Hello,
I wish I had an option to rate Zoom car experience at zero. But I have been magnanimous in providing one star rating.
Let me summarise my experience. I have booked Zoom car a month back. My experience of booking a car was very smooth except my queries were not addressed. (Courtesy: a pathetic contact centre set up. You will never be able to talk to human on the other end of the phone). It’s all set for my vacation with family after two long years in the pandemic hit world. Just before the day of my travel, I called the contact centre and here you go!
To my surprise, I was able to talk to someone who confirmed that everything looks good and I can pick up the car @Mysore train station the next day. Kids entrenched themselves in planning the minutest details of the trip and we prepared ourselves for the much awaited family outing. We boarded the train in the night and I just cross checked the Zoomcar app if everything is as per plan. No surprises and the message appeared that just before 2 hours of the trip, a notification would come to me about the vehicle info and in fact, I have been advised to fill up the checklist before starting my drive.
All well so far and the next morning we got off from the train and in search of my pre-booked Zoom car waiting for me to drive. To my dismay, I couldn’t find the car in the parking lot and the navigation link given to me through WhatsApp and sms didn’t take me to the google map. Instead, it was showing me my booking details. This is where I felt something fishy and tried calling the contact centre number which never works. I was continuously trying to reach the Zoom car personnel to help me and roaming around the railway station for almost an hour. I suspected the vehicle might have been in the Zoom car yard in Mysore and decided to go and pick up the vehicle from the yard (near Infosys).
I hopped onto a rickshaw and I was on my way to the yard. I still didn’t believe Zoom car was at fault and it might have been an abbreviation. On my way to the Zoom car yard location, I was getting a call (finally after almost 90 to 100 minutes of ordeal) from the contact centre that they have cancelled my booking due to the vehicle not available and they couldn’t arrange any other vehicle against my booking. I was totally lost and furious about the way the whole issue was handled that left me high and dry in a no man’s land. I was generously offered “apologies sir, sorry for the inconvenience caused and blah blah blah” the rick driver swiftly utilised the opportunity in hand and sold me a very expensive option with poor quality travel arrangements for my vacation.
After all, he knew very clearly my helpless situation and took advantage of it. One end I was getting beaten by my family for my inability to plan it properly and the other end had to deal with the daylight robbery situation with the travel agent and lastly the hopeless Zoom car parrots who repeat the same lingo of apologies other than mitigating the issue.
It was the worst ever vacation I had planned and executed in a long time. My sincere thanks to Zoom car to play its anchor role in this episode.
Those who are planning to go for Zoom car option, have a backup plan in place. Don’t trust these guys and you will only be disappointed like me. At the end of the day, you are responsible for planning and executing your vacation better than anybody.
Hope you will find it useful and please pass it on.