[Resolved]  Zoom Car — zoomcar cheating me with damage charges

Address:

Patna, Bihar, 800006

Hi all,

Booking id : jps6fw48l

I booked a ford figo from 24 jan 6:30 am to 25 jan 11:30 pm from zoomcar, patna.

So i went outside patna with my parents and sister on 24th. While coming back to patna on 25th jan, there was a breakdown in my car. While moving suddenly the car was not accelerating. So i braked and stopped the car near the side of highway. I realized that the gear was not working, the car was running fine, but when i was putting it in gear and accelerating still the car was not moving at all. This happened near shahpur main road, some 30 kms from nearest town arrah, bihar. Timeline :
6:15 pm = it was already getting dark. So i first opened the app and dialed the helpline no given there.[protected]. I tried this no multiple times but the call was not even going through. Tried from other mobiles as well and got the same thing.;
6:29 pm = since the customer care no was not reachable at all, i then contacted zoomcar patna parking from where i had picked the car. No : [protected]. I had 3 minute 15 seconds call. They had no idea what to do in case of breakdown. They simply said call customer care. I told them that the no is not reachable. Then he had no other solution to that and he cut the call also.
6:35 pm = i kept on trying the same customer care no but to no avail. It had gotten very dark. Only trucks were going there and place was in between no where. There was no settlement nearby. We were standing on middle of highway with no sign of any help.
6:47 pm - 7:05 pm = i tried calling the patna parking zoomcar executive again but now he had made his no busy, i couldnt call him. It was busy. I kept on trying him for 20 minutes but he was busy. So first time he cut the call without any solution and then instead of calling me back with any help he made his phone busy.
7:23 pm = i kept on trying the zoomcar customer care no[protected] but still the same thing. So now we found a local who told us that there is a mechanic near to 3 kms. I had to send my father with this random local because there was no other option.
7:55 pm = my father came back with a mechanic and after seeing the problem he told that this is an issue with clutch and it can only be repaired in service centre.
7:58 pm = now since even the parking guy had blocked my number as it was coming busy, i tried calling him from my father's no. The call went through, and then i asked him why did he block my number and instead of informing him about break down 1 hour 30 minutes before he didnt even bother call back. He told me he has no other solution other than trying to call customer care which even he was not able to reach. So i asked him atleast he will have any manager or senior. So then he said yes and finally gave me no which he said is zoomcar patna head. Name : ashu no :[protected].
8:00 pm = i called mr ashu. Explained him the whole situation. He said he ll provide me the help. Asked me to wait for 5 minutes.
8:06 pm = mr ashu called me back and again asked details about the problem. Told me to wait again.
8:14 pm = he again said me that reach customer care. I was so frustrated hearing this. I told him that the no given in app is not reachable. I asked him to try for himself and see.
8:19 pm = he said that there is another no which he was able to reach. I asked him to share the no which he messaged. No :[protected]
8:21 pm = finally i tried this no and was able to connect. I explained him all the problems. He took my request and asked me to wait. It had gotten 2 hours since breakdown to lodge my complaint of breakdown. This is the level of difficulty in reaching zoomcar customer care.
8:45 pm = so after 25 minutes i am waiting on this with my family on the highway with no street light also, and the customer care hasnt called me back. I called them again. Explained them the situation once again. And they just say to wait near the car until the car is towed. I ask them who will take the responsibility of me and my family if something happens here and they dont have any answer for that.
9:09 pm = finally i get call from road side assiatance team, again i explain every detail of situation and they told that a tow truck will be arranged soon and will come in an hour. Also they ask if i need taxi for my parents to go to patna. I said yes i ll need a taxi. He asked me the pickup location. I told him that the nearest town is arrah which was around 28 kms. So with a lot of difficulty i arranged a tempo from my breakdown location. He agreed to drop my parents and sister near arrah railway station for rs 700. I was expecting taxi from road side assistance team from the arrah railway station as discussed on the call.
9:48 pm = i get sms from road side assitance team that my reference no is ref x[protected]ind. And the message tells me that the assistance fleet will reach me within 120 min. I am waiting for taxi.
9:50 pm = i get call from road side assitance team that they couldnt arrange any taxi from arrah. They asked me to book a local taxi myself and they will reimburse the charges for first 50 kms. I asked that these local drivers dont have any proper bill pad, i was told to get the bill on a plain paper with first 50 kms charges and car no. I was told that i ll get an email regarding the same and i can upload the bill there but i didnt receive any email.
10:05 pm = i get call from the tow truck driver name : jayant (From truecaller) no:[protected]. He said he is in balia, uttar pradesh which was more than 75 kms from my location. He said that there is no direct route to my location and mostly bridges will be closed for the pickup truck. He was asking me the route to reach there. Then he said he will figure out some route.
10:05 - 11:42 pm = this tow truck driver called me from[protected] multiple times and he was just giving random excuses of not coming. He didnt even start from balia by 11:40 pm.
So it had been more than 5 hours and i was standing on middle of a highway with not even a single person in sight. And all i was hearing from customer care is wait for tow truck, and the driver is telling that i dont know any route to reach. Can you imagine the level of frustration i was having that time. I never felt soo helpless. Finally i called the customer care that the pickup truck from balia is not coming and i cannot stay whole night. The temperature was very low. It was very cold. Then i get call from road side assistance at around 12:10 am midnight that now they have assigned tow truck from patna. They also said that they will get somebody who can take the handover from me so that i can leave the place. After some 20-30 minutes they called me back that they couldnt find anybody for handover. They asked me to wait for tow truck coming from patna. 1:05 am i get call from tow truck driver that he has now started from patna and there is too much of traffic so it will take time.
He arrived at 3:40 am. And then he loaded the car by 4:20 am. So it is 10 hours since my breakdown that the help arrived and zoomcar made me wait for them at that random isolated place till then.

The irony is the customer care not as responsive as there twitter handle. So i tweeted them at 3:18 am in night and i get a response in 10 minutes that they are so sorry for me.
Also my car was booked till 25 jan 11:30 pm. The breakdown happened at 6:15 pm. I had more than 5 hours of booking time left. So according to zoomcar breakdown policy at
Url: https://www.zoomcar.com/bangalore/policy#member
Point : 11.6a where the member is not responsible for the breakdown of the zoomcar vehicle, zoomcar shall refund an amount equal to the cost of the unused hours of such booking.

I was supposed to get the refund for 5 hours 15 minutes o[censored]nused booking. But the funny part is i was charged for extra 7 hours as late charges.

Also i am charged by default without even my fault for break down 10000 rs. And when i tweeted about this, i was told that the charges will be updated in 3-5 days which was never done.

Now today i am given a notice that if i dont pay the amount which they have finalized just like that, including 10000 rs of damage charges which they never updated, and rs 3385 late charges, they will file a case on me. What is this kind of blackmail?

So now i have these questions to zoomcar :
Why was the number on app is not reachable
Image. Png

Why do the zoomcar executive at patna parking lot have enough knowledge or access to help people like me in these situations?
Even after taking the request at 8:20 pm my tow truck reached me after 7+ hours. When you have decided doing business in patna, why couldnt you arrange proper assistance.
Why was taxi not arranged for my parents, why dont you have a proper planned assistance? And when i was told to book the taxi myself then why didnt they send me the email for reimbursement? I had to pay rs 2600 to the local taxi to reach patna from arrah. As discussed on the call i ll need reimbursement for this.
The damage fees was added even before the car was towed. And i informed the customer care that the car stopped working automatically, i was not involved in any accident. Then how come i was told to pay for the damage. The car was not maintained properly, that is why the clutch system broke down. How can you ask the customer to pay for that.
When the car broke down at 6:15 pm, why am i being charged for late return. Why am i not getting refund for the unused hours.
I have attached screenshots of my tweets with zoomcar in the email.
I will ask zoomcar to review all these details and understand my side of problem. I have been a loyal zoomcar customer since long time and this was the worst experience i have had with zoomcar. I dont think i ll recommend anybody to use zoomcar if this is how you act in case of break downs.

If you think the charges are correct i will file a legal complaint against zoom car. The harassment i have gone through was too much and now you guys are blackmailing me.
Also i have call recordings of all the calls in my mobile as a proof.