A lot has been happening in the world of Ola. Be it the recent share price fall of the company, the verbatim between comedian Kunal Kamra and Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, or the mounting complaints by consumers about Ola Electric’s service center.
Netizens have complained about Ola's delayed service center response, citing slow customer support and unresolved issues that leave electric bikes non-functional
A lot has been happening in the world of Ola. Be it the recent share price fall of the company, the verbatim between comedian Kunal Kamra and Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, or the mounting complaints by consumers about Ola Electric’s service center.
To add to it, on October 5, the company informed the exchanges that it’s Company Secretary and Compliance Officer Pramendra Tomar submitted his resignation. Tomar resigned from the company on October 1 with immediate effect due to personal reasons.
Singh wrote in his resignation letter, “I, Pramendra Tomar, hereby tender my resignation as Company Secretary and Compliance Officer (Key Managerial Personnel) under the SEBI (Listing Obligation and Disclosure Requirements) Regulation, 2015 and all other Statutory/ddesignated positions in the Company, with effect from the close of business hours on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 due to personal reasons and commitments.”
Ola Electric already has a history of high attrition rate. The company declared the same in the draft red herring prospectus, where the attrition rate was declared to be 47.48 per cent in the financial year 2023. No doubt the numbers are high. However, to put in the context of start-ups, it isn’t. Outlook Business reported earlier that the attrition rate of Zomato and Paytm was that of 41 per cent and 65 per cent.
Speaking about the attrition rate of the company, Aggarwal told Outlook Business earlier that it is not a matter of concern and it is mostly confined to the junior levels only. He said, “The core of our team is strong, and the team is motivated by our mission. We have a lot of junior agents at the front end of the company. This pushes up the attrition rate. As you move up to the corporate level, the attrition is low.”
While the attrition rate might not be a concern for the company, what becomes important is to look at the timing of the event. This is happening at a time when customers have been raging with complaints about the service center of Ola Electric. Additionally, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) also issued a show cause notice to the company. The company has been given a timeline of 15 days to respond to the same. The notice has been issued “for alleged violation of consumer rights, misleading advertisement, and unfair trade practices.”
Meanwhile, netizens have also complained about the delayed service center facility provided by Ola on social media platform X. The complaints range from delay in picking up calls from customer support to no adequate response from the service centre, which leads to the electric bikes being unfunctional.
A customer of Ola wrote on X, "Sir, my new vehicle stopped working just after taking delivery from the Ola showroom. Now Ola staff is telling me they will repair it. Have I paid the full amount for the repaired vehicle? I want a new replacement vehicle, or else give me a refund of my payment.”
Additionally, another customer wrote that their electric vehicle has been in the service center for the last five months and the manager is not responding to his call. Another user also wrote that their “S1X it broke down and has been in the workshop for 26 days with no updates.”
An extreme case of customer dissatisfaction was when a man from Karnataka, frustrated with the poor service of Ola, burned seven scooters in the showroom.
Following this, a police officer reportedly said, “He was frustrated over the fact that Ola staff had failed to address his complaints. He had an argument with them. When they did not pay any heed to his request, he burned the scooters.”
Customer complaints are something that Ola faced earlier as well. In November 2023, Reuters reported that Ola service centers had significant backlogs, with the repair time taking from two days to three weeks. Additionally, a recent report by Mint released in September this year points out that the company received as many as 80,000 complaints in a month. Some days, the number of complaints was as high as 6,000-7,000 a day.
Meanwhile, experts highlight that EV companies often face issues such as skill shortages and inadequate infrastructure. “The shortage of EV service centers is an industry-wide challenge, not limited to a single company. As EV demand grows, the supporting infrastructure has struggled to keep up, impacting several brands," says Ankit Sharma, co-founder & director, Vidyuta Materials Pvt. Ltd.
Sharma further highlights companies are addressing this by expanding their service networks and launching innovative solutions like mobile servicing units to improve accessibility. For example, Tata Power has collaborated with HPCL to expand EV service networks across fuel stations, making service centers more reachable.
Sharma also adds that while service delays can raise concerns, consumer confidence in EVs remains strong due to environmental benefits and shifting consumer preferences. As per data from Vahan, EV sales in India grew from 702,013 units in H1 of 2023-24 to 836,621 units in the first half of 2024-25.
Coming back to Ola, discussions about the company’s poor quality of its service centers increased after comedian Kunal Kamra wrote about the same on social media platform X and also tagged union minister Nitin Gadhkari on the same. “Do Indian consumers have a voice? Do they deserve this? Two wheelers are many daily wage workers lifeline,” wrote Kamra. The comedian also suggested that Ola should give a 100 per cent refund to people who purchased Ola Electric in the last four months.
This soon became a heated discussion between Kamra and Aggarwal. The Ola CEO suggested that Kamra come to his service center and help them out, and he would pay the comedian better than his flop shows. While Kamra highlighted that Ola is allegedly mistreating Indian customers in a manner similar to how some unscrupulous Chinese firms have exploited African consumers.
Meanwhile, recently, Ola Electric’s market share also dropped to 27 per cent in September. This is a significant drop from the 49 per cent market share it held in the first quarter of FY25, as per data from Vahan. What remains to be seen is how the company navigates its challenges as the competition intensifies in the EV market.