Tom PowellDEPOSITS are finally being returned to Niza car hire customers following the Olive Press’s exclusive investigation last issue.
It comes after we revealed that hundreds of angry customers had waited months to get their deposits back from the Andalucian company.
But just days after our report last month, many of those who were close to giving up received notification that their €500 deposits had been returned.
“It wouldn’t have happened without the Olive Press’s intervention,” said Luke Senior, a dual Britain-New Zealand national who hired a car to go kite-surfing in Tarifa last November. “I literally heard the following day.”
Marc Filliaudeau, from Paris, also received his deposit back after three months of fruitless emails.
And Christine Carter from Essex, informed us of her ‘good result’, with the company now even agreeing to cover her expenses incurred flying down specially to pick up her deposit.
“It’s great to see the press getting such a good result. Thanks a lot.”
In an extraordinary exchange filmed by one angry client, a Niza employee admitted that 130 deposits of between €300 and €900 had not been returned due to a ‘big economic problem’.
The company, which has 2,500 vehicles and opened in the 1960s, also blamed a change of chip and pin Visa machines, blaming the bank.
The company’s commercial spokesman Francisco Lucena told the Olive Press that everyone would receive their deposits back as soon as possible.
Well done Olive Press. Investigative journalism is not dead, and the Press still carry some weight.
Presumably this will see the demise of another untrustworthy car rental firm. Will we then, as usual, see a new company come up with the same management, employees and depots?
I assume the deposits would have been eventually returned by any credit card company, if involved.