nomiiiii

So I rented a car on Avis.com for cape town, and it included the damage insurance (except tires/windshield) as part of the contract.
There was minor scratch on car bumper, and the local cape-town office eventually charged my credit card $100 or so.

Contacted them saying "hey we had insurance", they agreed we had insurance as part of the contract, but since it was bought on Avis.com (instead of through their local office or whatever) they said to talk to Avis corporate.

Talked to Avis corporate/sent them message, and their international-liason or whoever manager simply referred the case back to local office, who ofcourse said "we'll charge for the damage since insurace wasn't bought avis.co.za local site so contact avis corporate". Long story short, since local avis cape town office won't reverse the charges, Avis corporate headoffice person replies back to me saying the charges are staying.

Am I supposed to just eat this cost now? This was only $100, but what if it was major damage which should've been covered by LDW. I don't want to run a credit card dispute because that puts on you their do-not-rent list, so I'm honestly not sure what my options are.

AutoSlash

Your choices are to eat it or escalate. It depends on how much you value your time. It seems like a clearly winnable case if you're willing to expend the time and effort. You may find this helpful.

Auto Enthusiast

I'm assuming if you go to South Africa again, you won't use Avis. But, can the local franchise put you on the Do Not Rent list for US or Europe corporate Avis stores, where you might have an interest?

Often1

Where are you located? If in the US, this is an easy CC chargeback.

But, AA may add you to its DNR list as it has a habit of doing so on chargebacks.

You've got some decisions to make.

Skatering

Just as a data point, I did a chargeback with Avis South Africa due to a situation which was nothing short of a blatant scam (charging for damage marked on the pre-existing damage sheet, and claiming I had the car longer than I did).

I've had no issues renting with Avis/Budget since then. I've not been back to SA.

kxc262

Recommend charge back and just using your secondary credit card insurance to deal with the mess.
Had a similar issue with Sixt/First rental car in Cape Town. First Rental Car charged me the max out of pocket allowed on the contract, but did not provide a receipt/invoice for the charges. AMEX refused to pay, but stated if they had any new updates, they will follow up. First never followed up.

jackal

Funny. I actually bagged both a Europcar and a Hertz rental at JNB because both of them were absolutely incompetent, bordering on scamming me and booked Avis at the last minute. I found Avis to be a pleasure to deal with in comparison (my Avis First number was applied, and they gave me my pre-printed contract and keys without requiring a signature and I was off the lot in less than five minutes; when I returned, I did get billed a very fair price for damage that I had caused (one of the country's ubiquitous parking-lot guards guided me right into a concrete piling...and still had the gall to demand a tip!), but it was handled fairly and quickly.

That said, I certainly don't dispute your experience...as far as I'm concerned, most rental offices outside the US/Canada are incompetent and/or owned by greedy scam artists...