The “Mexican Pharma”: A Closer Look
After receiving a complaint from one of the Mexican Pharma clients, we published Has “The Mexican Pharma” Become a Scam?. While the Mexican Pharma did not immediately respond to our pre-publishing questions to that story, they did respond after the story was published and users started leaving comments.
We also received a follow-up from the original client who filed the complaint with us. He had received the prescription he ordered from them, be it 30 days after he ordered the medications, and was now receiving correspondence from the Mexican Pharma, which before our story, was described as “less than an acceptable time frame”.
Update: See WARNING! Mexican Pharma Gets An “F-” Rating: STAY AWAY!
We also reported in our first story, Has “The Mexican Pharma” Become a Scam?, that the Mexican Pharma lost their credit card processor and was asking clients to send them a PayPal payment. Our complainant had done this and, as stated above, did not receive the medications until he had run out of them. Of note is that a PayPal direct payment is not reversible, so if you elected to pay in this manner, you have virtually no recourse.
We sent two separate emails with questions based on the concerns of our readers. Note that these emails were sent after the complainant had received his medications as we wanted to be fair to the Mexican Pharma, who we believe is providing needed services to Americans. In the first email, we made a couple of recommendations to help with what we perceived was a cultural difference. We had correspondence from the Mexican Pharma to the complainant that pointed out that their website stated it could take up to 21 business days to receive medications in the U.S. due to mailing problems originating in Mexico. We recommended that they post an “average days” for current deliveries (it can change in Mexico) and use actual days rather than business days as the “business days” could be confusing to many of their clients who, we’re guessing, are senior citizens.
The Mexican Pharma responded to our first email and while they enthusiastically stated they would make the changes, there was an obvious language miscommunication, as they said they would change it to 30 business days. Upon review of their website, they have changed the content of the Terms & Conditions page to now say 10 – 30 business days, and gone further and stated (18 – 35 days). While not putting a counter with the current average days, they have added text on delivery times clearly on their front page.
Visa and Verified by Visa are displayed at the Mexican Pharma website. We went to the Visa page (Verified by Visa has no link) and found they do not accept credit cards as this implies. The checkout page states that you will be required to use PayPal or Wells Fargo Deposit/Transfer orders. When you go to the PayPal link, it requires you to send the same PayPal payment as when they originally lost their credit card processor. Remember, this type of payment is just like sending cash to them, so you have no recourse.
We also want to again state, that our complainant did pay via a PayPal payment, and did receive his medications, be it 30 days later.
As we had received comments from other clients about the Mexican Pharma, we sent a couple of follow up questions to them. They never answered our questions, even after we asked the original complainant to let them know we were holding up our follow-up story on them. In our follow-up email, we asked 3 new questions from our readers, 1) Are you accepting credit cards again, 2) Do you have any plans to address the concerns of clients trying to reach you by phone as: a) your clients complained that they could not reach you by phone as there was no answer nor were they allowed to leave voice mail, b) the message was only available in Spanish, and 3) How long does it take you to respond to email questions.
While never answered by the Mexican Pharma, we could no longer find their phone number on their website, so the voice mail and language questions are moot. As far as how long it takes to get a returned email, they never answered us so infinity may be the answer.
Our thoughts: The Mexican Pharma provides a needed service, one that is used by many Senior Citizens. However, you are doing business in Mexico and there are many things that are just different, and not just the language. There are two major issues that we have to raise:
- It is mainly the Mexican Postal system that causes the majority of problems with deliveries, not the Mexican Pharma. They appear to ship orders shortly after being paid. This gets worse as the U.S. Postal Service at the border can also delay orders which are shipped certified U.S. Mail. The bottom line, it may take a very long time to receive your medications, so plan ahead.
- No Credit Cards Accepted. While you can pay via PayPal or Wells Fargo ePayments, these are risky. If you don’t receive your medications, you also lose your money.
Would we do business with the Mexican Pharma? Caveat Emptor (Let the buyer beware).
- Best stated, our original complainant says yes, he needs the medications.
- Order any prescriptions 45 days before you run out.
- While not a comfortable feeling, our complainant paid by PayPal ePayment and did receive his medications.
- Don’t expect very much in the way of customer service, or even a returned email.
Our bottom line: We would only do business with the Mexican Pharma if we had no viable alternative. If you can get across the border, you will find much better prices at many pharmacies. If you are stateside, not near the border and you have no alternative, you will most likely have to take your chances. It’s better than not having your prescriptions filled.
We had really hoped after the Mexican Pharma responded to our first email to give them a glowing review. The first flag popped up when they didn’t respond to our second email. Another popped up when visiting their website to verify claims made in their email and seeing their statement, “Secure transaction – we accept all payment methods”, which was false. While we can attribute the 30 days vs. business days to a language barrier, not being able to process credit cards as of March 25, 2015, even as their website states, was an out-and-out lie. The big question is why? Why not just be straight?
We’re really sorry, but we give the Mexican Pharma a “D”.
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