Hertz charging full deposit for 2 cm scratch at bottom of car - dishonesty to max!

The most dishonest company! Beware! I always rent from First Car Rental or Bidvest Car Rental. This time I decided to go with Hertz because the quote was 200 rands cheaper. Who would have known that 200 rands would have costed me R 5,000? I scratched the bottom of the car bumper. The scratch is on a corner, it's minuscule, approximately 3 cm with no dent. Just paint. When I returned the car, the lady claimed that I 'buffed' the entire car. I explained to her that I actually cleaned the car myself with a microfiber cloth dipped in a little of dishwashing liquid because I was worried they would charge me for cleaning as I had the car for 2 weeks and was quite dirty, but she said she had to write down that the car looks 'buffed' all over. This was clearly an attempt at ****** money from customers, a practice well documented among car rental companies. I have been fortunate to never experience this in South Africa because First Car Rental and Bidvest Car Rental are HONEST company who don't apply these practices.

Today they sent me an invoice with no explanation, nothing: they charged me the WHOLE deposit, which thank goodness, was reduced because I purchased a waiver to protect myself. I am sure that if I had paid a full deposit they would have charged the whole thing. No call, no explanation of what the charge was for. NOTHING.

BEWARE of Hertz Car Rental. They obviously have their people do these kinds of things to ****** money from clients. It's absolutely disgusting.