*****ulent business practice - conveniently pre-inspects without you

*****ulent business practice. Picked up my rental from CPT International at 22h30, and was told that they had already completed the inspection and everything was perfect - they make you sign this before seeing the car yourself. Upon expressing my concern for this, I was told that I must do my own inspection of the car in the morning and call them with any remarks. I proceeded to do this and called them in the morning. The operator proceeded to tell me to 'just take photos and show them to us when you drop the car off'. So, drop off day arrives, and of course there are a handful of inspectors present this time around - they notice a scratch on the front left rim and surprise surprise were not interested in my photos. I was made to fill out an incident report explaining the above. The next day I received a tax invoice stating the amount due to me (deposit + 40% excess): R6878.80. 3 days on, I give them a call to double check as I had not had any notification from my bank and I'm leaving the country tomorrow - the extremely rude call agent tells me there is an outstanding claim for the scratched rim and it can take 21 days to assess and deduct, once I voiced my frustration she proceeded to pass the buck to yet another department in this awful business.

If you want to deal with a transparent rental company who care about their customers - please, please avoid Tempest and Europcar - they're one in the same, and they WILL pull this shady tactic on you, especially if you arrive at night.