The electric two-wheeler startup has had numerous ups and downs in its relatively nascent lifetime
Ola Electric has received a show cause notice from the Central Consumer Protection Authority. In recent times, we have seen innumerable cases of Ola scooter owners complaining about unsatisfactory services at the workshops. In fact, during the monsoons recently, customers were not able to book a slot to get their electric scooters serviced. We saw dozens of scooters lined up outside the service centres. Taking all these matters into consideration, the electric startup is facing legal issues. Here are the details.
Ola Electric Receives Show Cause Notice
The Central Consumer Protection Authority has provided a 15-day timeframe for Ola to respond to the show cause notice. To this, the company has agreed to respond within the given timeframe along with supporting documents. Furthermore, Ola confirms that the same information will be available on the company’s website for full transparency. As per a Hindu report, the notice is for alleged violations of consumer rights, misleading advertisements, and unfair trade practices. We have seen Ola creating a buzz online with their advertisements highlighting the key attractions of the electric scooters.
This notice surfaced after the recent public criticism of Ola’s customer service. In fact, the company’s CEO Bhavish Agarwal was also involved in an online banter with popular comedian Kunal Kamra over the service issues with electric scooters. Despite all this, Ola claims that this notice won’t have any impact on its financial, operational or other activities. It remains to be seen how things pan out after this show cause notice.
My View
I have been reporting about the service issues and quality assurance concerns pertaining to Ola electric scooters for a long time now. In fact, we all have seen the EV owners expressing their terrible experiences with servicing at Ola workshops on social media for months. We understand that Ola might be working to take care of these problems. But the fact remains that there are simply not enough Ola service centres to deal with service and repair activities in a timely manner. That is something that Ola will hopefully improve rapidly. For now, let us wait and see further developments in this regard.
