Avis witholding Deposit

Absolutely disgusted with how damage dispute and client care has been taking car of our account.

Beginning December we rented a vehicle from Avis CPT International for a trip up to JHB and back. Spoke with a consultant months prior to have a 9 seater Staria ready for us, as we had to drive 7 people up and 9 people down, and it was confirmed multiple times that it has been secured for us for the pick-up date. It was also confirmed in the paperwork sent, that deposit is included in the final quoted amount. When we went to pick up the vehicle, we were given a 7-seater, and thus put us into a situation where 2 people of our team had to buy plane tickets back. We also had to pay a deposit seperate to the price in which was quoted to us. Thus paying a double-deposit in the end.

With a lot of back and forth, our "consultant" got us a Staria to exchange our 7 seater with in Pretoria Montana branch. Once we got there, the sales team did not even want to come out and do a final inspection of the vehicle. We took a video of all the damage to the car, and the sales consultant that came out, even asked us why are we taking a video, which was the first red flag. The rims were scratched, pieces of the door rubbers were coming off, and stains on the upholstery on the roof as well. When asked why he is not doing a colection final inspection, like what was done at the Cape Town branch, he left to go inside and said it's not neccesary.

The rest of our trip was fine, and everyone enjoyed the vehicle a lot. Once we got back to Cape Town and returned the vehicle, the lady at the drop-off zone told us ONE rim is scratched. We then told her it was already scratched when we picked it up at the Montana branch, and she said we must just write that it was damaged when we picked the vehicle up in Pretoria. She also told us that our deposit will reflect within 4-7 days.

After about a week days, I received an email saying that THREE of the rims are severely damaged, and that we need to pay an amount. Note we still haven;t received our deposit back. I then disputed this claim, and once they came back to say that the pretoria branch listed on their side that there was no damage to the vehicle on pick-up, we need to pay the amount PLUS an extra R480 fee because I disputed their claim.

I then disputed again, sending the video back as well. I then received a mail later on from a different damage claim consultant with a different and a lot higher amount, almost R1000 more!

During this time, Avis has also been trying to take money out of my husbands account, and that amount does not even match with the amounts sent to me.

It is now mid January. a MONTH later, and we have still not gotten an answer, and we have not received our deposit back!

Absolutely disgusting how Avis is handling this. We are not going to pay for the utter negligence of another branch, and how rudely we have beentreated.

All we want is our full deposit back, plus the deposit we had to pay extra which was not stipulated in our agreement contract.

I am ready to name all names of the rude and incompitent consultants. FURIOUS!!!