A viral video on social media shows a frustrated man hammering away at his Ola Electric scooter in the middle of a road after the showroom allegedly issued a Rs 90,000 bill to his name. The customer, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans can be seen thrashing the e-scooter, laid down in front of the Ola showroom as the passers-by record the incident. “The showroom made a bill of Rs 90,000, the customer got upset and broke the scooter in front of the showroom,” read the video caption.

Social media users slammed Ola for not taking care of its customers who have criticised the services offered by the company in recent months.

“If you will not listen to your customers and fix their problems, you will not succeed in any business,” said one user, while another added: “No consumer should ever face this plight. Most folks buying two-wheelers are either middle-class or lower-middle-class. It is usually their first vehicle and also their lifeline. Sad to see such incidents!”

As of the last update, the video had received over 930,000 views and hundreds of comments from angry users. However, Ola had not issued any statement, clarifying its position.

शोरूम ने 90000 का बनाया बिल ग्राहक ने परेशान होकर शोरूम के सामने ही तोड़ दी स्कूटी
– सोशल मीडिया पर वायरल हुआ वीडियो.#ola#OlaScooter#viralvideo#ViralVideos#socialmedia#Nedricknews@OlaElectricpic.twitter.com/7JPPtRSf9E

— Nedrick News (@nedricknews) November 22, 2024

Notably, in September earlier this year, a 26-year-old man was arrested for allegedly setting fire to an Ola Electric showroom in the southern state of Karnataka, over the unsatisfactory servicing of a recently-purchased Ola e-scooter. The accused, identified as Mohammad Nadeem, started facing servicing issues, a few days after purchasing the scooter, which led him to torching the showroom.

Video: Ola Showroom Set On Fire In Karnataka By Disgruntled Customer

Ola to lay off employees

Over the last few months, several reports have emerged, suggesting that the Ola service centres face a significant backlog. The staff is facing difficulty in dealing with the volume of complaints. While the issues mount, Ola is set to lay off at least 500 employees as part of a restructuring exercise, according to an IANS report.

Led by Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola is aiming to boost its operational efficiency by reducing redundancies and “drive profitability”, through the sackings. The electric vehicle (EV) company reported a 43 per cent increase in net loss at Rs 495 crore in the July-September period (Q2 FY25), from Rs 347 crore in the previous quarter (Q1 FY25).

The two-wheeler company also saw its revenue slump 26.1 per cent to Rs 1,214 crore (on-quarter) from Rs 1,644 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal.

An Ola scooter caught fire outside a showroom of the company in Bengaluru, shows a video, now in wide circulation on social media. In the video, shared on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) by Congress spokesperson Lavanya Ballal Jain, an Ola scooter is seen on fire on a road right outside the company’s showroom as onlookers make videos. The incident reportedly happened in Bengaluru’s BTM layout locality near Jayadev Hospital. 

Just another fiery day in the life of ola scooter ownerpic.twitter.com/sKADZBZwRB

— Lavanya Ballal Jain (@LavanyaBallal) October 24, 2024

People did not leave a chance to troll Ola for its allegedly faulty scooters. In response to the video, some called OLA CEO Bhavish Aggarwal a “scamster,” while others jokingly called this incident Ola’s “special Diwali feature.”

One user wrote, “That’s Ola’s corporate diwali party” and another asked if Ola was “Preparing for Diwali Dhamaka?”

Ola is already receiving flak for its alleged substandard service to the customers who have bought the company’s scooter. However, yesterday, Ola Electric announced that 99.1% of all customers’ complaints have been resolved to their satisfaction. This came after the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) sent a show-cause notice to the company on October 7 regarding thousands of complaints against their scooters and non-satisfactory resolutions at their service centres. 

Nidhi Khare, Secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs had said in a statement, “The CCPA is looking into a large number of complaints about Ola Electric, mainly related to service inefficiencies. We hope the company addresses these concerns promptly and resolves the issues faced by consumers.” 

In response to this notice, Ola Electric’s Chief Financial Officer Harish Abhichandani has said, “We wish to reiterate that Ola Electric has a robust mechanism to address complaints concerning our vehicles. In fact, we want to emphasize that out of the 10,644 complaints we received from the CCPA, 99.1% were resolved to the complete satisfaction of the customer as per Ola Electric’s comprehensive redressal mechanism.”

OLA CEO Bhavish Aggarwal also got into an online spat with comedian Kunal Kamra earlier this month after the latter called out the company’s non-satisfactory customer service and shared a photo of several scooters parked outside an Ola service centre. In response to this, Bhavish Aggarwal told Kunal Kamra to “come and help us out” or “sit quiet” and also called him a “failed” comedian. Kunal Kamra recently reshared on X some posts by customers claiming that Ola has hired bouncers at its customer service centres.