We booked a hire car through Car Del Mar, an international agency which has relationships with car hire firms in various countries. In this case the local partner was Citer France.
When we picked up the car we had to authorise a damage deposit of 750 Euros, and sign an agreement, which was in French, so we didn't fully understand it (and still don't).
Unfortunately we slightly scraped the front of the car. The damage was very minor, just paintwork rather than bodywork, and we have photographs. When we returned the car to Citer we explained the damage. They said they would have to take our full deposit and send the car to Paris for assessment, but that the balance of the deposit after any repair costs would be returned to our agency.
That was 2 months ago. We have sent all of the documentation to Car Del Mar, following the procedures in their paperwork. They have repeatedly told us that they are contacting Citer, but are still waiting for them to respond. We are feeling very helpless and frustrated.
My questions are:
- How long should we reasonably expect this process to take?
- If we don't hear anything within a reasonable time, who can we contact for help?