Daily Observations: Computers and Credit Cards (Part I)
Thursday, August 9th, 2007I’m in mourning. My computer finally died. I knew it was coming. She was barely hanging on. The disk drive no longer opened. It didn’t even have a door. The keyboard was missing a few keys, thanks to my baby boy. It couldn’t really do anything anymore, other than open Word after about 15 minutes of deep concentration. Then, last week, it suddenly shut down and never turned back on.
So that meant that it was time to start looking for a new one. There are all kinds of great deals in the United States. But I live in Mexico… and not in Mexico City. There are very few options here in Xalapa. I’m almost ashamed to admit where I finally ended up buying my new laptop.
Never in my life had I stepped into a Costco. Never. Never wanted to. Swore I never would… Life has a funny way of putting you exactly in the situations you said you would never be in. It turns out that there was a great deal on a good laptop. I couldn’t resist. I mean, I’ve been frequenting the Internet cafes. This is not an easy task when you are always accompanied by a small toddler. So I really needed this laptop. Big time. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
It turns out that finding a decent deal was only the first problem I encountered. When I asked if I could pay with my US credit card, they adamantly told me that I could not. I do have a Mexican bank account, but they only give you a debit card with very limited uses when you open up a basic account. So I was stuck.
We didn’t surrender though. After living in Mexico for a while, you learn that things are very rarely as they seem.
To be continued…
Source: CajaLaboral