Terrible Service and Undue Charging

I would like to publish the terrible event that my wife and I experienced during our vacation in South Africa. In this way we can alert to the risks and so that other people do not go through the same trauma. Summing up, on September 7th we were violently approached on the road (on the way to the Kruger Park). The car was stoned by people from a village in Masoyi. In this unfortunate event our money, some of our goods and credit cards have been ******. We were victims of this crime and my wife even had her arm bruised. A very traumatic experience. Therefore, In sequence, we recorded the occurrence at the Hazyview Police Station. In this same place we informed by phone the car rental company around an hour after the incident on the road. With that, a representative of the company made the change of the car in the police station. At the time of this change of vehicle, it was night and there was no light in the Police parking lot. Therefore, it was impossible to read the document used to record the incident. The Europcar's representative insisted that I just had to sign this wich was a standard document so he could release the car. We were very emotionally shaken and he was impatient to explain anything and even asked for tip (even though he knew we had been ****** on the road). A real absurdity the attendance offered by this company. Unfortunately, there is no liability assumed by the car rental company (Europcar), which is charging us for the damage caused to the vehicle. Although it was a case registered in the Police and we followed the route indicated by the GPS that was provided by the company itself. The company has not even previously informed about routes that should be avoided or any preferred route. We are from Brazil and, as tourists, we do not know the risks of specific roads in South Africa. It is also important to emphasize that at the time of hiring and pick-up the vehicle at Johannesburg Airport, Europcar did not present to us the insurance options. Only the signature was requested to register the release of the car. In fact, the company is very concerned about getting signatures, even in very adverse situations, but they do not care at all about explaining the conditions, contexts, orientations, worries, etc.

What impressed us even more was that Europcar tried to charge the full amount (including the damages of the car) by my credit card, but since it was among the ****** items, I had blocked it. With that a company employee sent me the billing by email, asking me to pay by bank transfer. In parallel, and not informing me, they had already charged the full amount blocked on the day of hiring (pre-approval by the credit card as warranty), which was already much higher than the equivalent of the amount of my rent.

We have a request for reconsideration still open with the Europcar Customer Service Department, with the objective of not having to pay for the damages caused by the ********* in the vehicle, which would lead us to further financial loss with this situation, for which we have no responsibility. The position of the local Manager has remained the same until now, but we await a new analysis. We will not pay for the damage to the vehicle and we also request a refund for the extra charge on my credit card (refund of 4581.71 Rands).

We require a feed back from Europcar SA through which they register that is overruling this charge and guaranteeing the refund in question.

With this I would like to alert evereyone about these risks on the road and to consider a socially responsible company when renting a car. A company that cares about protecting its customers and not only itself. A company that has coherence, sense of justice and that treats exceptional and serious cases in a proportional way as each one deserves.