Frustrating ‘Fundraising’: Newlyweds Unable to Exchange Money for Gifts on Wedding Platform | Economy

Couples who have hired the services of wedding platform Casare are having a “nightmare” after having problems receiving the money collected from their gift and honeymoon shares. The company’s debts with some clients reach 10 thousand Brazilian reais, and the total number of complaints on the “Reclame aqui” portal over the past six months amounts to 43.

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Casare is a platform where clients subscribe to services ranging from creating websites with information about the wedding to organizing gift shares for the bride and groom or contributions to the costs of honeymoon trips, an increasingly common practice in celebrations.

Generally, these donations are made before the wedding. Each guest’s deposit is held for 20 days, after this period, the couple requests a withdrawal. You will still have to wait two business days for the amount to reach your account. However, many customers reported that they did not receive the money their friends offered.

no answer

The stories follow a pattern: At first the couple asks for money, but does not receive it after a regulatory deadline. They contact the company via the site’s chat, which informs them that they are facing problems with the payment method. Over time, some couples claim that the company stopped responding to them.

This is the case of Bruna Brandt, 32, who got married on July 23. She even managed to get R$1,220 back before the wedding. But he spent his honeymoon on the phone trying to understand why the other part of what was collected, about 4,200 Brazilian reais, did not appear in the account after the order.

“We left that money to pay for our honeymoon, and I ended up spending the trip tired of texting the company,” he says.

what should be done?

According to Procon-SP, Kasari had 19 complaints registered this year alone. The main problems reported are difficulty with refunds and unfulfilled offers. The Authority advises customers to keep all proof of contact with the company, such as service contracts, complaints, and communications made.

After trying to contact the company, the affected consumer should file a complaint with Procon or the Consumer.gov platform, says Carolina Versentini, a lawyer at the Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection (Idec).

— As a last resort, even after registered complaints and no response from the company or payment, we recommend taking legal action to compensate for all losses incurred, says Versentini.

That’s what physical therapist Rafael Sales, 30, and his husband Samuel Antero, who are awaiting a hearing in October, did. They went into debt after not receiving about R$10,000 from Casari.

– This turned into a nightmare, we had debts of R$ 10,000 on our cards, and we had to borrow money. He stated that this headache was repeated every time we went to the site to try to solve this problem, until we asked for justice.

Moral damages

Casare is responsible for the payment, as the client cannot be harmed by any financial problems the company may have, said Otavio Augusto Coulter, a lawyer in the civil litigation area at Abe Advogados. Coulter also says couples can sue for moral damages.

— Depending on the specific case, in addition to compensation for material damages related to the balance not transferred by the company, moral damages will also apply. This applies in particular in cases where the consumer has been deprived of further obligations due to the impossibility of recovering the balance or has suffered other financial losses.

When contacted, Kasari said customer requests are “gradually being resolved daily.” The company added that its goal is to settle all outstanding withdrawals before “the company’s activities close.”

Software engineer Diogo Telheiro married in July, but only received R$10,000 in installments two months later. He was ready to go to court until word of the filing came.

– I started looking for people who were suffering from the same problem as me. I found complaints dated six months before I asked for my money back. I called a lawyer and it was decided that we would go to court to demand money and compensation for moral damages. But they paid before we opened the case.

Site problems

Another problem mentioned by affected couples is casari communication. They reported that the site has seen some changes in recent months. A photo in a chat with the company that previously appeared as a person has been replaced with a personal photo, for example. There are customers who say that they find it difficult to access the site.

When entering the platform and going to the “Contact Us” tab, EXTRA is not directed to any contact page when clicking on a contact. Lawyer and university professor Rowan Cabral says that if there is no way to contact the consumer

— If the website does not have any means of communication, and the “Contact Us” service does not work efficiently, the consumer can register the website with the Trade Council of the state in which the store is located, or in the absence of this information, it explains that it is necessary for the spouses to take A hard copy (screenshot) of the pages and the URL of the page saved, in order to allow the site to be located, if it is deleted.