NZ Zuche - Christchurch Airport Information, Car Rental Instructions & Policies

This is my third time renting a car abroad. The first two times I rented from Hertz and had almost no unpleasant experiences. This time, due to language and price reasons, I chose this Chinese-owned rental company, thinking the communication would be easier. However, it was quite disappointing. Firstly, the car I received was not the model I had booked online. It was very dirty and old. When I asked the delivery person, I found out the car had run over a hundred thousand kilometers and was a second-hand car. Additionally, there were numerous scratches on the car. We asked to have these recorded, but the delivery person said the rental company wouldn't be concerned about these small scratches. For safety, we took photos of the car with the delivery person in them to prove the condition at handover. This proved to be the right choice. Our 8-day self-driving trip went smoothly. When returning the car in a different city, we asked the rental company to confirm everything was fine with a signed document. However, after we took a flight to another destination, we received a message from the rental company saying there was a scratch on the underside of the front bumper and that we needed to compensate for it. We immediately responded saying the scratches were already there and noted in the contract. The rental company then replied, saying the scratch on the bottom was something we added ourselves. We were shocked and hadn't thought to inspect the bottom of the car. Fortunately, one of the photos we took showed a low-positioned scratch, proving it was there at the time of handover with the delivery person in the shot. This resolved the issue, but it was truly frightening! I'm writing this to remind anyone renting a car abroad to not trust verbal promises from rental companies. Always inspect the car carefully and take onsite photos as evidence. It's not a bias against Chinese companies, but the integrity was really poor. This was the worst car rental experience ever. Additionally, the car was very fuel-inefficient. To be fair, there were some positives. The rental company called us immediately after we landed and delivered the car to the airport promptly. Their service was quite good. After receiving the photos as evidence, they corrected their mistake and refunded the full deposit. Despite my intent to leave a negative review, I hope they can improve, as more and more Chinese people are renting and self-driving abroad.