****med and charged for alleged damage

Reservation: ********** 05

We hired a Polo on 23 Dec’17. Picked up at OR Thambo. The next day we realized that the aircon was leaking internally onto my feet and handbag (passenger side). We contacted Europcar and they wanted us to drive all the way back to the airport from Pretoria. After days of negotiating, a Europcar rep brought us a replacement Kia Rio. Inspection done by my husband and the rep. Returned car on 7 Jan’18 to OR Thambo. The Europcar inspector literally got down on the pavement and found a “scratch” on the underside of the front bumper. My husband said he had not caused it when he took receipt of the car, the previous inspector/rep did not look at the underside of the car. Europcar proceeded to keep a hold on our credit card for R 8250 from 23 Dec”17 to beginning of Feb”18. We called and emailed. Europcar then took roughly R 7500 as payment for the alleged “scratch”. We have not received any invoice. Does the Consumer Protection Act allow money to be taken if you are not even supp**** with a quote to stipulate what the repair will cost? We did not cause this damage. We pointed out that the rep who brought the Kia Rio to our home did not look where the rep at OR Thambo looked. We were simply ignored. We asked who we could complain to or take it up with and were ignored. A lot of money has been taken from us and we still have no invoice. I will never use Europcar again. They are dishonest. We dealt with Kgaugelo Kutu who never kept us in the loop and ignored our calls.