Wednesday, April 20, 2005
The Legendary Brazilian Bureaucracy
Well, for my second post, let me add a word of warning. I have had the misfortune to run into a Bad Brazilian...I just hope there are not too many more like him out there.
This is a warning to the Gringos in Fortaleza who may not have met this man yet...he is bad news.
His actual name is Jose Braulio...but he styles himself as Ze Braulio.
I was introduced to him by another person in Fortaleza whom I believe to be an innocent bystander in the whole affair.
Ze helped me in getting through the twisted tangled procedures for marriage here.
Then I asked him to help in finding a particular car I was looking for. When he said he had found it, I gave him some money...it doesn't really matter how much, but a lot for me...well time went on and no car. I complained several times and one day he showed up with a beautiful 2003 SUV. He said drive this. He said there's no cost, only gas, so I drove it...for about 5 weeks. I started getting nervous because I was told it was worth around R$30,000 and obviously someone owned the vehicle and would either be driving it or wondering about making the payments.
Well I complained again and asked for my money back and almost immediately, someone showed up to take the SUV and leave me the most terrible little pickup called, in this area, a pampa!
Well now it's been another few weeks, I still don't have all my money, I did find another car and purchased it, and found a couple of "friends" to help me retrieve the balance of the cash.
That's where I am at the moment...working on getting the rest of my money.
So, if you're a Gringo in the Fortaleza area, watch out for this guy...he's bad news!
This is a warning to the Gringos in Fortaleza who may not have met this man yet...he is bad news.
His actual name is Jose Braulio...but he styles himself as Ze Braulio.
I was introduced to him by another person in Fortaleza whom I believe to be an innocent bystander in the whole affair.
Ze helped me in getting through the twisted tangled procedures for marriage here.
Then I asked him to help in finding a particular car I was looking for. When he said he had found it, I gave him some money...it doesn't really matter how much, but a lot for me...well time went on and no car. I complained several times and one day he showed up with a beautiful 2003 SUV. He said drive this. He said there's no cost, only gas, so I drove it...for about 5 weeks. I started getting nervous because I was told it was worth around R$30,000 and obviously someone owned the vehicle and would either be driving it or wondering about making the payments.
Well I complained again and asked for my money back and almost immediately, someone showed up to take the SUV and leave me the most terrible little pickup called, in this area, a pampa!
Well now it's been another few weeks, I still don't have all my money, I did find another car and purchased it, and found a couple of "friends" to help me retrieve the balance of the cash.
That's where I am at the moment...working on getting the rest of my money.
So, if you're a Gringo in the Fortaleza area, watch out for this guy...he's bad news!
