Zoom Car — unethical behaviour and false charges

Siva M S

from Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Address:

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600 097

Reference: JPS6XP5GY
Booking start Date : 12 PM, 31st August 2019.
Booking end Date : 9:30 PM 31st August 2019.

Objective of Rental Booking and how our day was:

I booked the rental car to go for a short trip with my wife and two toddlers. We started from home by 12 PM, went to a restaurant had great food and started to go to Mahabalipuram. On the way to Mahabalipuram we also covered Muttukudu lake.

We spent good amount of time there and dropped off the car at 9:30 PM in the exact same location. We all were happy and that was a fantastic outing with pleasant weather.

3rd September 2019:

I received a message saying I have an oustanding amount of 696 rupees for additional kilometres. Fair enough. I have settled the amount.

I have also applied for reimbursement of 600 rupees for refuelling the vehicle as I paid for with fuel(but there was no fuel in the car so I had to refuel and reimburse). That was also reimbursed by Zoom.

5 PM (approximately) 9th September:

I was checking my upcoming booking on 14th September and that's when I noticed a ghost entry of 20, 000 rupees as inconvenience fees and damage to the car in my booking which was completed on 31st August 2019. Since there was no accident or damage I was shocked to look at the huge outstanding amount. I tried to make multiple calls to zoom to understand this but the calls didn't go for some reason.

5:30 PM 9th September 2019:

So, I have raised a complaint requesting to explain the charges. I have also shared the photos once again to prove there was no accident or damage when I dropped the car. I was asked to read the terms and conditions for damage and general terms conditions. I have read those twice and I have not violated any of the terms or conditions. So, asked him for clarity once again around 6:30 PM 9th September 2019.

10:20 PM 9th September 2019:

Received below email from Anitha Rajesekaran. Tried to respond back to the same email but that's a noreply email it seems. Now, I am not sure how to even contact zoom to discuss and sort this issue out.

I am just wondering how renting a rental car for family trip within chennai would violate terms and condition between myself and zoom?

How could zoom be so rude, illogical, unethical and attempt to cheat the customers for no reason at all? That too on a simple short trip!!!

I expect a responsible and ethical behaviour from zoom cars on this matter please.

It has come to our attention that the said vehicle has been used for manner other than those agreed and acknowledged by you, at the time of booking, under the terms and conditions of the Member Agreement (hereinafter referred to as "Agreement" (https://www.zoomcar.com/bangalore/policy#member) Therefore, you are liable to make payment of ₹20000 to the company.

Please note that as per the said Agreement, any wilfully declining or/and failure to make payment of the outstanding amount will render you liable to civil and criminal proceedings and the company would be entitled to recover the due

We therefore request you to make payment of the aforementioned outstanding amount of ₹20000 within 5 days of this mail, failing which we shall be constrained to initiate against you civil and criminal legal proceedings as are warranted by law for recovery of the due amount.

Thanking You

For Zoomcar India Private Limited
Sd/-
Anitha Rajasekaran
Signatory Authority

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Zoomcar customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.

Sep 10, 2019

Updated by Siva M S Below is my follow up email to zoom today on 10th September 2019.

Any updates on this one please? Could anyone of you contact me over the phone please?

I received the below email yesterday night.

[protected][protected]-----
It has come to our attention that the said vehicle has been used for manner "other than those agreed" and acknowledged by you, at the time of booking, under the terms and conditions of the Member Agreement (hereinafter referred to as "Agreement" (https://www.zoomcar.com/bangalore/policy#member) Therefore, you are liable to make payment of ₹20000 to the company.

Please note that as per the said Agreement, any wilfully declining or/and failure to make payment of the outstanding amount will render you liable to civil and criminal proceedings and the company would be entitled to recover the due

We therefore request you to make payment of the aforementioned outstanding amount of ₹20000 within 5 days of this mail, failing which we shall be constrained to initiate against you civil and criminal legal proceedings as are warranted by law for recovery of the due amount.

Thanking You

For Zoomcar India Private Limited
Sd/-
Anitha Rajasekaran
Signatory Authority
[protected][protected]-----
Could you be very specific on what you mean by the below highlighted allegation on me?

I have used it for my family outing and I can prove it. I have crossed two tollgates and car number would have been registered there and the video footage can be obtained from the tollgates, from the restaurant where I had lunch and I have various photographs that we took during our outing(all with date and timestamp luckily).

So, I have no clue about this baseless allegation and recovery notice.

It is your due responsibility to explain me the charges in first place. Also, you are suppose to provide proof for the allegations for me to even understand what you are talking about.

There is not single conversation you have initiated with me until this point in time. Do you even care to call me? I Insist you to call me IMMEDIATELY to discuss on this matter.

You cannot simply send a recovery notice and ask me to pay 20, 000 without even telling the customer what's this for. Law does not work this way. I am sure you are aware of this.

Thanks,
Siva M S

Sep 10, 2019

Updated by Siva M S 11:30 AM 10th September 2019:

I manage to reach out to the customer care to understand the specifics of the recovery notice. She said the charges are for inconvient fee and for clutch worn out problem.

I told her that the car I took was brand new and it was in fantastic condition throughout my trip.

Firstly, there is no way for the clutch to worn out in such a brand new car. Even if that happens after I dropped off the vehicle, they should have contact the service provider to fix it.

Secondly, it is impossible for the clutch to worn out in 133 kilometers I drove on 31st August 2019.

Also, she is not sure of the inconvenient fee details. I dropped off the car in the same place where I picked off. This data can easily be pulled of from GPS location when I picked up and dropped off. She said she will check the details and get back to me in 48 hours.

Just after the call, out of curiousity I checked the how old is the car that I took using mparivahan website. To my surprise, it was registered just on 15-July-2019. It means the car is 45 days old and they say clutch worn out on 45 days old car and charge me 10, 000 for this.

What a joke!!!

Thanks,
Siva M S

Sep 10, 2019

Updated by Siva M S 4:47 PM 10th September 2019:

I happen to check once again if there are any updates in the dispute.

Realized one ghost entry in the name of inconvenience fees is vanished. Until now, I have no clue what inconvenience they meant.

Another Ghost entry "vehicle damage fees" i.e clutch worn out on 45 days old car is still there. They are yet to update me on this.

Please refer attached image for reference.

Verified Support

Sep 11, 2019

Zoomcar Customer Care's response Hello Siva,

Greetings!

We are sorry to know about the discrepancy in the billing. Upon checking, we see that our team is working on the charge that is levied on the billing. The update will be shared as soon as possible. Appreciate your patience in the interim.

Regards,
Ramya. S

Sep 12, 2019

Updated by Siva M S 4.25 PM 12th September 2019:

Hi Ramya,

Please can you update on this asap? I have an upcoming booking this saturday on 14th September 2019. So, I want to get this dispute resolved asap.

I was told that zoom is re-validating the details regarding the dispute. So, please update on this asap.

Just to let reiterate, I did not have any issue with respect to clutch while dropping the car. I have submitted the proof of dropping the car at the same location where I picked after driving the car for 133 kms. If there is a problem with the clutch, there is no way I could have had a pleasant trip on 31st August 2019 and I wouldn't have been able to drop the car at the same location.

Secondly, the car is just 45 days old and it has run just for 2358 kms so it is highly impossible for clutch to worn out.

Car wasn't there in the place I dropped on 9th of september when I received message regarding outstanding amount.

So, I want to know the below details asap

1. Subsequent bookings made on this car after 31st August 2019

2. Photo of current speedometer reading

3. Proof that the clutch of the car is worn out

4. Give the proof that it happened during my booking.

5. Previous booking details including the dates in which the booking is made and how many kms the car has run for each of the booking.

Thanks,
Siva M S

Sep 18, 2019

Updated by Siva M S 10:54 AM 18th September 2019

Any updates on this one please?

Thanks,
Siva M S

Sep 24, 2019

Updated by Siva M S 12:48 PM 24th September 2019

Any updates on this please?

It's been 24 days since my booking completion date and 15 days since the dispute was raised.

Please Note:

Despite following up repeatedly to resolve this dispute before my scheduled booking on 14th September 2019, Zoom hasn't done anything to resolve this complaint. Instead, they simply cancelled my next booking which was scheduled well before raising the dispute.

I was told zoom would respond back in 24 hours with all the required details in this case, But nothing is happening inspite of numerous calls, emails and following through this complaint.

This one is going on without any deadline.

Thanks,
Siva M S

Verified Support

Sep 27, 2019

Zoomcar Customer Care's response Hello Siva,

We understand your concern here. Please note, the charges are levied after the internal assessment of the vehicle and we regret o inform that we will not be able to share the requested report. Also, the charges are revised to Rs. 10, 000 as you were billed in excess.

As the charges are valid, we will not be able to reverse/alter the charges. You can contact our support team at[protected] for more details.

Regards,
Appachu
Zoomcar

Sep 30, 2019

Updated by Siva M S So, you don't bother to consider

* the proof that I have submitted to prove my stand

* explanations I have given to prove my stand

* details that was provided to prove my stand

* questions that was raised to prove my stand

* Proof that I requested to prove my stand

and you simply want to customer to pay the amount that you ask for?

It's WEIRD, UNETHICAL, NOT ACCEPTABLE and CHEATING.

I sincerely urge you to prove and provide proof that there was a damage in the first place. Secondly, kindly prove that it was done during my trip.

I have asked all the details just to lead you to the right direction. You have all the data in front of you and you know very well that there was no damage at all. That's only reason you fail to provide anything I ask for.

If you cannot provide these, go over the details I asked for and try to make sense out of it. If you are unable to make sense for any reason, reveal those in this forum.

We will help you with that.

For other readers and customers:

Zoomcar is trying to cheat a customer saying car's clutch is worn out. Some of the interesting facts about this booking that you have to consider before using zoomcar.

- Car is brand new, it was just 45 days old. Easy to find. I have the proof as well.

- Total km's that the car has run(until 31st August 2019) was 2358. I have shared the proof.

- I drove just 133 kms out of this 2358 - I have shared the proof.

- The same car is being used by other customer from the very next day. To prove, zoom should provide the subsequent and previous booking details. They themselves can also analyze this.

Oct 03, 2019

Updated by Siva M S 06:32 AM 3rd October 2019

Discussing a dispute with zoomcar is like a one a traffic.

Despite my continuous follow up with zoom, they completely ignore my proof and my explanations and continue to threaten me by sending the recovery notice.

They have not responded to me with any proof or the details I have asked for until now.

Zoomcar is trying to cheat a customer saying car's clutch is worn out. Some of the interesting facts about this booking that you have to consider before using zoomcar.

- I never had any issue with the car through out my booking and it was pleasant trip as I already mentioned.

- If there was a problem with the clutch there is no way that I could have drove 133 kms and parked the car in the same location within the booking time.

- Car is brand new, it was just 45 days old. Easy to find. I have the proof as well.

- Total km's that the car has run(until 31st August 2019) was 2358. I have shared the proof.

- I drove just 133 kms out of this 2358 - I have shared the proof.

- The same car is being used by other customer from the very next day. To prove, zoom should provide the subsequent and previous booking details. They themselves can also analyze this.

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Comments

Siva M S

from Chennai, Tamil Nadu

10:41 September 24, 2019

Any updates on this one please?

It's been 24 days since the booking completion date and 15 days since the dispute in progress. I just received one email from Zoom all these days even though it was promised that the requested details will be shared in 24 hours.

I wrote frequent emails to customer support, called them and I have been following up through this complaint as well but there is no sign of progress on this dispute despite frequent follow ups.

Please Note:

They have also cancelled my scheduled booking on September 14, 2019. I desperately urged them to resolve the current dispute so my next booking is not affected. But it's just like talking against the wall, they did not even care to do any steps to resolve this.

On that note, zoom is NOT RELIABLE, NOT CUSTOMER FRIENDLY and NOT COMMITTED.

Thanks,
Siva M S