I am sharing my experience with the Drivezy car rental service in Bangalore.
I booked a Tata Hexa XE 3 days in advance for 15th Dec 19. I had been thinking of taking a long drive in Hexa as I had read very positive feedback about its ride quality. The plan was to visit a temple near Kolar which is about 70kms from my home. The road to Kolar and beyond is a 4 lane highway with little traffic so it's quite a pleasure to drive and take your car out for a stretch. I booked the car for 7 hours starting from 6.30 am till 1.30 pm. I am not completely new to car rental but not a regular also. I have rented an XUV and Audi Q3 in the past in India and a Chevrolet Cruze in the US.
I reached the pickup station at 6.30 am sharp. The pickup station was essentially an open muddy ground with all the cars & bikes parked under the sky. There was 3 staff who were handling all the customers. After finishing with other customers, one the staff member brought the only Hexa there to me.
I immediately noticed that the car was pretty dirty from outside but I thought that maybe it's because it's parked in open ground with lots of dust flying around. But when I opened the doors I was in for a shock. The car was thoroughly dirty with lots of dust all around, seats & other areas full of spots, and the entire floor area filled with mud. On top of that, the car was smelling horrible possibly due to the dampness. It seems the previous customer(s) took this car for offroading without a care in this world and thoroughly abused it.
I let the pictures do the talking.
Dirty exterior. It can be manageable though if the interiors are clean.
Floor area & mats completely covered with mud.
The middle seat floor area is no different.
Notice the dusty seats. All the seats were in the same bad condition.
Something sticking to the base of the storage area. Who would want to keep one's belonging here?
Even the area between the body and door, which is not exposed, is filled with lots of mud.
I immediately rang the customer care and compliant to them about the condition of the car. They spoke to the staff over there and I heard the staff telling the customer care rep that they don't have any facility and staff to clean the vehicles. After that, the customer care spoke to me and offered to cancel the booking with no deduction. I explained to her that I have already made travel plans and cannot cancel it at the very last moment and asked her to provide me an alternate car. It seems that there was no other car available even for a shorter duration than I originally wanted. The only option for me was to cancel the plan or take the vehicle as is. I took the car as I didn't want to cancel the travel plan and It was already 7 am and I was getting late. However, I repented that decision, not because the car was so dirty, but because it was so smelly. After half an hour or so, I could not bear the foul smell (I get nauseatic in a foul-smelling car) and drove all throughout with Windows partially open. I also brought a Deo midway through the journey and sprayed all it's content out to get rid of the smell. Fortunately that day my family was not traveling with me. They would have never stepped into a car this dirty and foul-smelling. Mechanically, the car was fine except the gear would not slot easily and sometimes make a big sound when slotting. I read reviews that slotting gears are not smooth in Hexa so maybe it's common Hexa problem.
After the ride was over, I decided to raise an issue with Drivezy on Twitter. They responded back with a usual apology and a 10% discount on the next ride (within 30 days). IMO it's too little too late and it doesn't address the root cause of the problem. Not convinced with their response, I responded the same to them. After this, I was blocked by Drivezy!! I just now realized that now they have unblocked me. So it seems I was blocked temporarily so that I cannot do any further damage to them.
I have not heard from them after my posts below. It seems as per them the case is closed on offering a customary apology and a 10% discount for the next ride.
I was trying to convince myself to not buy a new car and instead use car rental services for outstation travel. However, after this experience, I have nearly decided to buy a new one, no matter how big or small I can afford, rather than going for rentals. Though It's not a fair comparison but still. In the US the rental cars are very well maintained, spotlessly clean and you get hundreds of cars to choose from (at airports) and still, rentals work out to be pretty cheap.
I have rented an XUV and an Audi Q3 from Zoomcar. Q3 was excellently maintained spotlessly clean and low run while XUV was decent enough and run about 50k+.
One thing is for sure; I will NEVER opt for Drivezy again.