Unfair Damage Penalty from Europcar in Athens

<p>We have rented a car (Nissan Micra) from the central Office of Europcar in 25 Sygrou Avenue in Athens on 05.07.2016. The car has several scratches on the back bumper, we recognized them. In the acceptance of the car, the officer of Europcar did not mark these damages while filling the car rental inspection form. We reminded these scratches and he marked the major damage on the back bumper but he admitted that it’s not needed to mark smaller ones which are recognized by us. We trusted on the reliability(!) of the Europcar because it’s a well-known company, however now we understand that it was a huge mistake.</p> <p> </p> <p>After 3 days rental, we brought the car to the Europcar Office in the Athens Airport on 08.07.2016 in order to deliver it. In the delivery, the officer of Europcar recognized a very small scratch under the back bumper (can be seen in the attached picture) and accuse us for these damage. We stated that these damages were already located in the bumper, they are not related with us. We did not crash or graze against something while driving the car. Unfortunately, the officer of Europcar insisted on his malicious accusation and he behave in an unfriendly manner. He accused us for 148 € damage penalty for this small scratch which is a very unfair situation and wanted us to sign the document of the penalty. We tried to explain this situation approximately for one hour. We requested him to call the central office where we rented the car and ask to the officer who inspected our car in the acceptance. The central office can inform him about the real situation. But, he did not talk with the central office and continue to insist on taking 148 € damage penalty from us. Our time was limited and time of our flight from the Athens Airport was approaching. Finally, we were obliged to sign the penalty document, otherwise we can miss our flight and we were not be able to quit the country within the time limits of our visa.</p> <p> </p> <p>We have highly suffered from the Europcar in this situation. In the final words, we request an investigation about previous rental reports of the car which we rented from Europcar. The previous damages of the car consisting of this one can be discovered in these documents. This damage did not belong to us and our legitimacy in this situation can be proved when the records of these damages are found out in the previous rental reports of our car. We request from the company to recover our losses and highly recommend to other customers that “do not choose and trust on Europcar especially in the foreign countries”.</p> <p> </p> <p>*The related pictures of the occasion are attached to this file. The small scratch in the plastic bumper which cost us 148 € (!) can be seen in these pictures.</p>