Avis Rental Unilateral Overreaching Actions of charging R6325 excess for a 1mm dent

In December I hired a car from Avis in East London and was pleasantly surprised when I was upgraded since I have been a client for decades and am even a registered Preferred Service Client. My flight was delayed and by the time I picked up the car it was already getting dark on 21December around 19h00. I then asked the guy in the parking to check the car and he said everything looks fine. I also looked through and did not notice anything untoward.

When I returned the car 7 days later it had a bit of mud and then the guy who checked it went specifically to a very small minor dent on the rear right passenger door and pointed it out to me. I then said that It must have been there before as I had not parked next to any cars during the 7 days.

Next thing I was charged an excess of R5,500 excl Vat on my card, which came as a shock! Worse was that my actual car hire for the whole period was R3,450 excl Vat. I then decided to query this extra charge. However Avis has not even has the courtesy to acknowledge my email.

It is extremely unfair that they can unilaterally charge such an amount on my card for an extremely small dent, which at worst should ordinarily be written down as wear and tear. And not even be open to an engagement about the issue.

This is most definitely the last time I will do business with them. Pity a 30 year old relationship ruined just like that