False Damage Claims

I rented a vehicle from Europcar in Cape Town. The left rear tyre had a blowout which damaged the mudflap and a cover inside the wheel arch. When returning the vehicle, I showed the Europcar staff the damage. A week later, I received correspondence from Europcar, claiming that the vehicle had suffered impact and had severe structural damage. They included a few photographs of a stripped vehicle with parts all over the floor! When I asked them to provide photos of the vehicle prior to stripping, they were unable to do so. How convenient. They have also been unable to supply any video evidence of me returning the car. Europcar say that the damage totals nearly R27,000.00, a claim which I dispute vehemently. The vehicle was not impacted, the only damage was as a result of the tyre casing and was confined to the mudflap and covers inside the wheel arch. Lesson learned, do a quick search on the internet prior to using a company, I could have saved myself a lot of money and untold frustration if I had done this before renting from Europcar. HelloPeter has 978 reviews for Europcar with a 1.56 star rating, this tells a story. Searching for Europcar **** on Google gets 94,700 results.

PS: Europcar, please don't bother with your bog standard response ... "Thank you for affording us the opportunity to look into this matter for you. Kindly note that a customer care representative will be contacting you shortly." ... as you do not care about your customers!