Negative publicity
China Auto Rental said in the statement that it had encountered several attacks after the company announced a massive promotion during the celebration of its fifth anniversary in September.
These included Internet criticism from paid posters as well as negative reports in the media, the company said.
One of China Auto Rental's competitors was found to be paying for a website advertisement slot to post negative reports about China Auto Rental, Beijing Daily reported on December 6, citing an official from China Auto Rental.
This is not the first time that China Auto Rental has suffered such slander, the company said in the statement.
When the company secured investment of 1.2 billion yuan in 2010 from Legend Holding, the investment arm of electronics maker Lenovo, there were similar attacks from its competitors.
Currently there are over 6,000 auto rental companies in China, but only several large ones are dedicated to offering services for individual customers, such as eHi Auto Services and Reocar.
EHi Auto Services could not be reached for comment by press time. Li Chuntian, CEO of Reocar, did not comment directly on the matter but told the Global Times "to accept media supervision is the social responsibility of a company."
China Auto Rental has been under the spotlight recently. A series of reports by Guangdong-based newspaper New Express revealed some irregularities at the company, such as charging unreasonable penalty fees for breach of contract and using low rents to attract consumers, even though none of the cars with the cheap rate is available.
Interviews with the company's customers indicate some loopholes do exist.
Wei Lai, a Beijing-based white-collar worker, had a small accident on November 19 when driving a car he had rented from China Auto Rental. The company promised the damage would be covered by insurance when Wei returned the car.
However, Wei found on December 3 that China Auto Rental had deducted 1,600 yuan from Wei's credit card without giving him any notice.
After Wei launched a complaint, China Auto Rental said they would return the money.
"But I just need an explanation about this loophole in case something similar happens again," Wei told the Global Times.
Experts said similar problems exist in the services of other car rental companies, as the industry is still in its early stages in China.
China Auto Rental admitted in the statement that there is room for improvement of its services, and measures have been taken to deal with customer complaints.
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