Complaint Review: Rent a Terstappen - Frankfurt Select State/Province

To whom it may concern,

please be advised that the Dollar Rent a Car subsidiary Terstappen in Germany is running a rip off scheme.

See below on details of my complaint.

Additionally you can see the awful reviews and reports from everyone.

Just googling "terstappen frankfurt" returns a large number of complaints.

google.com/search?q=terstappen+frankfurt&oq=terstappen+frankfurt

The yelp reviews are pretty clear:

yelp.com/biz/rent-a-terstappen-no-title

Take a look at this awful tripadvisor reports:

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187337-i301-k3745478-Avoid_Dollar_and_Budget_Terstappen_in_Frankfurt_Airport-Frankfurt_Hesse.html

It looks like they are doing the same scheme to a lot of people, for trunk scratches or windshield chip. They are currently taking me to collection after I denied the charges, and it looks like they managed to get a lot of people to pay for their scheme.

See below for my story:

I am incredibly upset with Terstappen.

They are running some kind of racket on foreigners.

Here is my story. I did a business trip in Munich and rented through them. The person at the desk told me that there was only a scratch on a wheel, and to come back if I saw more damage. It took me 20 minutes to walk and locate the car. It seemed in really good condition, just a few rubber marks and tiny scratches by the trunk.

From what I am used to in all my business trips:

- cars ALWAYS have a few scratches there. Here in the US people do not

even mention it.

- usually there is a checkpoint at the exit where you can confirm any

damage. Here I would have had to park and walk back 15min to report it.

Then during the trip, I took good care of the car, it spent most days at a garage. I brought the car back 1 day early (and they didnt give me any money back). There I saw that the person checking for the cars was giving problems to EVERYONE about the trunk scratches. When he came to me, he said that I made scratches to the trunk. I tried to explain that these were there already.

MY ONLY SUITCASE CANNOT MAKE SCRATCHES:

- ITS SIZE DID NOT FIT THE WIDTH OF SCRATCHES

- ITS A HARD CASE ROUND SUITCASE WITH WHEELS AND CANNOT MAKE SCRATCHES

The person would not hear me and forced me to sign. He wrote "more scratches", notice the "more".

I tried to talk to the front desk but the person said she could not do anything for me, I had to wait until next day with the car inspector. I was starting to be very upset.

The next day I came back and asked to speak with the manager. He told me that most likely I would NOT get charged. He told me that "more scratches" means there were scratches already and so most likely I should not worry about it. I tried to say that I really wanted this resolved but he said again he could not do anything. I was very frustrated.

Then back in the US, I tried to call several services but they all sent me to different places. Either it was not the right number, or not the right time. Then I got a letter stating that they kept the 600 euros deposit and charged an extra 137 euros. I absolutely cannot believe this, it is pure racket on foreign people.

Again the car was in the same condition I received it, and there is no way my ONLY luggage would have done the damage. Even if it was my luggage, which is not, they are charging 734 euros (~$1200) for small scratches which is insane. And just take a look at the other reviews, they all say the same!!

Now look at what the internet report on them, it looks like hundreds of people had the same problems!