BEWARE of TEMPEST and EUROPCAR when renting vehicles

I booked and paid for a Tempest rental car, through TravelStart, and received the rental car voucher which I presented at Tempest / Europcar desk on the arrival at the office at King Shaka Airport, Durban only to be told that they do not accept debit cards only CREDIT cards. I explained to the manager that I have never experienced this issue in approximately 30 years of travel and renting cars with my debit card however they would not hand the car over even though they accepted payment from the same debit card and issued a voucher. I could also not obtain a refund resulting in me having to pay for another rental car for the same period from 1 First Car who confirmed that they accept debit cards.

This is totally unacceptable, ********* bordering on theft and ***** of customers!!!