I had a very bad experience with Zoom Car, during year-end vacation, we hired a Zoom Car from Ahmadabad, the car was in the worst condition, having 99000+ KM on it already, Outside and Inside the car was so dirty. I asked him why the car is dirty. I need another car. Local representative was so rude, saying if you want to take it or leave it. I took the car due to my family standing on a road as there is no pickup safe location. The location near the Big Bazar was very unsafe. After picking up the car of 99 thousand KM, it is started giving some engine noise, I called the guy immediately, he said don’t worry, it was temporary noise, I drove 85 KM somehow and the sudden car lost its pressure and stopped.
When I called the same guy asking for help, he said we are sending another car for you. I called Zoom Car support, this is the ultimate experience - I asked Zoom Car representative that please send another car, they said, we can’t arrange, you are on the highway. (before booking the car, I confirmed from Zoom Car representative what will happen if the car breakdown, they confirmed that we will either provide alternate car or repair service wherever you are) - I begged many times saying I have my kids and old age parents in the car if you want money I can pay, but please take me to the nearest safe location. They simply denied it and asked me to leave the car on the highway with keys inside and do whatever I want.
It was middle of the highway at noontime, 38 degrees, no water, no food. nobody is stopping or helping, it was really a scary situation. I asked many times, I also begged for a humanitarian basis, please help. I will pay for additional charges but now this time I have to take my family and old age parents to a safe location, but they said, it’s our policy that we do not provide any services,
What kind of company is Zoom Car and what kind of people are there, they do not have any human value left. You guys are running a self-driving company and do not aware of all the situations like this or does have a solution to this kind of situation to handle then it is better to close down the shop and then get into another business. Because you are not only damaging the company but also customer experience and their vacations and valuable time. This is not worth it at all. You may have good cars in Bangalore but look for another location. I got a lot of feedback after this incident, The same guy who handed over the car to me, saying all our cars are like that only - High mileage.
I tried to stop many vehicles asking for help. There was one vehicle which I got emergency no. after 2 hours, I called for help. The guy dropped us nearby toll plaza, from there we paid 3000 Rs. to go to Baroda, and then go to the hotel then I got to cancel all my 10 days vacation cost me a lot of money.
After that I called Zoom Car many times asking for a refund, every time I called, they were saying we are aware and will take care. Nothing happened. Every time the same answer is like they just have all the scripted answers like level 1 support gives the answers. I asked please connect me to your supervisor, but there is no way that you will access to escalation channel or backend team.
After waiting for 9 days for a refund, finally, I wrote an email to the CEO and a couple of the Leadership teams, Immediately I got a call saying sorry and giving me a full refund including my hotel stay, etc.
Long story short - Do not believe in such a kind of self-driving model like in India, these companies can’t handle or can’t provide the level of service like Hertz, Enterprise, AVIS.
Better to hire a tour company car with a driver in India. Don’t ever consider these kinds of services, these are not yet mature in India.
Advice to Management: If you really want to make the self-driving model successful, and compete with Hertz, Enterprise, AVIS like companies, think of a different strategy, the customers who are hiring the car, are not cheap customers. Most of your customer has experienced self-driving cars out of the country when we expect the same level of service, it fails badly.
Look at your pickup points, drop points, do you have any strategy for how much KM one car will run. 99000 KM car you guys are handling to another customer, REALLY?
Guys, go back to the drawing board and get your vision and strategy sorted out. You guys are missing the bus of self-driving.
God bless!