Sixt review: Additional unfounded charges

On May 8, 2023 we rented a vehicle from SIXT car rental at the Ft Lauderdale Airport. We paid the $368.95 of rental charges when we reserved the vehicle online. We agreed to add toll charges to the agreement when we picked the vehicle up.

We returned the vehicle on May 11, 2023 to the Ft Lauderdale airport SIXT rental area. The SIXT employee inspected the vehicle, said everything looked good and handed us an electronic pad to sign on. We specifically asked for a copy of the form and were told by the employee that we would receive n emailed copy of the document, which to my knowledge we never sent.

We were expecting to receive an additional charge for $52.00 for the toll pass, however we received an invoice totaling $341.55. This consisted of $52.00 of tolls, $39.55 of some added mystery taxes and fees and a $250.00 excessive cleaning fee

We called the customer service at SIXT to inquire what that was for. It took several attempts to reach their customer service and when we finally did reach a representative, we were told that it was a special cleaning fee due to the car being returned with dirt in it, which is a completely FALSE statement.

The vehicle was returned clean and in the same condition it was picked up. If there was a problem with the vehicle being dirty the SIXT representative should have noted it at the time the vehicle was returned and inspected. We have no way of knowing what SIXT or one of their employees did with the vehicle after it was returned and out of our control. After spending several frustrating hours trying to reach customer service about the issue we were sent a picture of a floor mat with some sand on it, which was NOT THERE when it was returned. If there was enough dirt or sand there to require additional cleaning it would have been visible and should have been noted on the return paperwork ( which no one would provide to us after we asked multiple times)

As such, we disputed the $250.00 “Special cleaning Fee” with our credit card company Fifth Third Bank. After investigating this charge Fifth Third bank sent us a determination letter indicating we were not liable for the charge and on June 12, 2023 and issued a chargeback for the $250.00.

The merchant's right to protest a chargeback has a time limit which is usually 30 days. . SIXT either lost the chargeback appeal or failed to file a dispute in a timely manner. Now we keep receiving invoices from SIXT for the $250.00 indicating they will send us to collections if its not paid. This is a shady unethical company that in my opinion should be receiving hefty penalties for unfair business practices. As a matter of principal I will be escalating this issue as far a legally allowed and I encourage anyone else that has been wronged by SIXT to do the same.