Just like many who were excited about the prospect of owning an electric two-wheeler, Madhya Pradesh native Vivek Dubey was thrilled to book an Ola S1 Air on August 17, 2023, paying the full amount of Rs 1.4 lakh. At the time of delivery at the Katni showroom of Ola Electric Mobility, the scooter suffered a ‘short circuit’ and its screen went blank. The Ola staff promised to rectify the issue. One year has passed but Vivek has received neither his scooter nor a refund. The Ola app, however, claims that the scooter was delivered on September 14, 2023.
Vivek is among the hundreds of Ola Electric customers who are expecting some accountability from the company, which claims to have taken up the ambitious task of making India the global electric vehicle (EV) hub.
While customers like Vivek were frustrated with their multiple unsuccessful attempts to reach out to Ola and even get a response from the National Consumer Helpline, an online spat unfolded between Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal and standup comedian Kunal Kamra on X (formerly Twitter) in early October.
In an X post, Kunal shared an image that showed scores of Ola Electric scooters gathering dust in front of a showroom and asked, “Do Indian consumers have a voice? Do they deserve this?” He also asked Ola consumers to share their stories under the post. This triggered Bhavish, who called it armchair criticism made through a paid tweet. However, Bhavish’s claim of clearing backlogs backfired as several consumers raised complaints under the X post.
Days later, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) stepped in, initiating a class action against Ola Electric over the mounting unresolved complaints. As per reports, the National Consumer Helpline has received around 10,600 complaints against Ola over a year. The CCPA asked Ola to respond within 15 days, which will end on October 22.
To understand the nature and gravity of the consumer complaints, TNM sought responses from Ola Electric users on X. We have quoted around 15 persons who reached out to us from across India, with accounts of Ola’s poor customer service and about how various regulatory authorities in the country failed to get them justice.
Near fatal accidents
A day after the X war between Kunal and Bhavish, Thiruvananthapuram native Rahul Neelakandan was riding his Ola Electric scooter when it caught fire at Vilappilsala in the outskirts of Kerala’s capital city. While Rahul escaped unhurt, the scooter was completely charred. Last month, Maharashtra native Sohail Faruqui had a similar alarming experience when smoke came out of his scooter while he was riding it. “Thankfully, it was a crowded area and other commuters alerted me. There was water available nearby and so I was able to put out the fire,” he said. His scooter has been in the Thane service centre for over a month but Sohail was denied an explanation on why there was smoke.
Ola Electric scooters have caught fire multiple times, including in March and July 2022, at Pune and Thiruvananthapuram respectively. In the Thiruvananthapuram fire incident, the Nedumangadu police station had registered an FIR. The police told TNM that they didn’t get a response from Ola to their mail.
But Ola responded to the Pune fire, stating that ‘aftermarket parts’ (spareparts from secondary market) used in the vehicle caused a short circuit. Most of the customers whose scooters caught fire did not proceed with a complaint allegedly due to the company’s intervention. So Ola’s theory of ‘aftermarket parts’ catching fire remained uncontested. However, on February 21 this year, Athul Vijayan from Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district published a video showing how an Ola scooter that he took for a test drive caught fire, poking holes in the theory.