Hidden costs and lack of transparent business practices

<p>I rented a vehicle (Hyundai i10) from Bidvest Car Rental King Shaka airport branch from 16 to 19 April 2017.</p> <p>Before returning my vehicle on 19 April to the Bidvest King Shaka branch, I filled it at the King Shaka fuel station which is approx 1km away from Bidvest car rental returns. On 21 April, I received my rental invoice and it showed charges amounting to R182.60 (made up of R94.60 for fuel, R15 refueling fee, R73 contract fee). The R94.60 fuel charge was for refueling the car for 7.38 liters which is approximately 20% of the total Hyundai i10 fuel tank capacity.</p> <p>I immediately reached out to Bidvest customer care to dispute this as it did not make sense that it still needed 20% more after I had filled it before returning it. Customer care's response was "we refuel all our vehicles on termination to ensure that they are filled properly as commercial filling stations do not always fill up to our standards".</p> <p>I find it hard to believe that "commercial filling stations" fill up only 80% of a tank when a customer requests a tank to be filled. Customer care also sent me a hand written fuel register as proof that they filled the vehicle up with the 7.38 liters at their depot which is apparently less than 2km away from the rental office in King Shaka. I find it odd that a company listed on the JSE has such mediocre internal controls over fuel that can be so easily manually manipulated. Be that as it may, I was told that I need to provide proof that I filled the car before returning it so that they can investigate...the same proof that I no longer have as I provided it to the attendant at Bidvest returns.</p> <p>I have rented vehicles many times from other car rental companies and never encountered this. This was the first time renting from Bidvest and have no intention of using them again. I am not someone who easily takes time out of my day to write a complaint, but after seeing that this appears to be a trend based on other customer complaints on Hello Peter regarding Bidvest Car Rental, I felt compelled to not let this go so as to assist warning future car rental customers to avoid this car rental company altogether. For me, it is not about the money, but rather the principle of integrity that I (and I'm sure all car rental customers) would expect from a brand like Bidvest.</p>