India: Zoomcar Fails To Adequately Render Services!
One of my close friends had a terrible experience with a popular car rental service in India known as Zoomcar. As a user of this service I too have faced issues in the past. I'm sharing my buddy's experience here so we document it as we push Zoomcar to refund his money.
3 years ago Zoomcar took over 3 weeks to refund my security deposit of 5,000 and I had fight with their reps for days on end before they finally returned my money. Fortunately more of these options are coming up in India so we don't have to be at their mercy for too long.
Recently I've noticed the drop in the quality of their cars on rent. I've used their services a few times as I need a car sometimes when I'm traveling around India. I just hope no one goes through an ordeal like this.
However, the following is his account shared in a FB post and pictures are included as well:
To all those looking to rent a self drive car, please read through my experience with Zoomcar. Will help create awareness about the service standards of Zoomcar India. Feel free to share where relevant.
I picked up the car from the specified location at approximately 22.40 on 25th July. As soon as I started to drive, I felt that something was wrong with the power delivery of the car and suspected that the clutch was worn out. However, I was keen to get some sleep before driving to the airport and brought the car to my residence (a distance of approximately 2KM) without much difficulty. I was not in a position to raise a complaint and wait for a resolution at that time as I felt (wrongly) that the issue was not very major and it was more important for me to get some sleep before driving as I had a long day. I did not intend to put my life, that of my passengers or the rented Zoomcar at risk due to lack of sleep.
I had to drop a lady friend to the airport and started the journey as planned at 2.40AM on 26th July. However, the issue became so severe on my way to the airport that the car barely moved past 20 KMPH and was struggling to climb the flyover inclines on Bangalore airport road. At approximately 3.35 AM, I was compelled to pull up to the side of the road and allow the clutch plate to cool as the vehicle was barely moving.
At this point, having a driven a total of approximately 40km (Location was opposite the 'Lamborghini Service' centre) I contacted Zoomcar support. After speaking to the Zoomcar customer support executive Mr. Deepak Bhoi, I decided to drop off the car with the Zoomcar fleet executive at the Bangalore airport as it was un-driveable, a fact that was corroborated by the fleet executive at the airport, Mr. Nagaraja. Both of whom were extremely helpful. Kudos to their attitude!
The vehicle experience was extremely disappointing to say the least. However, what truly appalls me is Zoomcar's policy for addressing such issues.
I was not offered a substitute car to continue with my trip. When I requested for it, I was informed that I would need to just leave the the rented car with the fleet executive and find alternative means of transport for myself at my own expense.
Apart from this, I received no acknowledgement whatsoever from Zoomcar that a breakdown had been reported and possession of the car was handed back to Zoomcar. When I called customer care, a person who claimed to be the customer service "Floor Supervisor", one Mr. Prakash Sagar (or something like that. His Initials were P.S.) was quite rude and told me that no acknowledgement can be given.
As a last resort, I had to take photographs (attached) of internal email communication with the fleet executive and his photograph with the car to show as proof in case anything arises. Why can't Zoomcar provide customers with an acknowledgement?? To add insult to injury, I was repeatedly reminded to drop the car off on time at the original drop location.
I then had to take a cab to the location where I had picked the car up as my bike was parked there. The cost of cab was RS.1098.41 (screenshot of email containing bill details attached).
Over and above all these factors, I was alarmed to see that I have been charged an additional Rs.10,000 by Zoomcar as “Vehicle Damage Fee”.
As a supermiler who has never damaged any Zoomcar that I have rented over nearly 1000km of driving with Zoom and the thousands more in private cars including my own, I refuse to accept responsibility for this failure. Any automotive expert can confirm that the issue does not surface over as little a distance as 50km that I drove the car for.
I refuse to accept responsibility for this incident and will NOT be paying a single additional penny.
For the inconveniences and aggravation caused (my friend nearly missed her flight and was concerned for her own safety as the car showed signs of catastrophically breaking down before we reached the airport) as well as the waste of my time, I expect Zoomcar to refund my entire booking amount as well as reimburse the cost of taking an uber cab from the airport to the original car pickup/drop location. Attaching bills and communication here.
Addendum: Customer support executives from Zoomcar repeatedly (verbally and in writing) assured me that my concerns would be addressed within 3-5 days (attached mail). As of the time of posting, it has been over 132 hours (i.e. >5 days) since the car was handed back to the executive and formal complaint raised. I am yet to receive any communication from Zoomcar except that the issue will be resolved in 3-5 days....
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Damn! That's crap. Very bad customer service. I use their service once and their cars are not maintained properly. Horn was not working properly, clutch was tight and brakes were making sounds. After that I never got the chance to use them again.
I shared your friend's post on my FB page @firepower. They will most probably resolve the issue now they are getting bad publicity.
Zoomcar isn't worth it anymore.. I faced a similar issue in Mangalore where I was given the car 45mins late from my time of booking.. And on asking the concerned employee, he asked me to wait if I want or else to leave an that he isn't hired to entertain my issues with zoomcar..
I feel like you will hear back from them within 24 hours and if you don't call back and ask for the supervisor again.
Oh,,,i went to India in Feb and March but didn't know that,,, I use only Ola and Uber. Although sometimes drivers didn't come or stopped nearby places I pointed, these services worked well, better than autorickshaw at least.
Good and meaningful post!
Wow that was appalling. I am sorry for the troubles that you (in past) and your friend (recently) had to face with this service.
Everything could actually have been acceptable as a bad day and I would have understood some the bad services as their general incompetence. My main problem is in understanding as to how they could charge your friend the supposed 'damage fees'.
That actually feels like extortion to me. I hope that your buddy drags these morons to the consumer court and have them pay for the trouble that their incompetence caused him.
@firepower Not only this cab service. Ola and uber in India making their passengers fool. They accept your request but never came, and then you have to cancel the trip and they get paid Rs.35. Very bad policy, you can't even complain, because there are many excuse option available on the driver's app like police verification, checking bla bla. My friend drive uber ola cab, so I know how they cheat passengers.
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great and very important post.