I hired a car from Europcar for a visit to Pretoria. They have retained 50% of the deposit (1408, 85) in addition to the original rental fee paid.
1. The car was returned in the same condition that it was hired.
2. The deposit has been held for a month with no attempt by Europcar to address this. We had to contact them to ask this to be refunded.
3. Europcar then sent an incomprehensible invoice where they claim that additional fees need to be paid, principally insurance-related costs.
4. When queried, Europcar said that if we could demonstrate we had other insurance to cover this, they would use "their discretion" to process any partial or full refund.
5. During the entire process, both online and in person, we were never made aware of these additional waivers and charges that may be taken from our deposit upon the return of the hire car.
We can only conclude that Europcar have made a mistake, or are deliberately trying to seize our deposit by claiming unsubstantiated fees and waivers that they will refund "at their discretion". Had Europcar made us aware of these additional fees at the point of booking, we would have looked elsewhere for more honest companies to rent a car with.
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