Zoomcar — car rental fraud

Address: 7th Floor, Tower-B, Diamond District, 150, HAL Airport Road, Kodihalli, Bangalore 560008, India

Website: www.zoomcar.com/in/bangalore

Myself Abhishek Thawait. I booked Maruti Alto MT petrol, KA03NH5737, Booking Details - JPSNJ7EMA, for duration 4am, 27th April, 2024 to 4pm, 28th April, 2024, through Zoomcar.

The car owner Mr. Chandru Shekar contacted me through zoom app on 26th April at 18.35 sending me picture of a black car with broken bonnet. I called the owner right after that and asked the issue. He gave his personal phone number. Upon calling he mentioned that the booked car has met with an accident on afternoon of 26th April and wont be available for me next day. He ensured that he could provide another white Alto (KA50P8119) so that my planned trip is not affected. He continuously insisted me to cancel the trip on zoomcar, saying that he will provide another car instead of the booked car and I will have to pay only 2000Rs for the booked duration. He sent me pictures of white Alto showing that this car is available and is in good shape. But when I asked him to cancel the booking from his side, he said, he doesn't have any option to cancel the booking once placed by the customer. As he sounded genuine, I did cancel the booking. He asked me to come to his locality (address of which was given in the zoom app) on 27th April to pick the car and he said he will send me exact location upon arriving to the given address.

I spoke to him on 27th April at 5:32am, he asked to come to his locality and call him. Upon reaching to the location, I tried contacting him repeatedly through call (17 times) and whatsapp text and got no response whatsoever.

Soon I realized I have been scammed by the owner and thought of contacting zoomcar help, which did not work given the time of the incident. Later, I had to see for some other mode of travel which costed me more and also affected my trip.

The zoomcar doesn't have any customer care number in its website and apps making it difficult to lodge any complaint against owner. Also, once the booking was cancelled I could not see the text conversation between me and the owner within the platform.

The desirable resolution is the owner is removed from the platform and I should get remaining 50 percent refund of 1700Rs and another 2000Rs for arranging another transport for my trip.