Bogus Damage Claim and Failure to return Deposit

Like just about everyone else who's reviewed this business, we rented a vehicle from Dollar Thrifty at Cape Town airport in Feb 2021 and the business made a bogus damage claim against us and then would not return our deposit.

And then they just go silent. Won't return calls, won't respond to e-mails.

So basically when we delivered the vehicle, it was early morning so there was no-one there to receive it. Just a queue of vehicles, a drop box for the key.

The vehicle had absolutely no damage from our rental. We had parked in a garage every night and not the slightest incident occurred. So of course we were shocked to find out there was some sort of "claim pending" when we requested our deposit.

Thrifty never bothered to actually contact us and tell us what the damage was or why there was a claim... they just kept saying we'll let you know when the "quotes come in"???

Many, many e-mails later there was some attachment to the e-mail with the cost of a new tire! No explanation, no detail, just that we owed them for this. Then, somewhere attached to one of the e-mails, again with no explanation, was a picture of a tire with what looked like the handle of a bakkie canopy embedded in its sidewall!!! Who knows if that is what they were claiming for but, if so, that is obviously vandalism that happened after we'd dropped the vehicle - either by their own staff or the ***** characters hanging around the drop-off trying to ****** money from travellers.

Bottom line - they would not communicate with us or answer our questions or phone calls so we couldn't ever get our deposit back despite returning the vehicle in perfect condition (minus the fuel we'd used).

Looking at other reviews here and talking to others it looks as if this is common practise. So I highly advise not using this company if you don't want bogus damage claims against you.