[mustang_shelby]

Originally Posted by mustang_shelby

Booked Endeavor, instead got XUV in junk condition, got charged in full despite returning vehicle early due to poor condition

Quoting myself to provide an update on this issue. Eventually someone from Zoomcar's Social Media team got in touch with me (I had posted the same details on Facebook as well as sent a direct email to Greg). They will charge me for 6 hours of rental (until the time I reported the issue) and refund the balance.
I was given regular reassurances about internal processes and systems in place to ensure fleet vehicle quality. But on specifically asking about a policy on when a fleet vehicle is retired, they do not have any.
I believe that they are trying to run their fleet vehicles upto their maximum useful life, and that will always come at the cost of customer experience. I told them the same. They need to have something on the lines of "All our fleet vehicles are less than 2 yrs/60,000 kms old" in black and white as a commitment to the customer. Without that, booking a Zoomcar is a lottery.

Meanwhile my take on blaming the previous renters for the quality of the car:
Customer is accountable for the condition in which he/she returns the vehicle to Zoomcar.
Zoomcar is accountable for the condition in which they choose to handover the car to the next customer.

I am not complaining about couple of dents here and there. Rather, this is deterioration in the condition of vehicle accumulated over tens of thousands of kms of usage. Ample opportunities for Zoomcar were there to get the vehicle fixed or retired.

[freedom]

I want to hire a self drive premium car like GLA or Q3. Apart from zoomcar any other vendor providing premium cars as self drive? Need the car for about 1 week vacation

[AkMar]

Got this email from Zoomcar today:

Dear Zoomer,
Since inception, customer experience has always remained our absolute highest priority. As part of this ongoing journey, we continuously strive to improve every pickup and drop experience with a Zoomcar.

In an effort to bring Zoomcar even closer to you, we have dramatically increased our parking sites across our cities. Some of these locations will look a bit different from the sites you might have picked from earlier. In these new locations, your Zoomcar might be parked in smaller lots or even on one of the by-lanes in your local neighborhood. Despite the slightly different pickup/drop location, please rest assured that the process to self-drive will remain exactly the same. Just as before, the precise GPS coordinates of your Zoomcar will be communicated before the start of your booking.

You might find some of these new neighbourhood sites unmanned when you visit to retrieve your Zoomcar. This is intentional as we’ve redeployed our keyless entry solution that we first unveiled back in 2015. With keyless entry, the entire unlock/lock process plus the vehicle start and end checklist can be fully handled conveniently from the Zoomcar app. You don't have to wait for Zoomcar personnel anymore.

As we continue to rollout these new processes in the weeks and months ahead, we’re quite confident that we will make the self-drive experience even smoother and more convenient.

We look forward to seeing you self-drive with us again soon!

Keep Zoomin',
Team Zoomcar

[hserus]

Originally Posted by AkMar

Got this email from Zoomcar today:

Ugh. "In the bylanes of your area". Given how narrow and congested most bylanes tend to be I can foresee quite a few opportunities for these zoomcars to pick up a series of fresh dents and scratches within minutes of exiting the yard.

And god help you if your phone runs out of battery when it is time to pick the car up, if the app is the only way to collect and unlock it.

[dj78]

Originally Posted by mustang_shelby

[b]Booked Endeavor, instead got XUV in junk condition, got charged in full despite returning vehicle early due to poor condition
They were downgrading me to an XUV. Upon my protesting, they offered me a ridiculous Rs 500 adjustment against a future booking as compensation.

.

Very sorry to hear that your vacation was ruined due to Zoomcar. I have booked a Zoomcar for 5 days from the same location (ISBT Chandigarh) and so I'm a bit worried now.

One thing that is not clear to me is besides the Rs. 500 goodwill adjustment did they also refund you the difference in rates between the Endeavor and XUV. Right, now that difference is between Rs. 90 to 170 per hour (based on day of the week) and is quite substantial right?

[mustang_shelby]

Originally Posted by dj78

One thing that is not clear to me is besides the Rs. 500 goodwill adjustment did they also refund you the difference in rates between the Endeavor and XUV. Right, now that difference is between Rs. 90 to 170 per hour (based on day of the week) and is quite substantial right?

From my update post above:
"They will charge me for 6 hours of rental (until the time I reported the issue) and refund the balance."

Yes, they said charged me for 6 hrs of XUV. Frankly I did not and could not get into the calculation to validate since they do not provide an itemized invoice. I am also past the point where I would want to chase their customer service about a few hundred bucks.

If possible, make sure you pick up the vehicle with sufficient lead time ahead of start of your trip so that you have options in case things go south.

[A M]

Another startup Revv is starting car leasing services.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/bus...p-2279789.html

[Engine_Roars]

I am going to need a self drive, 7 seater vehicle in the second week of June in Pune. After reading all these experiences here, I am a bit skeptical about the experience, don't want to ruin the trip. Any other better options in Pune for a Scorpio/Ertiga kind of a vehicle where I can check the vehicle and confirm?

[Rokztar]

Originally Posted by Engine_Roars

I am going to need a self drive, 7 seater vehicle in the second week of June in Pune. After reading all these experiences here, I am a bit skeptical about the experience, don't want to ruin the trip. Any other better options in Pune for a Scorpio/Ertiga kind of a vehicle where I can check the vehicle and confirm?

You can go for MYLES. I have used them on multiple occaisons (Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune)

Always been satisfied.

[dj78]

Originally Posted by mustang_shelby

From my update post above:
"They will charge me for 6 hours of rental (until the time I reported the issue) and refund the balance."

......
If possible, make sure you pick up the vehicle with sufficient lead time ahead of start of your trip so that you have options in case things go south.

Closing the loop on this. I did hire a Zoomcar on 15th of this month from the Sector 43 ISBT in Chandigarh - The destination was Manali and thereabouts. Actually we were a big group and three of us got Zoomcars - two Jazzs including mine and a Figo Aspire. This would be my first self drive experience in India.

All cars were available at the promised time but my the condition of my car did not inspire much confidence for a drive in the hills. The rear tires looked like this.

I'm not even sure if it is legal to drive with such bald tires. I raised the issue with the staff at the site and they "assured" me that the tire was perfectly ok to drive and just in case something were to happen the spare was available. The spare looked to be in good condition but that was beyond the point - I was worried about driving in wet conditions in the hills on these tires and it did rain.
So, I called up Customer Care and they said they were registering a complaint and would get back in 10 minutes, which they did to tell me that no other replacement was available in nearby locations and asked me to hand over the call to the site staff. Then she reiterated that the site staff had assured her that the tires were perfectly fine - the whole exchange was getting ridiculous now and I had lost a good one hour in the process and had a schedule to catch up to. So, I gave up and decided to go with the car that was assigned - so much for first time Customer Experience.

But this was not the only safety issue - The rear seats had after market covers and (as is a very common practice in India) all the seat belt buckles had been pushed under the seat rendering the seat belt useless - can't believe Zoomcar would allow such a practice.

On the positive side the car performed fine mechanically during the duration of the trip.

Experience while returning the car - had to wait for about 30-40 minutes at the site before anyone showed up to collect the car and close the trip. Then they declared that there would be a cleaning charge of Rs. 500 because the exteriors were dirty. I had washed the car at the hotel before the trip and the little muck that was there was perfectly normal from driving over a wet spot or two but then Zoomcar expects the car to dropped back in pristine condition. The funny part was that the Ford Figo had similar muck over it because we drove the same road but there was no charge for it - The only reason I could think of was the color of the cars which made it easier to spot on the burgundy Jazzs compared to the orange Aspire (both Jazzs had to pay the cleaning charge).

My Jazz had several battle wounds but none of that was of much concern (though one should document them meticulously before the trip starts) except for the wobbling left ORVM that could be very irritating at night. And yes, the 12V ACC socket never worked - so I had to manage with the lone USB port which meant that I had to drop the plan of using my dashcam.I did try to locate the fuse in the internal fuse box but to my surprise the actual layout of the fuses and those in the manual were not matching. Then I have up because I did not have much time to spare. Carrying a power bank may be a good idea next time.

All in all not a very positive first time experience - I would definitely think hard before hiring another Zoomcar.

In case you were wondering this is how the site is marked

[bejoy]

Got an email from Zoomcar about their cycle rental service in Bangalore!

https://www.zoomcar.com/offer/pedl

Zoomcar launches PEDL

Zoomcar launches PEDL - Your new fitness buddy! Now, PEDL your way to a greener tomorrow!
HOW TO AVAIL:
Customers can visit the below locations to pick up their favorite Bicycle!
PEDL is currently available in Bangalore at select locations only. Below are the pickup locations where you can book PEDL.

- Koramangala - Sony Signal (Beside Tattva Cafe)
- Mahadevapura - Whitefield (Brigade Metropolis)
- Dr. Rajkumar Road - Rajajinagar (Beside Suguna Hospital)
- Atria Institute of Technology

Terms & Conditions

- Easy payment through PayTM at the location during pick up
- No security deposit
- Subject to availability
- Please carry a photo id proof during pick up

This seems more like a brand building exercise. Hope someone would actually get to ride those cycles.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by dj78

Closing the loop on this. I did hire a Zoomcar on 15th of this month from the Sector 43 ISBT in Chandigarh - The destination was Manali and thereabouts.

I hired an Ecosport from ISBT 43 from the 9th through the 18th of May. Destination was also Manali.

The Ecosport had done 93k kms and had a lot of dents all around. I was initially apprehensive about accepting the car, but I checked the tyres and they seemed to have been changed around 90k kms or so. The zoomcar guy recommended shooting a video of the car exterior to avoid any claims later. I did shoot a couple of videos, but there was no issue or questions raised when I returned the car. The Ecosport performed well mechanically, no issues whatsoever.

The funny part was that I tried to book for a pick up drop facility at the airport, but this did not work at all. Customer care could not help (or perhaps were not bothered). The guy at ISBT seemed a bit surprised to hear that pick up/ drop facility did not work. I ended up spending around 1k extra for transfers to/ from the airport. While that was fine, it was a bit annoying to load/ unload luggage twice instead of once.

They did charge 500 for cleaning which I am ok with considering that I did not bother to wash the car before handing over.
Still waiting for reimbursement of all the fuel bills that I handed over to the zoomcar guys. To their credit they did help me book an uber cab with their mobile as mine was unable to connect.

Note for self: for Chandigarh try to get an airport pick up drop service if you can do it. Also keep your mobile fully charged to use the app both during pick up and drop.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

They did charge 500 for cleaning which I am ok with considering that I did not bother to wash the car before handing over.

I assume this is external cleaning.

Are we expected to return the car washed and cleaned? This is new!

Quite impractical for someone to do that before returning; interior cleaning still makes sense.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Are we expected to return the car washed and cleaned? This is new!
Quite impractical for someone to do that before returning; interior cleaning still makes sense.

No idea. When I returned the car, it wasn't spotless clean on the inside either. Considering the overall state, I didn't mind paying the 500 bucks instead of going through the trouble of getting it cleaned.

For those booking in the future, it would be better to clarify which part they charge this money for!

[dj78]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

No idea. When I returned the car, it wasn't spotless clean on the inside either. Considering the overall state, I didn't mind paying the 500 bucks instead of going through the trouble of getting it cleaned.

For those booking in the future, it would be better to clarify which part they charge this money for!

Exterior cleaning is Rs. 500 and Interior is Rs. 1500. Based on what I hear, I guess everyone is paying for the exterior cleaning in which case they should build it into their pricing for a better customer experience.