I rented a car from danielrent.ch
It looked legit when I first saw it.
The car was not what was agreed. What I ordered by phone was a VW Golf and they gave me a 2000 Hyundai coupe.
The car had many problems and signs of its age, but everything was noted in the rental contract so I did not worry much.
When I returned the car they gave me back only the CHF100 out of the total CHF300 deposit with the excuse that they keep CHF200 for potential speeding fines that would come later and they will return the rest in a month.
Worth mentioning is that they checked everything and said that the status is ok.
After a month had passed I sent them a message and called and they said they would return it soon. After many tries and 3 months that had passed, I saw no deposit back. I even sent a letter to the address they mentioned on their website but it returned because it could not be delivered.
It was only after I told them I was going to the police and then they asked for my TWINT to return it.
Eventually, they only gave back the CHF100 with the excuse of a stain on the seat which was noted before we got the car.
In general, they were avoiding my calls and lying to me repeatedly. These are classic scammer moves. I am wondering why the police have not caught them yet.
Do you guys think it’s worth it to go after them?
My legal insurance will not cover it because I did not have my insurance when the rental agreement happened.
But then it pisses me off that they can get away with it.
It sounds to me like they might do that because they hope that the renter will forget about the rest of the deposit, which of course is completely unethical. They should also inform customers of this "policy" of theirs via their website and prior to renting out their vehicles.
Unfortunately, I don't see a way of leaving a negative review for them through Google reviews, but otherwise, that can sometimes be a good way to get a company's attention.
The Instagram page for the company looks like they've gone round the streets and underground car parks photographing random nice, expensive cars, most which don't even seem to be listed for hire on the website.
Always, always, check reviews before giving your money to a small business. There should be alot of them, and they should generally be positive. This company you mentioned has absolutely no reviews, and in fact, has no internet presence other than their website. Its definitely a scam. You can call that one a lesson learned.
The owner also appears to run a martial arts school, a car / boat / villa rental business, and some sort of political party spouting the 'dominance of nature and islamic values.'
You've been scammed. It's likely not worth the effort to take it further, but if you wanted to feel you've taken action, you could create the first Trustpilot review for the website.
By the way what happened to "Rent a Wreck" where you got a car that was one step away from the great scrap heap in the sky. A cheap rent and if you dented the car then it was ok because it just added to the patina?