Thomas

Sep 13, 2024

Unbelievably tone dead experience

Strap in for this one folks I rented a car with Ezi Queenstown for a period of two weeks in June. During the first few days of our trip, I had a rock flick up from a passing vehicle and hit the windscreen, ultimately cracking it. Upon return of the vehicle to Ezi Dunedin, (that was our closest location at the time) I was assured by the team member there that Ezi would cover the cost of the windscreen replacement, as it was an accident. I was able to leave the premises without paying anything, I was put in to a new car and I was on my merry way. Fast forward two months, I receive a 'final demand' notice in my junk email inbox denoting a demand for $1587 for the windscreen replacement I was told would be covered by Ezi's insurance policy. I wrote back and spoke with their finance controller, Dinesh Chand, who contacted the branch manager. Dinesh wrote back to me and simply stated "The branch manager has said that they do not give such advice to their customers." and included an invoice from their repairer (which I had also requested in my previous email to him) If you're following along logically, of course the branch manager is going to say that because they're trying to recover money. Further, the invoice I mentioned from the repairer was for a total cost of $1,207, not $1587 that they were trying to charge me. Querying that, they graciously brought the invoice down to the correct amount - the amount they were charged for the repair. This was 'thrown in' as a bone... Ultimately Dinesh and the branch manager refused that the interaction I had with the team member occurred, and insisted that I pay for the damaged windscreen despite their insurance having already paid for it. Again, this is despite me being able to leave the premises without having paid anything, and being put in to a new car for the remainder of my stay in NZ. I don't have a problem paying for such things, however as a good faith customer I would have expected those payments to be brought to my attention at the right time, and not through a final demand notice. Further, if those costs were covered by the businesses insurance (as they have been) then I would expect Ezi to not pass those on to the customer, which they have in this case. The combination of asking for an amount in significant excess of what the repair actually cost them, as well as refusing to honour what their team member outlined to me and the vigorous pursuit of $1,200 despite their insurance policy covering the vehicle repair has left an extremely sour taste in my mouth. I recommend everyone look at literally any other option for vehicle rentals in New Zealand.