Anyone that’s ever lived in Puerto Rico knows that there are a bunch of mainland companies that do not offer their services in Puerto Rico.
For example, I recently tried to purchase Paramount+ only to find out AFTER they accepted payment that they simply don’t offer their services in PR. Or how after my car loan was paid off with Ally Bank, they refused to send me my car’s title via USPS because of my PR address. Or how we can’t get YouTube Premium if we live in PR because I guess my money isn’t green enough for Google.
Perhaps each of these companies has a completely legitimate reason to treat us like second class citizens, but I start wondering how many other compañías cabrones there are that exclude US citizens living in PR.
Search as I might, I haven’t been able to find a list of these companies. Entonces mi gente,
which compañías cabrones have you been denied services by?
Bestbuy US y Bestbuy PR, deberían ser compañías diferentes. En PR, no igualan precios ni al mismo site de bestbuy , no puedes pedir online porque no hacen shipping a PR… pero cómo es que les llega mercancía? Para mi se volvieron un showroom dónde veo lo que voy a pedir en otro site
Apple insurance. Paid it for years and when I finally needed it, they toldd me they dont offer their service in PR. They refused to refund me for the insurance paid because “I could ship it to the mainland, and have someone re ship it to apple, or I could travel tothe mainland and then get the service”
Samsung considers PR as LATAM so if you want any unlocked devices you ain’t getting the sweet trade in deal you get in the US they don’t ship to PR directly ethier only via Amazon or carrier stores. YouTube TV and sling TV and I think most TV service streaming sites doesn’t work on PR and hasn’t for pretty much it’s entire existance. Also lots of websites ethier don’t accept PR addresses as US or just have issues with it generally one at the top of my head is Playstation network rest flat out don’t include PR as valid US address.
Looking at moving to PR, currently living in VI which is almost the same as far as this goes and confirmed these with a friend in PR.
Google also won’t let you buy a device from them. Every year prior I bought their new phones and this year they kept me on the wait list for weeks only to cancel my order for “suspected fraud” over and over again. Even when trying to ship to my parents house in the states.
Amazon: half assed service to PR and VI. Just use Walmart+ instead
Youtube TV: actually works on my mobile phone but otherwise I vpn into my parents house
Steam: Wouldn’t ship me my VR headset until I changed it to my parents house and reshipped at double the shipping cost
TSA: Id’s often don’t scan. Ripped through all my stuff and made a mess of it once despite being real id compliant.
Car Insurance companies: Geico, Progressive and probably many others
PayPal
I think what gets me is the laziness for some things. The amount of websites that just block us is just ridiculous. I had a car wash subscription I had to cancel in the states and I was just completely blocked from their website. No one is signing up for fraudulent car wash subscriptions why the hell do you have to block random parts of the world?
Tips:
For Amazon, search for products using a san Juan zip code and change to your real address during the purchase. Many items will not show up as available for other zip codes in PR. .
I had Google Fi in PR. Used my sister’s address in NC for billing. Worked perfect in PR, better than it did in NC.
Banking, same. If you can use a different address you can still use their services in PR.
The purchase of AT&T by Liberty has messed me up when switching carriers.
Amazon. They only send half their products to PR. For the other half they just say “this item is out of stock and we don’t know when or if it will be back in stock.” What they mean is they have plenty but won’t send it to PR.
Glad you posted this but hopefully you will educate yourself and realize it has nothing to do with companies not wanting to do business here but rather the Puerto Rican government and Hacienda that literally create an awful situation for Puerto Ricans.
It’s actually the other way around my friend.
If only you knew how much worst it is, the big one being banks. Every day Puerto Ricans would be so much wealthier if they were allowed to have the same tax advantage accounts provided by the US government coupled with products offered by Vanguard for instance.
A lot has to do with our tax system and how expensive/complicated it is to do business here. If it made financial sense to operate here - of course they would, they are out to make a buck. But - our market is too small and too expensive, so they would be loosing money. Your complaint should go to the government here.
stacksocial.com si son cosas digitales puedes, pero cosas físicas no quieren enviar nada
samsclub.com si eres Plus y vives en PR eres un Plus handicap, que no puedes ordenar online para que te llegue a tu casa, y que los precios si compras online (pick up) te los inflan cuando recoges el item porque es para los Plus que no vivan en PR. Como le dije, entonces le cobraste mas cara la membresia a los Plus que viven fuera? porque entonces si pago lo mismo no puedo tener lo mismo? Ah y cuando voy a los estados con la misma membresia que pague aca todo funciona bien.
paramountplus: yo uso un VPN (windscribe). Lo tengo porque pago Walmart+ y es incluido con ellos.
amazon prime: no llega en dos dias, no puedes marcar que llegue tarde y que te den creidto digital, muchas cosas ya no estan disponibles para PR
I think there is a confusion between Youtube Premium vs Youtube TV. YT Premium works. I have it and has worked for years. YT TV however does NOT work. What is the difference? YT Premium has no ads when watching YT videos and other little features like YT Music. Then YT TV is basically a cable TV service.
No rec compañías, pero si recuerdo siempre que iba a alguna página de alguna tienda y siempre tenía el dread feeling cuando iba a pagar que PR no apareciera en el drop down menu . Como lo odiaba!!! A veces (en las páginas que me dejaban) engañaba al sistema y ponía “unites states” como country y PR como estado. Pero muchas veces no podía comprar xq no shippiaban para la isla .
Ah y google parece q no sabe que PR existe pq no te deja usar el servicio de voip con un número de PR:roll_eyes:
I’ve only been here a little over a year, but here is my list:
No major US banks have a presence here
Uber is here, Lyft is not
Target has no stores in PR
MegaMillions lottery is not available in PR, Powerball is
Most streaming services don’t work here, even when using a VPN
Netflix works, but some content is limited (all Netflix-owned content seems to work)
AT&T, Verizon, etc. all “work” here from a service perspective, but there are no stores on the island
Some smaller mobile operators and MVNOs have no service here
The GPS in my car says “Vehicle Outside of Service Area” and there is no way to updated it for PR
Amazon Prime is almost never two day delivery and what is available on Amazon is about 20% of normal
Venmo and PayPal aren’t really a thing here unless it is gringo to gringo - PR uses a thing called ATH
Service “subscription” services for consumer goods (deodorant, shaving supplies, etc.) won’t ship to PR
My US medical insurance is not accepted anywhere on the island (I have a secondary PR policy)
My OrangeTheory membership from the US did not work here, so I canceled
While it seems to work fine, Starlink does not offer support for people using it in PR (it is coming)
The other thing that I’ll mention is that while Delta airlines does operate here, the pricing can be different for the same flight if I’m in PR versus in the States. It seems that Delta also bans website access if you’re on a VPN, which I assume is to stop people from gaming the system. I wouldn’t be surprised if other companies have similar pricing differences.
Odd YT premium works for me and I use a PR address and they charge me PR sales tax something is wrong with your account probably different address from ip address you are connecting to change your address at the Google account then subscribe
, no puedes pedir online porque no hacen shipping a PR… pero cómo es que les llega mercancía? Para mi se volvieron un showroom dónde veo lo que voy a pedir en otro site 
. Como lo odiaba!!! A veces (en las páginas que me dejaban) engañaba al sistema y ponía “unites states” como country y PR como estado. Pero muchas veces no podía comprar xq no shippiaban para la isla 
.