THE GREAT MEXICAN SECRET

Recently   I spent a half a day trying to unravel what I now call, "The Great Mexican Secret". I needed to make an 800 call to the States to make a payment on my motor home insurance.  This sounds simple but it wasn't. First I tried a new phone card, which is supposed to work from Mexico to the U.S.  The problem was that a pre-recorded message only spoke in Spanish.  Between busy signals and me trying to interpret what the operator was saying I continued testing several phones with no results.

Exasperated, I purchased another phone card that I was familiar with even though it was more expensive. After several attempts on different phones without any success I went to the phone company for advice.   It was like talking to a wall. At last I got the girl to call the home office and back and forth in Spanish, she came up with a code that was supposed to work. I went outside to the phone that would accept the phone card and again no luck.

As I walked away in disgust an idea popped into my mind. I thought maybe it would work if I added another "o" in front of the code. Sure enough it worked and I heard the friendly English speaking voice say, "Thank you for calling Progressive Insurance Company."

Here is the problem. Mexico has"800 numbers, toll free”.  The big secret is that everyone gets cut short when they ask about "800 calls to the States" and now everyone thinks that you can't make “800 calls” from mexico to the U.S. After much perseverance I discovered the "little known code"….. it is to change the 800 to "880'

--- all you need to do is dial 0, the country code to get to the United States 01, then the secret code 880, followed by the phone number.  Example 001 880 ___-____.

                                 That's all there is to it !

Written by James L. Hruska.