CAIXA Bank in Brazil - A Rant

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

CAIXA Bank in Brazil - A Rant

Ratty · County player

Mysterious, i wonder what's their angle? Are you sure that you don't just need to pay someone an ... er ... "consultancy fee"?

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Ratty wrote:
Mysterious, i wonder what's their angle? Are you sure that you don't just need to pay someone an ... er ... "consultancy fee"?

That approach has been discussed wink . Our contacts inside the bank this evening have told us that the problem is their IT system. It is not just our transfer that is having problems but EVERYONE who has tried to make a transfer in the last three months.

In simple terms, they installed a new IT system for administrating transfers 3 months ago. It doesn't work and they don't have a back up. Everything else is just stalling for time while they try and sort out their technical issues.

Meanwhile, we all suffer.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I know this is almost certainly stating the obvious, but wouldn't it be quicker to open a new bank account ? With a bank that just possibly realises that banking is about being able to transfer money ?

In fact, it might be quicker for you to set up your own bank, get a banking licence, build an office, write an operating system from scratch . ..

Feel your pain, Bob ::(((

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
I know this is almost certainly stating the obvious, but wouldn't it be quicker to open a new bank account ? With a bank that just possibly realises that banking is about being able to transfer money ?

OK.

HSBC - Do not allow bank accounts for ANYONE working in the construction industry

Santander - Do not allow bank accounts for building promotors. We cannot claim to be something different as the "objective" of the company is stated in our company deeds.

Bradesco - All shareholders require work visa

Itau - All shareholders require work visa

Banco do Brazil - To open an account ALL shareholders must be present in person. Notarised copies of passports are not accepted. My other business partners are in Spain and the UK. Also, we need work visas.

To get a work visa we have to invest in a company that in which we are a shareholder. So that is chicken and egg. Need a visa to open a company account. Need to invest in a company account to apply for a visa.

So we have tried other banks, but without success. We are still working on inside contacts to try and circumvent a couple of these road blocks.

The other reason for sticking with CAIXA is that we build within a government sponsored programme called "Minha Casa Minha Vida" (My House My Life). CAIXA have full management control over this programme and run it on behalf of the government. So sooner or later, we have to deal with them anyway.

Trust me, we have tried everything.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I'd figured there'd be an answer a bit like that . . . . :(

Feel sorry for you Bob - here's praying for a miracle !

philwrig · Hall of fame

Such bad luck Bob, not sure what I can say, in another life I would pop over and rattle a few cages, but that's a bit tricky.

You'll need some big time compensation from that lot of amatuers, if things don't resolve themselves.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:
Such bad luck Bob, not sure what I can say, in another life I would pop over and rattle a few cages, but that's a bit tricky.

You'll need some big time compensation from that lot of amatuers, if things don't resolve themselves.

Today we are trying to hit them where it hurts - on Facebook. We are giving them a lot of bad publicity and we seem to have rattled a few cages ourselves in that way.

As another example of how frustrating this has been, here is another "chapter" in the catalogue of disasters.

About 3 1/2 weeks after first receiving our docs, they told us that there was a spelling error in the christian name of the person making the transfer. Now I understand that in this day and age, you have to dot all the "I"s and cross all the "T"s, but the Central Bank had seen the error and still approved the transfer.

We were told that the ONLY solution was to send the money back to the UK and resend under the correct spelling. So we went to the bank and signed the instruction to send the money back.

Two days later, it was still here. We asked why and were told that they were still "analysing" the document. This was their own internal document that THEY had prepared. All we did was sign it.

The following day, we were informed that our request to return the funds to the UK was DENIED. Why ? Because "we had failed to provide them with a reason for wanting to send the funds back". JEEZ. We were sending it back because THEY told US we HAD to. I mean, for ****sake.

So we even had to start THAT process a 2nd time. That was another 4 days lost and a further two weeks for the funds to do the round trip.

I fly home on Thursday. So I have spent the last 10 weeks here doing diddlysquat. What a waste of time and money.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

The really frustrating part is that we have:

Signed contract for the purchase of building plots (although we are now in breach because of delays)
Signed fixed price contracts with builders and penalty clauses for late delivery
Current and fully up to date building licenses for immediate start to construction
Pre-contract agreements with buyers to sell the entire 1st phase plus a waiting list of additional buyers
An investor who has promised to put in a more substantial sum if we can prove ourselves over the 1st 6 months.

Guess you can all tell that I am not a happy bunny at the moment.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

This week, the bank finally agreed to accept our documents via email as their system still wasn't working. I am pleased to report that today, 102 days after the funds were first transferred by the investor, the bank have finally released those funds into our account.

Construction begins on Monday.

Halle-you.know.what-lujah.

It must be Xmas or something.

steven · Tennis legend

Congratulations

... or something! I'm impressed that you and your colleagues managed to stop the other people involved pulling out for the time it took the bank to get their act together.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Bob in Spain wrote:

It must be Xmas or something.

Yes, obviously the season of goodwill!

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Congratulations ... or something! I'm impressed that you and your colleagues managed to stop the other people involved pulling out for the time it took the bank to get their act together.

Yes. I did comment to my colleague today that it is a strange experience, getting such an adrenaline rush simply because the banking system has successfully managed to move a sum of money from A to B.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Madeline wrote:
Bob in Spain wrote:

It must be Xmas or something.
Yes, obviously the season of goodwill!

Goodwill to all men (and women of course) - with the notable exception of those that work in the banking sector. smile

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Oh, Bob, I read through your thread, and felt your pain.

I spent about six months working with the Brazilians (six weeks in Brazil) this year, and I have to say I can relate to the story. Mine is not so dramatic, but I can relate to them being inept and two faced, and then trying to shift the blame onto you! It's a shame as a few people were kind to me in my social life there, unfortunately this didn't seem too stretch to the office where they were generally a bunch of two faced blame merchants.

I wish you all the best with the rest of your endeavours out there. I find that these are the things that still separate 1st from 3rd world. Both all have big cars and houses, but we deal with each other with a higher and level of competency, honesty and integrity.