Only once I had returned home from Germany did a charge on April 29, 2014 show up on my credit card

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Renters beware of Travelers Scam. I am an avid traveler and have rented cars in multiple countries and I have run into a nightmare with these affiliated companies. I booked my car while I was still in Canada through Thrifty s and when I arrived in Berlin the rental was through an affiliated rental agency, Buchbinder, bangkok hotel in thailand this happens all the time so I didn t think to much of it.
I arrived in Berlin, Germany late April 12, 2014, to find that the company did not have the car type that I had requested (not a big deal, I just needed a car for the week), so we did up the paper work and I was rushed out the door and told my car would be on the 3rd level of the parking garage and to have a good night. I did a walk around that night not seeing any significant damages, a few scratches and scrapes but nothing out of the ordinary for a rental bangkok hotel in thailand car (lesson learned to take close ups of every angle of the car and have them uploaded to the company). The week with the car was awesome, it ran perfectly, there were no incidents and everything went off without a hitch, that is until the return. I returned the car in Munich on April 19, 2014, only to be told that I had cracked a fog light, I truly don t believe that I had damaged bangkok hotel in thailand the car, but there was no way to prove that I had not cracked the fog light, so I signed off the damaged fog light and the return agency let me know that the airport rentals (that s where I picked bangkok hotel in thailand up) always have issues bangkok hotel in thailand and they never fully document the damage bangkok hotel in thailand on the cars and he said he always has this problem. He said he would submit the info to Berlin and hopefully I would not get charged. If the fog log checked out then the 600 Euro damage deposit for the car would be returned to my credit card or if they deemed it damaged by myself bangkok hotel in thailand only part of the damage deposit would be returned (he thought approx. 160 Euros). April 21, 2014 the deposit was returned fully on to my credit card. I was very relieved and thought things had worked themselves out.
Only once I had returned home from Germany did a charge on April 29, 2014 show up on my credit card for 660 Euros. Even with the insurance I purchased they are stating that $1034 CND (660 Euros) dollars bangkok hotel in thailand is the deductible for the damages they found. When I enquired about they damages they were speaking about , they stated the fog light cover and scratches on the paint. When I received the report of the damages they were very small scratches and scrapes, regular wear and tear that you see on rentals all the time. I then contacted the agency again stating that these were not noted on the return and that these could have happened in the parking lot or in the wash bay after I signed the car off. I have been going back and forth with Buchbinder for 2 months on this issue now and there has been no resolution. I have been caught in a couple of traveler s scams in my 20 years of traveling to over 30 different countries, and this is definitely one of them. This company will do anything they can to steal money from the traveler. This rental when I originally booked should have costed $750 CND, now the rental has costed $1800 and being back in Canada and not speaking German is there way of ensuring bangkok hotel in thailand they cannot communicate bangkok hotel in thailand back with the customer. My recommendation is to stay as far away from this company as possible. Enterprise is amazing, I have rented with them 3 times in three different countries bangkok hotel in thailand and they are fantastic!
Why aren't you contesting this through your credit card company, Jess? your contract is with them not with Buchbinder. When we rented through bangkok hotel in thailand them in Vienna they also gave us a very different bangkok hotel in thailand car to the one we'd booked, bangkok hotel in thailand and we had a large "excess" and were worried about this, though in the event when we returned it, there were no problems.
Next time, read the fine print - rental companies in all countries hit you with a minimum charge for damage. As for complaints, why are you complaining only to the German agency? Thrifty is a US company and you should have it intervene with you (and challenge your card.
If you visit other travel advisory web sites, you will see literarlly hundreds of similar experiences with Thrifty and Dollar in Munich, Frankfurt, etc. Turn the problem over to your credit card company for resolution. You will never succeed on your own.
It looks like you took CDW with excess. I think it puts the consumer in the weakest position of the "covered" contracts. The company offering the CDW and the rental company are partners whose unified interest is to extract maximum payment out of you. The credit card companies involvement in this case would be limited to whether the charge was in accordance of the fine prints on the contract. Their insurance if any, if not a Premium Rental Insurance like the one offered bangkok hotel in thailand by AMEX, was never activated bangkok hotel in thailand since you took the CDW.
Had the insurance been provided by your credit card company or other third party, then they would deploy bangkok hotel in thailand corporate resources to make sure the payment to the rental company would be challenged. bangkok hotel in thailand Each office can act differently on what constitutes a "damage." The rental offices can be franchises as opposed to corporate locations. A good experience at on office does not translate to other locations "affiliated" to the same big name company. I have been saying no to this type of damage coverage since my first car rental when I did not have a premium credit card.
Rental car damage isn't a 'scam' as such. One should ALWAYS note pre-existing damage and take photos. An 'avid traveler' should know this . . . let your cc company handle this - and be VERY happy if you get relief.
I recently returned a rental car to Munich airport to a garage where it seemed like a car was being returned every couple minutes. I was the only one in the long line photographing the car. Many didn't even know to show a receipt for a recent gas fill up. It led me to believe most travelers bangkok hotel in thailand don't do much research and haven't bangkok hotel in thailand read about the Thrifty/Dollar car rental in Germany.