Owner Sets Ola Electric Scooter On Fire After Waiting 7 Months For Battery Replacement [Video]
Ola electric scooters and their owners have a very weird relationship. They either love the scooter or they hate it. There is no in-between. We have come across several videos in the past where customers have faced issues since day one, and they have not been getting the desired resolution. Here we have a video of one such frustrated owner who set his Ola electric scooter on fire after the service center ignored his vehicle for over 7 months.
The video has been shared by Gulbarga Eagle Eye News on their YouTube channel. In this video, we see a person pushing the scooter out of the Ola service center and blocking the way in front of it. He brought petrol in a bottle, poured it on the scooter, and set it on fire. The service center staff did try to stop him but that was of no use. He set the scooter ablaze and the staff used a fire extinguisher to immediately douse the fire.
What is the Issue?
The customer bought an Ola S1 Pro electric scooter almost a year ago. Five months after purchase, he started facing issues with the scooter. The issue was with the battery and, upon inspection, it was found that the scooter’s battery had become fully discharged.
In their policy, Ola has clearly mentioned that there is no warranty on battery discharge. As of now, Ather is probably the only brand that offers warranty to customers even for battery discharge. In fact Ather has advertised the same on their website too. Once the issue was recognized, the owner of the scooter asked for a resolution, and the solution given was to pay Rs 30,000 for a battery replacement.
The customer had no other option but to agree. Out of desperation, he accepted it as he realized the company doesn’t cover deep discharge. Since the day he agreed, he has been waiting for a new battery pack.
The scooter has been stuck at the service center for almost 7 months now. The customer can be heard saying in the video that he has been contacting the service center manager regularly, and he gets the same response every time: “Come tomorrow.”
It is because of this irresponsible behavior that the customer lost his cool and decided to set the scooter on fire. He mentions that he is not the only one facing such issues with the service center. In fact, he says dozens of Ola scooters are parked outside the service center due to poor service. This is actually true and something most of us might have seen personally. Most Ola dealerships or experience centers have more scooters parked outside the dealership for repair than inside the showroom.
The poor service has been an issue since the beginning, and this is yet another example that proves the same. The customer also claims that the service center has been removing parts from vehicles with accidental damage and using them on other vehicles. This is probably done to ensure that issues are fixed at the earliest, but this is not the right way to fix them.
The owner of the Ola scooter in this video mentions that he has been paying EMIs for the last 7 months even without using the vehicle. He says that the Ola dealership staff is only nice to customers until they sell the scooter. Once the sale is done, the customer is completely at their mercy if any issue occurs.
Not the First Case
Ola scooters facing issues is not a new thing. The negligent attitude from the service center staff and the company itself has been discussed on various social media platforms. We have featured several instances in the past where hundreds of scooters were left negleglected by the service center.
Apart from getting neglected by the service center, the product also faces several issues. We have covered instances of power loss, failing to start and even the front forks breaking and fire on our website.
Bhavish Aggarwal and his team often come up with new models and concepts almost every year, but they ignore the existing issues and never take preemptive measures to fix them.
They ignore the problems in the product and blame the customers instead. While the brand makes tall promises, they fail to deliver, and we have seen several examples in the past that prove the same.