Bengaluru Man Calls Zoomcar "Straight-Up Scam", Company Responds

A man from Bengaluru recently shared his horrifying experience with Zoomcar. He took to X and said that the company "defrauds customers". He also said that they are not accountable and slammed the brand for "collecting money." The company took to their X (formerly Twitter) account on April 12 and explained the reason for rejecting the user's profile. They said that the "profile verification was rejected for uploading a picture of one person and the driving license of another."

"We don't allow guests with failed profile verifications to begin their trip keeping the safety of both guests and hosts to avoid misuse of our services. Your full refund was processed when you cancelled the booking and shall be credited in the next 7-10 days. Please book with the right documents next time for a smooth booking experience," they added. 

"Zoomcar has a crazy way to defraud customers, and it's straight-up a scam. Here's how it works. Once you pay up, they add the caveat of verification. Not before. AFTER you pay. And if the verification fails, there's no way to get in touch with anyone and resolve it. This is despite having a Driving License, Aadhaar and all the relevant documents," Adithya Venkatesan wrote on X on April 10.

He added, "It's a solid dark pattern that makes Zoomcar 'collect' money, and not be accountable for what ensues. Then, they just disappear And you can't get this money refunded either."

Mr Venkatesan said that the company does not have " a hassle-free way to contact customer support." "Given the friction between car owners and customers, this is the very least they can do. More so when their tech is so inferior, and it's near impossible to navigate the Rube Goldberg that's their app," he continued.

The social media user said that their service is the "worst" he has ever seen and urged people to not choose the company. "This is typical of someone who does not care for the customer, or their anxiety while planning a trip that involves their car. It's irresponsible, and one of the worst user flows I've seen. Don't ever choose Zoomcar," he concluded.

The company took note of the user's complaint and said that they rejected his profile since they "observed a discrepancy between the face on your driver's license." They added, "Since you've cancelled the booking, a full refund has automatically been initiated and should reflect in your source account within the next 5-7 business days."

Meanwhile, the co-founder and CEO of Zoomcar Greg Moran said, "As a Nasdaq-listed company, we uphold rigorous standards of safety and integrity in all aspects of our operations and it is non negotiable. Customer verification plays a pivotal role in the well-being of both our guests and hosts community ensuring a secure environment for everyone involved. Failure to do so leads to a booking cancellation with automatic refund which takes 7-10 days. We are fully committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of our customers, and we will continue to prioritise their safety and security above all else."

Since being shared, Mr Venkatesan's post has amassed a lot of reactions from users.

"I've had a pathetic experience once. The car was just not there and there was no one to contact. Customer care didn't help at all," said a person.

Another wrote, "I have had terrible experience twice. Never using zoom car again."

"Moved away from it and realized that it's actually pretty easy to find driving rentals in every city. A lot cheaper and hassle free without a clunky app interface," added a person.

A user said, "Zoomcar is horrible. Have had good experiences with Revv"

"This company needs to be shutdown and people running this company booked for fraud," commented a user.

An X user wrote, "It used to be the best at one point of time. Used zoom cars across India and they were good. But now it's the worst service."