Victimised and left stranded by Thrifty Car rentals

On 2019-02-01 at about 14:00 I was involved in an accident with a car that I later learnt was a rental car from Thrifty with Reg. No. HB14SZGP. I also found out that the renters were international travellers with no local cellphone, thus assisted them with my phone to organise with Thrifty.

How it happened is that the driver of the about vihicle either did not stop at the stop sign or misjudged the distance, either way that resulted in the collision with a huge damage to my vehicle. To my surprise, the person sent to the accident scene by Thrifty just to their client, towed their car and left.

I contacted Thrifty claims department at ********** 00 and was advised to report the accident at the relevant Police Station, and also to write a sworn statement detailing what happened and send that together with the accident report number to ********** which I did.

When I followed up to see if they have received the documents, I spoke to Chantal Booysen who sounded willing to assist, and advised that in addition to the sworn statement, I must also get the copy of the Accident Report from the Police and send to ********** which I also did, and received a reply immediately from Chantal Booysen informing me that her colleague Thembisa Constance Bekezulu was dealing with the claim, also copied in on the email.

Within a couple of minutes I received an email from Thembisa Constance Bekezulu with an attachment titled 'REPUDIATION LETTER' with the last lines reading as follows: 6. According to the information provided to the claims department our driver did not keep a safe traveling distance of such negligent driving caused the accident as described here above. 7. We wish to advise further that our client is in breach of our terms and conditions for the reasons as stated here above and as such we will not be entertaining any claims. 8. Due to the above, we respectfully request that you re-direct your claim to the renter of the vehicle.

Surprised and disappointed, I asked that she provides me with the driver details of the renter such that I can 're-direct' the claim as she advised, and response I got was that they don't give client details.

I have no idea how to proceed at the moment as I cannot claim from Thrifty as third party, yet their client was completely on the wrong. They also can not give the client details thus living me with a broken car, which I use to and from work as I am a shift worker.

Can someone please assist.

Regards, Asanda Lugalo