Charged for pre-existing damages.

<p>Dear Ms. Nathan-Jones,</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 28th of April 2017, my husband and I rented a car from the Europcar branch at the Cape Town International Airport. We, originally rented a KIA Picanto (or similar) vehicle, but since there were no more vehicles in that range available we got “upgraded” and received a Ford Fiesta (registration number: CA 303 976) instead. We received the inspection slip from the branch, was told the car was parked in a certain bay and that there were no damages to the car. No employee of Europcar assisted us in finding the car at its parking and nobody did the inspection with us.</p> <p> </p> <p>We didn’t see the dent on the left back door of the car and drove off from the Cape Town International Airport to Montagu in the Western Cape. When we arrived in Montagu my husband noted the dent on the left back door and was surprised because we weren’t involved in an accident or incident of any nature.</p> <p>We looked at the inspection slip, given to us at the branch, and saw that the dent was marked as pre-existing damages.</p> <p> </p> <p>On 30 April 2017 (19:50) we returned the car and notified an employee from Europcar about the pre-existing dent.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 12th of May 2017 two separate amounts were deducted from my (Annelise de Vries) credit card (R6050,30 and R3500 respectively). One day later (13 May 2017) Europcar emailed me an invoice which, for the first time, notified me of the apparent damages.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 12 of May 2017 my husband phoned the customer care line and eventually received the email address of Paula Bryce and requested the inspection slip of the vehicle (we didn’t receive a copy of the original inspection slip), the terms and conditions of renting a car as well as a recording of the telephonic conversation. He wanted the latter because the employee of Europcar said that they’re struggling with a lack of personnel and didn’t have the capacity to do a pre-inspection of the car with us.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 13th of May 2017 Alvina Bottoman rep**** on behalf of Paula Bryce providing us with only the terms and conditions – no inspection slip and no recording. After that email, my husband followed up but received no feedback.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 15th of May 2017, I lodged a dispute with Shaun Pillay, my FNB-Private Banker, requesting him to reverse the transaction from Europcar as it was unauthorised and we only received the proof of the apparent damages one day after the money was deducted from my bank account.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the meantime, FNB tried to contact Europcar in this regard but on the 17th of May 2017 Shaun Pillay contacted us again and said there were no feedback from Europcar.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 25th of May 2017, my husband contacted Alvina Bottoman again requesting feedback, but still nothing happened.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 29th of May 2017, I contacted the Debt division of Europcar telephonically and was send back and forth for more than an hour. Eventually I got a hold of Jaco von Mollendorff, Car Park Manager of Europcar at the Cape Town International Airport. Later that day Matsedi Mahlatsi rep**** on Mollendorff’s behalf providing us with the inspection slip and claiming that there were pre-existing scratches but no pre-existing dent.</p> <p> </p> <p>We still claim that we had nothing to do with the dent on the left backdoor and that the total amount of R8 209.65 deducted from my account is unauthorised.</p> <p> </p> <p>It seems that Europcar has a bad record with these types of unauthorised transactions because in May of 2017 alone, 15 complaints were lodged against Europcar on the consumer complaint site, Hello Peter. With subject lines such as “**** – being charged for a dent I did not cause”; “Cannot get details on a damage they want to deduct”; “Billed incorrectly for nothing”; “Worst company to deal with”; “Europcar *****s deposit money” and many more like these.</p> <p> </p> <p>We demand that this unauthorised payment will be reversed as well as the deposit be refunded. If Europcar cannot give as a satisfactory response, we have no other choice than to pursue legal action and contact those customers which are in the same boat with your company.</p> <p> </p> <p>Your prompt response will be highly appreciated.</p> <p> </p> <p>Kind regards,</p>