Europcar - no appreciation for client

Upon returning my rental vehicle to Cape Town International airport on 23 April, I accidentally left my own car key on the rental car's keyring. Despite phoning Europcar within a few hours of returning the rental, my car key had gone missing.

Numerous phone calls over the following week followed with staff telling me they are looking for the rental car, the rental car is in the workshop etc. Unfortunately my (very expensive to replace) car key has either been taken off the keyring by Europcar staff and not handed in as lost property, or it is still on the keyring.

I am astounded that my key went missing within 4 hours whilst the rental car was at Europcar!

I understand that I was at fault by neglecting to remove my key from the keyring, but had hoped that there would at least be some kind of backup from a company which claims to have a lost property area. Of what value is my car key to Europcar employees? Did they really search for it?

Very annoyed Europcar!