May 02, 2023 10:28 AM
2843 Views
I have used several car rental companies in India and had a great experience with them. Zoomcar is a little more expensive than them so my expectation was a little better.
Let me share my first experience with ZoomCar.
I booked a car in Delhi which had a rating of 4.8. When I went to pick up my car, I found that my profile was not verified. I tried to reach customer care by googling the customer care number but no one answered the call. Finally, I waited for 30 minutes and tried different numbers until my profile was verified. I was stunned to see that ZoomCar expects the customer to inspect the car themselves. The car had hundreds of scratches, the windshield was broken at one corner. It was so frustrating to click all those pictures into the appropriate sections, especially when you were struggling to reach customer service.
Finally, the car got unlocked and I discovered another horror after that. The car was a dustbin from the inside. It was full of dust/mud, dirty seats, empty bottles, and dirty clothes. It took me 45 mins to clean the car, to make it just clean enough for a human to sit inside. The fuel meter on the odometer was again faulty, it does not display anything unless you start driving.
Can ZoomCar explain, how am I supposed to take the reading on this?
The more pathetic thing is, they don’t have any smart way to read the fuel level, but just host have guessed it by looking at the meter reading.
For my car, the host had mentioned 20%, when I left the car, I ensured that the level was almost the same, but still in my final bill, it was showing that I left the fuel level at 10% when I returned the car.
Imagine the level of smartness of their process.
The one thing which I observed, was the car wiper was broken, if anyone drives a car, you know very well the importance of wipers when it rains, especially at night. But, I still took the car as everything was planned and I did not want to cancel my trip. Anyway, I did not have a way to reach to customer care as ZoomCar does not have one.
Unfortunately, while I was coming back from the trip, it rained and I had to stay on the road for almost 45 mins as the wipers were not cleaning the windshield. While coming back, I thought of getting the tire pressure checked. There I got to know that, one nozzle was broken, I got it changed which again took around 20-30 mins.
Finally, I came back to my place almost 1.5 hrs late. I reached the same place where I picked up the vehicle. I called the host to assist me in reaching to the exact parking spot.
Now, there was another drama. I was not able to stop the trip. Most probably, it was a software issue on the Zoom side.
I have an image of an exception thrown by their app. In an attempt to stop the trip, I actually extended the trip twice and paid the amount again 2 times. But still, I could not stop the trip. Even the host also tried the same and failed.
How can a company that does not have customer care can make such a counterintuitive app?
When I looked into the help section, I guess the app was again expecting me to take 100 photographs and upload them to Zoom. It was 12 o’clock at night, I did not have the energy to do that, so I hand over the car to the host and left.
In summary, ZoomCar is a pathetic company to rent a car. They don’t inspect the car after one trip. Their app is pathetic and useless. They are expecting you to inspect their car. They have no customer support.
Overall, Don’t hire from them, better try other vendors, who manage their cars themselves.
