That morning I was standing in line at the SIXT counter in Frankfurt airport with my family. My kid was asking for water. I was pulling our luggage and trying to read the contract at the same time. I booked the Mercedes Vito through QEEQ because I wanted more space for the family. It was early and my head was not very clear. When it was my turn the guy at the counter kept pushing extra services. He talked very fast. I was still thinking if my kid left the water bottle on the chair. I just nodded to some of the things he said. When he finished with my card I looked at the amount and froze. It was much higher than what I remembered from the booking. He told me they charged 500 euro more by mistake and that I would get it back in cash in about twenty minutes. He even showed me a paper that said the deposit was zero and that they would give the 500 euro back in cash. I did not fully trust it but my family was waiting and I did not want the kid to get impatient so I took the car and drove away. We returned the car in Paris at another branch a few days after that at the beginning of May. That morning we parked the Vito. I took my kid out of the child seat and checked the return paper again. In my head I kept thinking about that 500 euro. Later that day at our place I opened my banking app. I checked the history again and again. There was no refund. My bad feeling got stronger. I felt like someone played with me. So I contacted the customer service and told them the whole story from the counter in Frankfurt to the missing refund. I sent photos of the receipt that showed deposit zero. I also told them the staff said they would pay back the 500 euro in cash. I was a bit angry on the phone and they could probably hear that. After that one person kept following my case. It was not a different person each time. It was the same voice or the same style of message. That made me feel less lost. At the start I talked in a very direct way. I complained about the pressure from the counter staff. I said I hate this kind of trick. The person did not push any process words on me. They just let me finish and then asked some simple questions. They wanted to be sure how the counter staff explained the 500 euro to me. Some time later they told me they had checked with the rental company. The answer from the car rental side was that the 500 euro was a deposit and that I had extra mileage so the final bill used that money. When I heard this I got angry again. At the counter the guy promised something else. Now the company called it a deposit. For me this was two different stories from the same company. I said all this to the person who followed my case. I also told them I saw many bad reviews of that branch online and that I did not like how they played with words. They did not cut me off. They explained slowly that in the final invoice the extra part was counted as extra mileage. They were honest that since I really drove more than the limit it would be hard to make the rental company refund it. I still could not accept it. I kept asking why the counter said one thing and the email later said another thing. Those days we talked a lot. Sometimes every day. Sometimes I spoke quite hard. I told them I did not feel I owed the rental company money. I just did not like being treated like that. I even asked if they were on the same side as the rental company. Every time they answered with patience. The person reminded me that if I refused to pay at all the company might try to collect the money and that could make more trouble. They also said they respected my choice. I could feel they stood in the middle but they always passed my feeling and my words to the other side. One night after I put my kid to sleep I got another message from them. They said they tried again with the rental company. The rental company still said everything was correct and they would not return the 500 euro. I was tired and upset. From the day I took the car in Frankfurt I felt this problem follow me like a shadow. I was really sick of it. The only thing that calmed me a bit was that this person did not just say that nothing could be done. They told me they would talk to their own manager and see if there was any way to help me from their side. The next day they came back with a new message. They said they had talked with their supervisor and got a special solution. They could pay me 250 euro as compensation. That meant they would cover half of my loss themselves. I was sitting at the table when I read it. The light from the phone shone on the paper contract. For a moment I felt my chest relax. I was still unhappy with what the rental branch did. I still felt they fooled me. But I also felt that the person who followed my case really tried their best. During the whole time the thing that impressed me most was this feeling that someone did not forget about me. It was not like a call center where every time a new person asks you to repeat everything. It was one person from the beginning. From the moment I complained about the pressure at the counter to the time I said I was talking with the branch manager they always knew what we talked about before. On the days when I was more emotional they did not disappear. They just explained again in simple words. The final result was not a full refund but they got a middle way that I could accept. As a parent traveling in Europe with a kid I really hate when my time is eaten by money problems. Those days I felt very close to breaking down. If there was no one following my case like this I think I would have given up or just kept the anger in my heart. Now when I look back I am still disappointed by the rental company but I remember clearly how someone stayed with my case from start to finish helped me talk with the rental side and finally got some compensation for me. That part made a big difference to me.
Odkryj, jak nasza usługa pomogła innym klientom
