Terstappen http://www.terstappen.de/home.html Fraudulent damage charges, fraudulent rental agreement charges (double charging) No response, not able to contact by phone InternetDuisburg, Other

Our experience with the company Terstappen has been disturbing to say the least. We have had 3 different rental agreements and issues of fraudulent charges associated with all of them.

First, I had prepaid for a large rental car (big enough to seat 9 passengers) in the total amount of $1706.89 ($200.00 deposit made on 4/2/12, the balance of $1506.89 paid on 6/9/12). The car I received from the company was a VW Caravelle - an old one that had been smoked in A LOT!!! They indicated that the car would be a Mercedes Benz Vito or similar. Ok, I can understand there is no guarantee on the car type, I could live with that (but driving an OLD ashtray was another story). After driving the car out of the garage, I told my husband that it was just too big. I called the company once we were settled into our destination, and told them that I would need to get 2 smaller cars instead of the big one. They tell me no problem, we have 2 brand new Kia Venga (compact cars).

We came back to the airport on 7/10/12 to swap out the car. On entrance into the parking garage I could not maneuver around the sharp corner on entering, and subsequently damaged the passenger side of the car. The insurance damage waiver was for 1000 euros, so i knew that I would forfeit this, I am also fine with that. The damage waiver insurance was mandatory and set up through the company that I booked this through (Travel Jigsaw aka: rentalcars.com). Keep in mind that this was already paid for.

So onward....I pick up the 2 compact cars and am told by Terstappen that my original rental agreement would only cover 1 car. So we ended up having to pay another 800 euros for another compact car (which by the way according to their on line pricing should have been only about 250 euros!).

My brother rented the 2nd car, and when he returned it there was a VERY minor door ding. So, they kept the full 500 euro damage deposit, even though I think we all know this was incredibly excessive. He has made a dispute claim with his credit card company. He is willing to pay what is fair to fix this minor damage, we are reasonable people!

About a week ago I received a letter from Terrestapen telling me that damages for the initial vehicle (the one that I did damage) went beyond 1000 euros and that I would now need to pay the difference despite the 1000 euro cap. I agree that the damages likely exceeded the 1000 euros, however in accordance with the rental agreement my financial obligations stop at 1000 euros. I was charged another $112.98 for "administration fees". I have already filed a dispute with American Express on this.

Now, I receive and email from Terstappen claiming that the 2nd Kia sustained damage to the rear door. THIS IS EXTREME FRAUD!!! As this car was returned in pristine condition, it was thoroughly inspected and we were all cleared when we dropped it off.

In the email I was told that I would not receive my full deposit back, that they were keeping 176.70 euros for damages that they just made up!!! I wanted to see information supporting their claims, photos of the "damages" but it is pretty hard to come up with this given there were NONE!!!

Not only have they created false damages to charge me for, I discovered while reconciling my account that they had charged me another $1233.70 for the prepaid rental!!!

I am left dumbfounded!!! I am incredibly angry that this kind of thing is acceptable behavoir!!!! I am very angry over this type of fraud and look to you for help! I am willing provide any/all documentation supporting the facts that I have outlined. My ultimate goal is to recover the monies that were taken from me fraudulently and to also make consumers aware of this company and their very questionable practices. I have been doing some on line research and have discovered that many other people have also had the same experience that I have had (see tripadvisor.com and type in the company name Terstappen- also in just doing a general search of this company all I read about is of a similar nature!