Ola Electric is ordered by the Consumer Commission to Reimburse a Client INR 1,63,986

After a customer's e-scooter was discovered to be defective, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Ranga Reddy, Telangana, ordered Ola Electric to reimburse INR 1,63,986 with interest and provide INR 10,000 in compensation. Following persistent issues with his Ola S1 Pro since its delivery in June 2022, Hyderabad counsel K Sunil Chowdary lodged a complaint.

The scooter's charger was defective from the beginning, and unsolved battery problems have made it inoperable since August 2023, even with an extended warranty and Ola Care Plan. Despite raising these issues several times with the company, Ola Electric was unable to provide a satisfactory result to the customer.

Ola Electric Failed To Respond To Customer’s Legal Notice

Ola Electric did not show up for or reply to hearings in response to Chowdary's legal notification from October 2023. Ola's failure to fix the scooter was determined by the commission to be a service deficiency. Within 45 days, the refund and the 9% interest that has accumulated since August 2023 must be paid; otherwise, the interest rate would rise to 12% annually.

When Ola Electric Mobility's three-month lock-in period ended earlier in the day on November 5, the company's shares were down more than 7%.

Ola Claims that 99% of Customer Complaints are Resolved

On the other hand, contradicting from aforementioned development, Ola Electric last month made a statement mentioning that out of the 10,644 customer complaints it has received thus far, 99.91% have been handled and resolved successfully. In a regulatory filing on September 21, 2024, the manufacturer of electric two-wheelers notified the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) of the latest developments on long-pending customers' issues. The CCPA issued a show-cause notice to the Bengaluru-based company earlier this month in response to subpar conditions at its service centres throughout the nation.

The Department of Consumer Affairs' National Consumer Helpline reports that between September 1, 2023, and August 30, 2024, 10,644 complaints were filed against Ola e-scooters. Of these, 1,899 deal with new vehicle delivery delays, 3,389 with servicing delays, and 1,459 with unmet promises of services.

In a regulatory filing, Ola Electric stated that it wants to be clear that it has a robust framework in place to address any complaints regarding its electric two-wheeler. The company would like to emphasise that, in fact, 99.1% of the 10,644 complaints it received from the CCPA were resolved to the complete satisfaction of the customer because of Ola Electric's robust redressal mechanism.

This calculating approach was a response to growing customer dissatisfaction, as seen by the 80,000 customer complaints that went viral on social media each month, along with the stories and pictures of Ola Electric vehicles soaking dust at repair facilities. The outcry attracted the attention of both lawmakers and consumer watchdogs.

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) had sent Ola Electric a show-cause notice, citing potential violations of consumer rights, misleading advertising, and unfair business practices. The notification identified over 10,000 unresolved after-sales support issues. 

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StartupTalkyNitin Konde