Ola Electric has been making headlines with the number of complaints about its electric scooter and the company’s service quality. Now, Bhavish Aggarwal-founded Ola is back in the news after the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) ordered a probe into the matter again. This time, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been ordered to verify the company’s claims of resolving the issue.
Trouble brews at Ola Electric — What actually happened?
The CCPA got involved after 10,644 complaints were registered with the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) from September 2023 to August 2024, prompting a show-cause notice to be served to Ola Electric. The notice was served on October 3 pointing out deficiencies in services, misleading advertisements, unfair trade practices, and violations of consumer rights. Ola Electric was given 15 days to respond.
On October 21, Ola responded to the notice saying 99.1 percent of Ola’s customers were satisfied with the complaint resolution process. Following this claim, the CCPA reached out to a few customers to get a feedback on the way Ola addressed their problems.
More trouble at Ola
Speaking to Live Mint, an official requesting anonymity said, “Of 287 consumers, the NCH call agents called, 130 consumers were connected, and of which (79.2%) 103 were not satisfied with the company’s response. It was just a sample testing to verify the claims of Ola. If they are claiming 99% satisfaction, it should have also been reflected in the cross-verification.”
Now this has prompted the CCPA to reach out to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to verify Ola’s claims of resolving the problems. The BIS director general has been asked to submit a detailed report within 15 days regarding this issue.
As per what an official told Live Mint, many customers have had the problem reoccur even after the complaints were addressed while some cases were prematurely closed without the complaint being addressed at all.
