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Old 27th August 2020, 12:10   #16
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

Sad to hear this. I have hired Zoomcar multiple times in the past year and loved the experience. I came very close to leasing a car via them after speaking to someone who had two such leases.

That said, if there was even the slightest hitch in the process, the Customer Service was hard to reach. I did not experience anything major but it was always a niggling feeling of depending on automated responses rather than help just a voice away.

I suspect Covid has killed this model for sometime to come though I think road travel by a self-drive owned/rented car is preferable to flying/train.
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Old 27th August 2020, 12:47   #17
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

TBH, after the lockdown I can guess they're financially stressed-out. IMO Quite possible that they don't have the money to pay back customers deposits.

If you've paid via Credit Card, you can try to raise a dispute through the bank and maybe lodge a claim to get the money back for services not rendered to you.

Rest said, AFAIK if the company files for insolvency/bankruptcy, the customer deposits could eventually be converted as unsecured trade creditors. In that case the company assets would be liquidated and the secured creditors would be paid off first, and to be frank, I wouldn't be very hopeful of customers getting back their deposits anytime soon, if at all.
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Old 27th August 2020, 12:50   #18
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

I must conclude that I was lucky enough and got away with this unprofessional attitude that many BHPians are facing with zoomcar.

I happened to book a Ford Figo in the month of Feb fir a trip to be done in March 2020. (Just days before covid19). I picked up my car from Pune quite early in the day. I didn't bother much about the tyres while picking up the car. Eventually about 2 hours into the trip, the front left gave away. It was as smooth as my granite kitchen top. Had to explain this to the zoomcar CC. A good 30-40 mins later they agreed on replacement for the tyre and a complete refund for me. The nearest shop had a continental MC5 for the size which Figo demanded. Paid 4600 for it, and my trip ended well without any more issues.

It took them more than a week to refund the (fuel + tyre + security) costs as they had to ask for some approvals, thanks for the refund amount being greater than the amount which I paid them while booking the ride. Ride was worth 9k. Refund was 11k. On 24th March (lockdown was already in active state) I got my complete refund in my card. Saved!!!
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Old 27th August 2020, 13:16   #19
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

Condition of the cars are pathetic here in Kolkata.

Last booking of mine was for an i20 but when I reached the AirPort pickup location, zoom executive told me that said reg no. vehicle isn't with them & call customer care.

After wasting an hour with customer care, finally booking was shifted to another available vehicle. However that's a different model, a Ford Figo.

By looks of if, one can make out previous markings of Uber / Ola etc. Exterior condition was horrible, as if this car got rejected by app cabs & got it self attached with zoom car. I don't know if that's even possible.

Anyway, condition of the interior was even worst. It felt like a dustbin. One could spot open road via gear shifter base. Every few kms into the drive, I had to go out & refit the front & rear bumper.

Water / mud & out side hot air was coming through the door seals !! Plus that broken plastic cover of the gear shifter base would get stuck & interfere with gear shifting.

I had to take an U Turn & return back to the drop off site to end my trip since customer care was clear, they can't do anything to change the vehicle or refund the booking.

Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds-img_20200609_143952.jpg

Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds-img_20200609_144100.jpg

Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds-img_20200609_144115.jpg

Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds-img_20200609_144139.jpg

Technically it's my mistake, I shouldn't have trusted their words on proper mechanical condition of the vehicle regardless of the exterior body issue. To their credit, they did offer me to cancel booking before trip starting.

However, I can't forgive them for such cheating by even keeping this type of car in their fleet !!
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Old 27th August 2020, 13:59   #20
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

Zoomcar doesn't collect security deposit from its returning customers or after initial couple of bookings I guess. This is my experience as security deposit has been waived off in all my bookings after initial ones.
I assume the deposit issue is because of liquidity crisis they are facing. COVID induced lockdown must have severely affected the business.
Zoomcar was probably the first to introduce self-drive option in such a large scale & popularize it. Earlier, I believe few cities had "Rent-a-car" providers offering self-drive option. But Zoomcar's model & offers have been quite value for money & hassle-free. Yes, their vehicle condition has been deteriorating over the past 4-5 years. In my opinion, this is more to blame on the road conditions & careless customers. I think Zoomcar was finding it difficult to spend on maintenance given the costs, competition & undercutting offers.
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Old 27th August 2020, 14:28   #21
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

My experience on this is, I did receive my refund amount back but a whole 2 & 1/2 months after my trip. Had to do a lot of follow-up in emails which were never answered. But response on Facebook was very positive. Within few days of my first compliant in Zoomcar facebook page, refund amount was credited back to me. I would suggest to try their fb page for refund status.
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Old 27th August 2020, 15:46   #22
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

I was one of the initial guys to reply on this thread, it's been more than 6 months now, I still haven't got any amount back. I keep on tagging @ZoomcarIndia on twitter and get a nice automated reply ( 99% chatbot) and that's about it. No other action yet!

Although it's unethical and illegal for them to hoard the money, I understand COVID has been really tough on them. Worst case, I am gonna consider it as a charity amount I donated in COVID times if the company goes belly up. Chasing them isn't really worth my time now.
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Old 27th August 2020, 16:45   #23
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

Count me in.

I booked a one way trip from Bangalore to Mangalore on 11th June. I had selected Ford Freestyle. Went to their yard exactly at 7:30AM even though my booking was from 8AM to 8PM. Staff informed me that car that I chose wasn't available & they have to wait for zoomcar to allocate the car. After multiple calls to their customer care they allocated a Swift at 9:30AM - a good 1.5 hours after my actual booking start time The condition of the car was pathetic to say the least. I had to go ahead with the booking as it was an emergency. There was no fuel in the car even though the package that I booked was including fuel.

Unsurprisingly they haven't refunded my fuel expenses till date. I will never book a zoomcar again. I've given up.
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Old 27th August 2020, 21:58   #24
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

Sad to hear this news. I’ve done four bookings with Zoomcar till date and had a smooth experience in three of them. The one time I booked from Jaipur, I had to actually calculate the fuel economy, so that I may get m 1000 bucks back! Attaching the pic

Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds-b30b2ff818904d7fb128266bb03fce5f.jpeg
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Old 27th August 2020, 22:52   #25
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

Count me in too. My first bitter experience with Zoomcar.
I booked a Nexon through Zoomcar for 24 hours in Chennai. My trip was planned on 17th April 2020. Thanks to Covid-19, on 11th April 2020, I received a call from Zoomcar's representative, wherein they apologised for the Covid situation and offered to cancel the booking on my behalf with 100% refund and Zoomcar credit points.
Within 24 hours, I received my credit points, but I did not receive my refund of 3828 INR (including security deposit) till today. Tried everything to reach them in the last few months asking for my refund. But neither my emails were answered nor I got my refund.
Moreover, on checking Zoomcar application, I found that they had already downgraded my booking from Nexon to Figo. My refund status still shows as pending.
I am still hopeful in receiving my refund.
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Old 27th August 2020, 23:10   #26
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

Are the consumers completely at the mercy of the company in such cases?

Are there no options to atleast lodge a complain about these refunds being held indefinitely? Maybe consumer forum, if not the courts themselves?

We may not have the same support as the consumers in the west, but has anyone tried exercising available options? Or have they also failed to bear any fruit?
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Old 28th August 2020, 08:16   #27
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

Count me in on this. Cancelled my April trip to brother's place in Bengaluru due to Covid and hence cancelled my Zoomcar booking as well on March 25, 2020. I'm eligible for a full refund of INR 19,XXX but have been unable to extract a single dime out of Zoomcar. Each time I make some noise, they give me another timeline for refund. This time, they offered me a redeemable Zoomcar coupon of the same amount which I flatly refused.

Now they've gone back to their slumber again while I wait for the refund. In fact, this thread couldn't have come on a more opportune time since I'm planning to go ahead and atleast lodge a formal complaint (if not FIR) of a cyber fraud by Zoomcar today. Will update everyone here on the outcome.
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Old 28th August 2020, 09:15   #28
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

I have started a petition against Zoomcar, and deployed a small bot on twitter, which replies to few tweet about refund on Zoomcar. e.g: This one.

With an aim to coordinate and file a consolidated complain against zoom car, I have created a Google form (part of tweet), and requesting them to share their booking details and contact details (optional).

I have done some research and have found that provision of class action lawsuit has been recently added in India consumer protection law (Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india...QNepNPyKJ.html)

To be honest I do not know how to proceed further, and what to do with data I have collected. If someone wants to partner in law front, I can scale up my twitter bot to reach-out to all the customer who have complained about Zoomcar in last 6 months.
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Old 28th August 2020, 11:56   #29
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

Sad to hear about the present state of affairs of Zoomcar, a pioneer in the self drive rental segment in India. I was a fan of zoomcar in its earlier days when the cars were clean, customer service was enthusiastic and the prices more reasonable. I was its customer when I had a WagonR and had to depend on bigger and safer cars for long distance travels. Now that I own a bigger and safer car, I stopped using its services.

I actually foresaw its decline a couple of years back itself after I had a bad experience with both the quality of the car and the delivery commitment. First they failed to deliver the car that I booked and then the alternative they suggested was poorly maintained with stained seats and smelly cabin. My itinerary was never based on their cars after that incident.

Apart from their mismanagement, if any, the primary reasons for their decline have to be the poor road infrastructure and the renters with questionable moral standards. A sedately driven zoomcar is as rare to find as a towed Maruti. The present lockdown seems to have given a final blow to the faltering business.
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Old 28th August 2020, 13:24   #30
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Re: Zoom Car Fraud: Not returning deposits & not facilitating refunds

My experiences with Zoom car till now has been good and I use their cars quite a bit in Bangalore. They never charged any deposit in Bangalore.

They had some dues pending to me for the fuel refund and cancelled booking charges and I contacted them for the same today. They mentioned that their new policy says the refund will be processed within 30 days (quite strange though), so I instead opted for a credit/ coupon for the amount due and they were ready for that. It is useful for me as I do require their services in future.

Whatever said, it is a crime holding onto consumer’s money as mentioned in other members post. I always feel the consumer centric approach is rather non existent in India. At least in the automotive sector, we as a community can sort this out by highlighting these issues to the top hierarchy of these companies.
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