We also had hired a person, a long time resident of San Miguel who was helping us to evaluate areas in San Miguel de Allende before renting and she offered activating internet service for us even before we arrived. We agreed.

All sounded great, except it did not work near to what I thought it would be. Once we arrived, the person aka my assistant (I will be referring to her as my assistant moving forward, since this is how real estate agent referred to her and kinda liked it) reached out to me and asked what is the first thing I may need to do, given that I had paid her upfront while still being in the USA and I had credit with her for 6-hours (per her accounting.) My response was, the internet, among all things, we most needed to have access to the internet. It took her a day to respond that the internet cannot be arranged till we move in. We intentionally came 2 days early to arrange things of first necessity, internet being one of those. We came on the 8th and our move in day was the 10th. So, facing this new piece of information, all we could do was say okay and wait. 

The 10th came which was the Friday, our move in day and after that  it was the weekend and we already were told that nobody works here on weekends. We patiently waited till Monday and on Monday reached back to her asking what was going on with the internet. This is when she diverted us to her assistant, a local man, who speaks English fairly well and who spent years in the USA. She also told me this man’s (my assistant’s assistance service will be $50 dollars or 1,000 pesos. We went to the bank, and got prepared.

It took another two days for the technician and assistant’s assistant to show up. They came late at night to evaluate rooms for the cable and promised to install it the following morning. 

The following morning, as we heard  various conversing from front yard, my husband went downstairs to find out what was going. He learned that the technician who was installing cable for us was robbed the night before, while he was in our casita. He apparently parked his car on the street, left his ladder, his tools, and his documents (including ID) in the truck and while inside our casita, his truck was robbed, unknown individuals took his ladder, tools and ID documents. In less then 10 minutes his personal equipment and documents were gone. We felt bad for him. But regardless cable got installed. We felt somehow responsible for him loosing his things, (my husband saw he had newly purchased tools and ladder.) At the end of the job, we gave the technician personally 2000 pesos equivalent to roughly over $100 to help him out. I told assistant of my assistant, that my assistant told me his services, which was basically overlooking the technician, are 50.00 dollars to which he raised his eyebrows first and after gave me $75.00 number. Clearly, I did not have exact change and I ended up giving him $100.00. 

To sum all to make cable/TV/computers/Phones workable it cost us 435.00 dollars and I do not count taxis and all other little extra, nor our time, because in sense we enjoyed doing these things since everything an  all  was new for us. One month passed, and I will probably not remember any of it, but we paid our internet bill yesterday and it was 1649 pesos, out of which 649 is for plan usage and additional 1000 pesos is for installation. So, just to do a little calculations here to get prospective of money spent. Calculations’ in dollars is approximate, just to get idea

Plus little expanses here and where, extra cable, extra cord, taxi etch. And remember I paid the technician, assistant and the assistant’s assistant for the installation of cable, PLUS got charged for installation by the company Infiniti  as well. To add major expanses for internet up:

8700 pesos=> 435 dollars435 dollars for people coming from west may not sound like a lot but for you to get idea how much money was spent on getting internet, I will put following below:

Good reason to look for places with internet. Or at least be prepared  that you will spend  lot of money  and waste a lot of time on something which should be simple.

I reached to assistants’ assistant several times with various questions and he was great responding promptly. Now, if you need help to evaluate rental space of your choice, before moving to San Miguel de Allende; over Zoom or Facetime I am happy to be your assistant. San Miguel de Allende does not have zoning regulations and at times this can be tricky than selecting space to live. This is not real estate services I offer, though I am a realtor too,  but only being your eyes and ears for the things which realtors do not readily disclose.