts those prices into a database so that consumers in Mexico can see which store in their neighborhood is selling Zucaritas (and here you thought this article's headline was just clickbait) at the best price. This service - which, as I said, is part of PROFECO's charter - is called Quien es Quien en los Precios, or QQP (Who is Who on the Prices). You can find the QQP website right here.

OK, now that you've visited the QQP website, you can see that it's not all rainbows and unicorns. The QQP website is... challenging, to put it delicately. While you can create an account on the QQP website to create saved lists of items whose prices you'd like to track on a regular basis, creating an account often fails without explanation. And the website itself - the user interface - feels like something out of the 1990s. But hey - they're trying.

The Lost Weekend

Have you ever landed at an airport in a popular Mexican beach destination, such as Cancun, Los Cabos, or Puerto Vallarta? Then you're familiar with all the people with signs waiting just beyond customs earnestly telling you that they are your ride to your hotel, resort or wherever you're staying. Well, they will give you a ride to your destination - but first they'll stop at a timeshare presentation. You'll get some free drinks, some pretty views, and a hard sell. Now if you are quite understandably overcome with all the natural beauty, the waves softly crashing on the white sandy beaches, the marble and terra cotta stylings of the timeshare sales floor, and you do end up signing on the dotted line, only to finally get to your intended destination and start thinking to yourself: "what the hell did I just do?" - well, PROFECO and Mexico's consumer protection laws have your back on this one too. You are legally entitled to cancel the contract you signed for up to 5 days after having signed it.

So enjoy the sunsets and the warm water. You no longer have to worry about being "cheated". Life is good, the cervezas are cold, and the Zucaritas - they're gr-r-reat!