A retired couple were shocked to be charged a $200 cleaning fee for their car rental after five days in Southland.
Andrew and Nathalie Wilson were even more shocked to hear they were being charged because the car allegedly smelled of marijuana.
"Neither of us have ever smoked tobacco of marijuana or anything else," Andrew told Fair Go.
He thought perhaps GO Rentals had checked the wrong car, or that a person doing the checking had been smoking weed themselves.
He said there was no way he or his wife were responsible.
GO Rentals admits it's a challenge where odours are concerned as they're hard to prove, but adds that it has a professional team trained to do thorough checks.
Chief operating officer James Dalglish said that on this occasion, "when the team was working through the cleaning process, it could definitely smell an allegedly marijuana or cannabis smell in the vehicle".
GO Rentals has a fleet of 2000 cars and Dalglish said it "encounters an odour problem just about every single week".
He said smells can range from spilt milk causing a smell like vomit to fish bait being left in the boot.
He said the primary concern is to "provide a clean car for any future customer", so if an obnoxious whiff is detected "we take it out of circulation immediately".
Occasionally, proof may exist in the form of cigarette ash or stains but on this occasion there was nothing, so it was one person's word against another's.
'This is preposterous'
Andrew wasn't backing down.
"I thought, 'This is preposterous'," he said.
After failing to get the charge withdrawn, he wrote to the company and said he would "take to social media to make it clear there'd been a terrible mistake".
It was an unusual post, but an even more unusual comment followed. A friend, who is the partner of an importer of wetsuits, wrote that it "might have been your wetsuits".
"I had one once that smelt like weed."
Andrew diligently researched the subject on the internet and found it to be a significant issue.
He found items in the media and chat threads on website Reddit. It made sense too, as he and Nathalie had both taken their wetsuits to the South Island to go wing foiling.
Can wetsuits smell like weed?
But is there any proof that wetsuits can smell like weed?
Sensory expert from the University of Auckland, Danae Larsen, explained that smell is a complicated sensation, so it's possible for two completely different compounds to give off a similar odour.
She added that for a material to give off a strong smell it has to be volatile and go into the air.
"It could be related to how wetsuits are stored. Aroma compounds are more volatile in heat, so if left in a car they could lead to a distinctive smell that could be like weed."
Nathalie wasn't wing foiling as much as Andrew on holiday, so her wetsuit was stored in the spare wheel compartment of the boot.
Andrew truly believed this was the explanation for the smell in their rental car.
He contacted GO Rentals to explain. The branch manager he spoke to had volunteered for Surf Life Saving and didn't seem too surprised.
"When the manager reviewed the case he worked out that the couple didn't seem to be the type of people to (smoke weed) in the vehicle, so when the wetsuit story appeared he did his own research," Dalglish said.
It was agreed the charge would be dropped.
GO Rentals said it strives to be fair on issues like this but also to provide cars that are fit for use, which is why dealing with odours is so important.
Andrew said he appreciated the situation and is very happy with the outcome.
However, he's keen to avoid it happening again. He's invested in a vacuum bag to store any wet gear plus a wetsuit de-odourising shampoo, hoping this should put paid to any problems with his trips in the future.
SHARE ME