Ola Electric founder and CMD Bhavish Aggarwal during an interview with PTI, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
A war of words broke out between Ola founder Bhavish Agarwal and stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on Sunday (October 6, 2024) on social media platform X over the after sales and service quality of the company’s electric scooters.
It started when Mr. Kamra responded to a post on X by Mr. Agarwal, who posted a photo of Ola’s gigafactory, by putting a picture of several Ola Electric scooters parked together seemingly waiting for servicing.
“Do Indian consumers have a voice? Do they deserve this? Two wheelers are many daily wage workers lifeline …,” Mr. Kamra wrote along with the photo.
He tagged Union Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari, asking: “Is this how Indians will get to using EV’s?” The comedian also tagged the official handle of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India @jagograhakjago, seeking an answer saying “any word?” Mr. Kamra further wrote, “Anyone who has an issue with OLA electric leave your story below tagging all…”.
To this Mr. Agarwal responded, “Since you care so much @kunalkamra88, come and help us out! I’ll even pay more than you earned for this paid tweet or from your failed comedy career. Or else sit quiet and let us focus on fixing the issues for the real customers.”
He further said, “We’re expanding service network fast and backlogs will be cleared soon.”
To the “failed comedy career” remark by Mr. Agarwal, Mr. Kamra responded by posting a video clip of one of his shows with audience clapping and cheering and called the Ola Electric founder and CMD “arrogant and substandard”.
In response, Mr. Agarwal said, “Chot lagi? Dard hua? Aaja service center. Bahut kaam Hai. (Did it hurt. It’s very less. Come to service center). I will pay better than your flop shows pay you.”
Mr. Kamra then challenged Agarwal to “give a total refund to anyone who wants to return their OLA EV & who’s purchased it in the last four months”, saying he doesn’t need his money but “people not being able to get to their workplace need your accountability”.
“Show your customers that you truly care,” Mr. Kamra asserted.
Mr. Agarwal hit back saying, “We have enough programs for our customers if they face service delays. If you were a genuine one, you would have known. Again, don’t try and back out of this. Come and do some real work rather than armchair criticism.”
Many Ola Electric consumers jumped into the spat and complained about the service quality of the company, asking Mr. Agarwal to address their issues.
Published – October 07, 2024 01:04 am IST
