Avis Rustenberg **** - please beware

We had an unfortunate experience at Avis Rustenburg. We did not plan on hiring a second car on our trip to Bakubang Camp at the Pilanesberg Game reserve. However, my wife took a fall so we needed a second car to drive around the rest camp while the other couple we were were travelling with used our main hired car for the Game Reserve. The was hired with Bluu Car Rental from Lanseria and was a professional and excellent service .

When we collected the car at Avis in Rustenburg for a four day hire, I did a quick, but I thought thorough inspection of the car exterior for any damages. At this point I need to mention I do not recall being shown the car damages diagram and neither did I feel I had to as apart from a few very minor scratches the car looked in good condition. Can I also mention that although we had booked the car in advance we had to wait for nearly an hour for it to arrive and then for other folk in the line that were also waiting for their booked cars to arrive.

When we returned the car four days later it was inspected at Avis Rustenburg and were informed that the right top bonnet section was ‘dented'. Myself and the rest of our party were not able to see what they were talking about ! Only in certain cross light can you make out an extremely minor depression hardly visible on the top right wing pannel of the bonnet. It would have been impossible for us to have detected or picked up this when hiring the vehicle and depending on the light and shadows the car was parked in. There is absolutely no way this was damaged by us given the very minor use we put the car though with driving slowly around the rest camp on tar roads and the trip from Rustenberg and back again. Can I also add that we also had to wait about fifty minutes for the appropriate Avis staff to arrive after we had dropped the car off as none of the other staff had access to the damages diagram. Including collection and delivery we were left waiting for total of two hours which was not acceptable.

In conclusion this is evidently a local Avis Rustenberg **** and where we were surely not the first innocent clients to be caught in this way with being charged for damages and deducted from your deposit and that we certainly did not do or could hardly see. It would have been very unlikely for an average person to pick out the minor depression on the bonnet. I took a selection of photographs of the car which I'm happy to share, but can't see how to on Hellopeter ? I also have to question if this so called ‘damage’ is now updated and depicted on the Avis car damages diagram of the vehicle or whether they will simply continue to trick or **** other clients in the same way ?

Just to add or report that several gauges on the car were either faulty or intermittent with the temperature gauge for example stuck on 6’C for most the trip !

It was no surprise to note that Avis has the lowest trust rating and has received the most criticism on Hellopeter out of all the many local SA car rental companies. We would never risk hiring from this company again and are keen to warn others so they do not to fall into the same trap as we did.

I received the usual "we would luv to hear what you think of our service' email from Avis, and so completed a lengthy report on our experience a week or so ago, but as yet I have received no reply from Avis.