Post: #1

I was in a bar in northern Mexico with two friends that are local. One of them was very drunk and accidentally dropped an empty beer bottle on the floor. The bottle broke and the waitress told my other friend, who was not drunk at all, that we would have to pay for it.

She left and then some tall buff guy who looked like a security guard came to our table and politely told us we would have to pay $4 for the bottle. This was a very cheap cantina for locals and beer was only $1 so I thought paying $4 to replace a broken beer bottle was a rip off.

My friend told the guy that the price of a bottle was much less than $4 and the security guard just smiled and told us politely that was the price they charged and we would have to pay it.

So we paid everything and left. Was this a rip off or is it customary for restaurants/bars to charge such high prices for stuff that you break? What if he had refused to pay?

Post: #2

Probably not much you could do except try to haggle down the price. Have to play that situation by ear. Personally, I wouldn't be arguing too much with a bouncer in Northern Mexico right now over a $3 price difference.

Post: #3

(04-01-2012 03:45 AM)RioNomad Wrote:  Probably not much you could do except try to haggle down the price. Have to play that situation by ear. Personally, I wouldn't be arguing too much with a bouncer in Northern Mexico right now over a $3 price difference.

Fuck no! Next time tell them you know germanico. The whole bar would have cleared out.

Post: #4

$3 is not worth destroying your mood over. Taxicabs routinely rip me off for 2 or 3 bucks here or there... I let it slide.

Pick your battles wisely, and so on.

Post: #5

(04-01-2012 03:19 AM)encanto Wrote:  I was in a bar in northern Mexico with two friends that are local. One of them was very drunk and accidentally dropped an empty beer bottle on the floor. The bottle broke and the waitress told my other friend, who was not drunk at all, that we would have to pay for it.

She left and then some tall buff guy who looked like a security guard came to our table and politely told us we would have to pay $4 for the bottle. This was a very cheap cantina for locals and beer was only $1 so I thought paying $4 to replace a broken beer bottle was a rip off.

My friend told the guy that the price of a bottle was much less than $4 and the security guard just smiled and told us politely that was the price they charged and we would have to pay it.

So we paid everything and left. Was this a rip off or is it customary for restaurants/bars to charge such high prices for stuff that you break? What if he had refused to pay?

Did you see who opened it?

They probably refill that bottle 15 times before it's too worn out. In actuality they feel you owe them for the damage done to their container.

Aloha!

Post: #6

(04-01-2012 03:45 AM)RioNomad Wrote:  Probably not much you could do except try to haggle down the price. Have to play that situation by ear. Personally, I wouldn't be arguing too much with a bouncer in Northern Mexico right now over a $3 price difference.

Thank you for your reply. Actually, the empty battle cannot cost more than a few pesos. I understand they have the right to charge my friend for damages but $4 is unreasonable for an empty beer bottle.

If this happened to him being Mexican, just imagine what they do to foreigners.

Post: #7

In my youth while in the military I dealt with crap like this all over the world. Back then the fight was on as soon as he walked over. Now, I pay and I leave. Much older. Much wiser. Discretion is better part of valor.

Post: #8

This happens a lot in Mexico. While I agree you should have just paid the 3 dollars and bounced, like you did, there are ways to not get ripped off. Northern Mexico is handled differently than Central and Southern, where I am right now. Up in the north, it is better to be more pre-imptave. What I do when I am in Tajuana or a northern town that isnt the safest, is I always always always ask for the beers un-opened. This way no one can slip anything into your drink, and just as important, it shows you are aware of most shit other people arent and it kind of sets the tone that you might be a little smarter and thus harder to rip off, so they wont take the chance. Most gringos are incredibly easy to rip off so even the slightest difficulty will deter most lazy/normal rip offs of opportunity.

You have more freedom and can get more worked up the more south you get. Here in Guanajuato, people still occasionally try to rip me off. Usually, you can get more aggressive and I have a line that is pretty straight forward, and usually works, but is pretty informal and rude, so use when appropriate. I say "Soy gringo pero no pendejo" which means 'I am American but not a dumbass' and if you say it fast and angry like, its great to see the look on the idiots face.

Youll never miss 3 bucks so other than the loss of pride, your good.

Post: #9

(04-01-2012 10:57 AM)sylo Wrote:  This happens a lot in Mexico. While I agree you should have just paid the 3 dollars and bounced, like you did, there are ways to not get ripped off. Northern Mexico is handled differently than Central and Southern, where I am right now. Up in the north, it is better to be more pre-imptave. What I do when I am in Tajuana or a northern town that isnt the safest, is I always always always ask for the beers un-opened. This way no one can slip anything into your drink, and just as important, it shows you are aware of most shit other people arent and it kind of sets the tone that you might be a little smarter and thus harder to rip off, so they wont take the chance. Most gringos are incredibly easy to rip off so even the slightest difficulty will deter most lazy/normal rip offs of opportunity.

You have more freedom and can get more worked up the more south you get. Here in Guanajuato, people still occasionally try to rip me off. Usually, you can get more aggressive and I have a line that is pretty straight forward, and usually works, but is pretty informal and rude, so use when appropriate. I say "Soy gringo pero no pendejo" which means 'I am American but not a dumbass' and if you say it fast and angry like, its great to see the look on the idiots face.

Youll never miss 3 bucks so other than the loss of pride, your good.

Thank you for your reply.

There was no problem with the bottle's content. The problem was that one of my friends dropped the bottle and it broke. The guys at the bar wanted to charge us $4 to replace the broken bottle.

I am not a gringo, I don't look like one. I am from Latin America. I didn't get ripped off, it was my friend that had to deal with it.

Post: #10

Post the name of the bar and location. Blackball it. If its true, there is no sense of defamation. Ohhh, that defamation bs is only used by lawyers in Canada USA. Go ahead, blackball the joint.

Post: #11

Maybe that's why my Mexican renters break so many beer bottles on my property? They must think they're getting their money worth.

Post: #12

Shameless ripoff.

This is how it goes. Bottles have no cash value. Bottlers give them away to distributors, who sell them to you, you drink the contents, and when its time to get some more beer, you take the bottle back, and they sell you a full one. Then the bottler picks up the empty cases, takes out the chipped ones, washes and cleans the surviving ones, and fills them again for as long as the bottle can hold.

Some brands have "no-retornable" versions, but most are returnable. If you walk up to a 7-11 or a corner store, and have no empty bottles, you will have to buy no retornables, or leave a deposit for the bottle, which you supposedly get back when you return the bottle. (Which no one does) All the non-locally produced brands are non returnable, as its not worth the expense for a distributor to send a truck back just for empty bottles.

Casually, (or not) some of the traditional big industries in Monterrey are beer, glass, stamped steel and cardboard.

However, bars, and particularly small bars, are not charged for the bottles. Brewers know that as long as people are drinking your product, business is good, so they give bars a lot of perks, such as beer at a considerable discount (bars make more proportionally more money on beer than any other drink) and freebies like tables, chairs, ornaments, coolers, etc. One of those perks is not making a fuss for broken bottles. As long as your bar keeps selling our beer, they will keep the cases flowing in.

So no bar gives a fuck if a bottle breaks. One particular bar where I used to pick up chicks even went as far as just throwing them in a trash can at cleanup (one busboy pushed one of those trash trolleys on wheels around, while another just picked glass bottles and threw them it it)

So, a bar claiming that you have to pay for a broken bottle is a rip off. But as Roosh says, its not worth to loose your cool over $4. Just tell the waitress thats ok, heres $5 bring me a cold one. Tip is optional, but recommended.