Beware of this seller!

[jukkis]

BRAZILIAN CLASSIC CARS. RAFAEL AUGUSTO ZANETTI.

My experience with this seller.
In 2018, I ordered a VW Kombi from him. We agreed on a price of €22,000. Delivery time 40-60 days. I paid half, €11,000 in advance, as we agreed. The rest was agreed to be paid when the car is ready for delivery. When the car was built, he kept begging for more money. I was stupid and paid him €3500 more. Luckily I didn't pay the full amount as he begged. When the car was finished, he sold the car to another buyer. That's what he told me later. I asked to return the money I paid. He did not agree to this. He started blackmailing and threatening me if I didn't agree to order another car. He told me that this is just a little delay and I would get the car soon. I had no choice but to wait and see what happens. I got schedules from him again and again and again... Weeks... months... years... went by. Dozens of ridiculous explanations for delays. Pathological lying.

When the second car was finally ready after many years, he said the price of the car is €39,000. Later, he asked me for €49,000. Finally he said he won't sell the car to me. Why? The reason was clear. He raised the price for me because he had already sold this car to someone else a long time ago. This way he got more money, because our agreed price was €22,000. In this way, he received the entire amount from someone else, and not just the €7,500 according to our contract, which I still had to pay.

The car I originally ordered was a 1972 model. For my own reasons, I wanted a 1972 or older car. This second car he offered was a 1975 model. He said he would make the model year I wanted. "the vin number is just a piece of metal and it's easy to change" he said. I told him that I ordered a 1972 or older car, not a piece of metal from 1972. So he ruined this car by changing the vin number.Is it legal to change vin numbers in Brazil? I don't think so. When I asked him, I got no answer.

He says I canceled the order and he won't refund my money. Weird! I never saw a car that was ready to ship. Price 22000€. I didn't cancel the order, he canceled the order himself by selling the car to someone else. Or does he mean I canceled the order for another car? The car that he tried to get me to buy by threats and blackmail. The car to which he changed the vin number and the price of which he said was €49,000. Illegal, wrong year model and more than twice as expensive car!! No thanks.

He also claims that he had to put his own money into building the car. He sold the first car to someone else and kept the money himself and also the profit. I don't know and I don't care where he wasted the money I paid. I paid exactly what we agreed on, plus €3,500 extra money.
He also promised to send me a video of the finished car. When I accept the car, he delivers the car to me. I have never received any video of a car that is ready to be delivered to me. And not from any other car.

At first he is nice and promises to do anything you want. When he gets your money, everything changes. He starts doing what he wants. If you don't agree with everything he says, he starts threatening and blackmailing you, not answering your messages and not listening to you. He gets really arrogant and blame the customer for everything. Don't believe anything he says or promises. He is a PATHOLOGICAL LIAR. This guy is only interested in your money, nothing else.

Go to the jus.brazil pages and you will find a lot of information about this scammer. A hired lawyer investigated the background of this seller. Between 2018 and 2020, 28 customers had lost their money to this seller. Only for such a short time. I was an idiot and didn't find out the seller's background and it cost me €14,500 ($16,000) + several thousand euros in other expenses.

I have suggested to him:
1) deliver me the car I ordered.
2) deliver me a VW Kombi worth €14,500
3) return my money
He won't agree to anything.
He has promised me for six years to return the money I paid when he gets one car sold. Six years!! Bullshit. Who sells one car for many years? If he has this car, where is it for sale? I have not found. A friend of mine asked him about this same car a couple of years ago and Zanetti said he had sold this car, but he could build a similar one. Ok, time to return my money. I emailed him and asked for my money back because he has sold the car. To me, he said he hasn't sold the car and he immediately put the car back up for sale. Embarassing! I know I will never get anything from him, not a car, not money.

Remember, if you send him money, you can never get your money back. He owns nothing. And he has hidden the money he stole in foreign bank accounts.

The seller does not own the cars he offers. He is just a broker. He only accepts payments to foreign bank accounts like Malta and Bulgaria etc. He doesn't accept payment to Brazil. He hides the money abroad. This is a one man business. No other employees, he's just trying to pretend he has a big company. If he offers to build you the car you want, never send money! He will build one car, but he will sell it to several buyers and take payment from all of them in advance. That's what he did in my case too.

This is my personal experience with Rafael Augusto Zanetti and his company Brazilian Classic Cars.
He also threatened that if I write anything negative about him on any site, he will keep my money and I will never get anything. I think this is the only promise he has kept.

I never would have believed when I ordered the car and paid as agreed that the only thing I will get is a nightmare for years.
Hope this experience is useful to someone when making a decision. If you order from him, I wish you luck with BRAZILIAN CLASSIC CARS and RAFAEL AUGUSTO ZANETTI.

[Bruce.m]

Did you ever get this resolved?

[jukkis]

Not resolved.
He refuses to deliver the car or return the money.
It's been two years now since he last replied to my message.

Good advice can be sent in a private message...

[Bruce.m]

#admins

Recent advert posting activity on the forum reminded me of this….

Perhaps a link posted under each of those adverts to this thread would allow individuals to do there own due diligence.

[jukkis]

Thanks, good idea.
I have to share a link to the site where he sells his cars...

[AdminSteve]

I have received a message from the seller explaining their perspective on the matter. I will not be sharing the details here; it is up to the seller to decide if they want to make their side of the story public. I want to emphasize that I do not take sides and will not be making any judgments. Both parties are welcome to share their perspectives with the public to allow for a fair assessment of the situation.

Please do not post outside links regarding this issue they will be removed if posted.

AdminSteve

[brazilian-classic]

Thank you AdminSteve

Just a few words here.

A) a CUSTOM MADE project, and you cancel it in the middle of the service and ask for a fully refund? What kind of deal is that? What company in the world would make a full refound for a CUSTOM MADE project?

The company told you that the 1st bus was sold by the 1st hired garage and we initiated a 2nd bus with a much more quality for the same price
and you cancelled the order when it was almost at the end? Asking for a full refund for a CUSTOM MADE project? A better car for a lower price and you ask for a refund when it was almost finished?

B) Are you able to share the reply from the company? I am pretty sure you have the emails that prove it!

C) Could the customer prove that he send the payment to the company account? If he didn´t pay the company account and paid the owner of the company to pay less taxes at his customs, asking them for a lower invoice for customs, proves that he has no character and it is a bad sign of behavior of this buyer. Easy to type and do not show anything.

D) REENGRAVE THE VIN. Brazilian buses have the vin number in front of the battery and almost all of them the acid from the old water batteries destroyed these numbers and the reengrave of it is necessary. Also, if the metal is rusty on a restoration, it will be replaced with a new metal with the same vin engraved on it.

E) It´s been more than 10 years exporting classic cars worldwide, and we find ONLY ONE CUSTOMER Mr Juka Sarela that posts negative reviews of our company. You may review all the forums and this is the only one that posts negative reviews. How come? Worldwide shipped, we can prove with a fraction of cars exported https://www.brazilianclassiccars.com/sold If anyone wants to know: USA, Canada, UK, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, All European countries. China? Yes, they imported a Last Edition VW bus from us. 2 in fact.

F) Custom made project takes times, takes effords, it is not easy to hire all the companies to make them. If the garage asks for 90 days to remake the metal, I am pretty sure that hidden surprises will appear and it will turn into 120 days easy. But, it will be your bus as you want, a CUSTOM MADE ONE.

G) Anyone can ask us for the emails shared with this buyer. Not afraid of anything we said and agreed and what we offered him.

H) If you want a project bus, keep in mind that it takes time. All the photos of the restoration are shared with the buyers.

I) In the case of a refund, what would be the penalty for cancelling it in the middle of the restoration? I read that some companies do not
take refounds in cases of cancelling of a custom made project, other companies only return a small % of the initial payment. We are open
to suggestions!

Best regards,

Rafael
Brazilian Classic Cars

[jukkis]

Let's repeat one more time.

He sold the car we ordered to someone else, which he also admitted to us. (He never wants to talk about this car)
We immediately asked for a refund of the money we paid because that was the end of the contract. He canceled the order himself by selling the car to someone else.
It's about our money and we decide what to do next, not him.
He didn't answer our messages for weeks.
An honest seller would have immediately apologized and returned the money. But not this seller.
When he finally responded, he refused to return the money and the threats and blackmail began.
He blackmailed us to wait for another car and said it's just a "little delay" in the order. We waited because there was nothing else we could do.
Weeks, months, years passed...
Finally, after many years, the car was ready.
With this seller, "little delay" means many years!
Which customer waits for many years? Unbelievable!
And for this car, whose vin number he tampered with, he asked €39,000.
He changed the 1972 vin number to a 1975 model car.
He said changing the vin number is easy, it's just a piece of metal. In Finland, where we live, you cannot register a car with a changed VIN number.
We don't need a car like that, it's not road legal.
And later he asked us for €49,000 for this car!
In the order, the price was agreed at €22,000 and many years later he offers us a car that is €27,000 more expensive. No thanks.

We also have a slightly different perception of quality.
He sent me pictures of the car after painting and the chassis still had rust holes. He says the quality is AAA+
In my opinion, maybe B is correct.

He sent me pictures of the first car when the car was almost finished and asked for the final payment. I asked why the suspension has not been lowered? He said that the car needs to be shown to the previous owner before the suspension can be lowered.
I have asked many times why the car has to be shown to the previous owner. I haven't received an answer, but now he can answer it.
He lied and just wanted to make us pay the full amount before we realize that he has already sold the car to someone else.

During these years, he has lied to us hundreds of times.
What we learned about this salesman is to know that his word can never be trusted, he is a pathological liar and a narcissist and everything is always the customers fault. You can see that from his answer.
In his own opinion, he has never done anything wrong.
When you tell the truth, nothing changes. Simple. His stories changed every time I asked him something.

But it is unnecessary to repeat all that I have said before.
You can read it from the beginning.

He hasn't answered our messages for two years, but as soon as we write about him on a forum, he appears.

He also said that he will return the money as soon as this second car is sold. If it's still for sale, he can put a link to it.
A friend of mine contacted him a couple of years ago. He told that he sold this car.

He stole €14,500 from us and in addition we have spent over €6,000 on various expenses. This scam has already cost me and my wife more than €20,000. The money he stole was my wife and the car was meant for her. I promised to arrange the car and made a terrible mistake when I ordered it from this guy.
The money we paid this guy has been a free loan to him for six years and he has made a profit with our money.
If he returns the €14,500 that he stole from my wife, we can accept it. But even then we lose more than €6,000. And that's a lot.
Rafael canceled the order by selling the car we ordered to someone else.
The events after that tell what has happened during the blackmail and threats.
Rafael Augusto Zanetti can decide if he wants to end this poop or continue...

[doc]

I’ve been watching these posts for a while. Admin Steve, owner of STF, after watching this conversation has appropriately jumped in. A rare occasion on STF for the moderator to jump in. There’s a message there, imo.

Here is my opinion. Run from both these guys like the plague. There are plenty of completely legit places to spend your money. Doing business with any business outside of your home country can often be problematic. Don’t buy a car you can’t see in person. Just sayin’.

[AdminSteve]

As the owner of this forum, I have facilitated both the buyer's and seller's opportunity to share their perspectives on the custom ordered VW Bus. Now that both parties have had a chance to voice their sides of the story, this forum thread will be locked. Any additional posts or threads regarding this dispute will be deleted. I appreciate the cooperation of both individuals and suggest that any further discussions be conducted privately or through appropriate legal channels.

AdminSteve