Zoom self drive cars Bangalore-Experience and Feedback - eNidhi India Travel Blog

Zoom self drive cars Bangalore-Experience and Feedback

Updated Sep 28th, 2013:
Zoom fleet now includes BMW 320d, Scorpio 8 seater, Vento trendline petrol automatic and Mahindra E20. They also have refined the process a lot since inception.


Updated May 15th: Rented a Scorpio again from Zoom. This time the process was relatively better.
 
Updated April 21st: I've received an official email from Zoom's co founder Greg Moran, clarifying on some of the points mentioned here. I've updated the post with his comments under corresponding sections.

--------------- Original Post -------------------------------------

Zoom cars is a relatively new entrant to self drive car business scene in India and with innovative strategies, they’ve already gained good reputation and popularity. This post is my review of their service, as experienced during my recent self drive booking.


Self drive rentals in India is not a happy scene. Established players like Avis, Hertz, Autoriders etc continue to reduce their self drive fleet and focus more on corporate customers. They don’t find giving out cars to individuals lucrative enough. There’re many private players who rent out regular white board cars. Both have their pros and cons. My previous articles on self drive: Kannada article in Vijaya Next * Self drive in India
I came to know about Zoomcar.in recently. [I don't own a car and keep an eye open for nice cars that I can rent]. Unlike other car rental agencies with a traditional website which hardly had any functionality, Zoom car website was very informative and interactive. It had actual photos of the car, showed its current location on map, showed its availability by the hour and so on. This, coupled with the options of new cars at low rentals, prompted me to try them out- rent a car and go somewhere, even if I had no particular travel plan as such. [We went to Kokkare Bellur and other places around Bangalore]

Unlike any other agency in India, Zoom car offers rentals by hour and also pays for fuel (Conditions apply). There’s a per km charge once you exceed pre-defined limit. This works out very well for short trips, but be sure to do your calculations before long trips. [Per km diesel cost will be Rs 3 for Figo assuming 16kmpl]

Zoom car Bangalore- current self drive rentals
Vehicle: Ford Figo ZXi (2013): 7 brand new Figos are there in their fleet: Rs 199 per hour or Rs 1999 per day. Rs 8 per km after initial 200 kms, fuel expenses reimbursed
Vehicle: Mahindra Scorpio LX (2013): 3 cars: Rs 249 per hour or Rs 2499 per day. Rs 12 per km after initial 200 kms, fuel expenses reimbursed

Other than Zoom, no other agencies in India pays for fuel. They (all companies other than Zoom) give full tank and expect us to return full tank. Few of them unlimited KM offer if rented for 3 days or more and usually enforce a per day usage limit of 150-350kms beyond which a per km charge is levied.
2 Zoom Figo Zxi s at their pickup point
Good things about Zoomcars
1. A very responsive, functional and interactive web page
2. Equally brilliant app for mobile devices
3. Rent by hours- All other players rent out for one day minimum, while with Zoom, you can rent a car for couple of hours- when you need it for a quick visit or airport pickup or other short term activities
4. Latest cars. Though the options are limited to Figo and Scorpio, cars are pretty new
5. Very responsive customer care. On a Sunday morning when I called them, they attended the call and also called back promptly at times

My experience with Zoom cars self drive experience

Booking self drive car in Bangalore with Zoom cars: Booking was smooth. Except that the website was not accepting non-Karnataka addresses for billing. Customer care asked me to enter a tentative address in Bangalore, since their site is not yet integrated with payment gateway.

Update: Zoom Official Response: This should hopefully be fully in place within the very near future. We understand that this is a minor nuisance in this interim period.  At least this workaround was effective.  On the payment gateway front, we expect it will be completed in the next 10 days (we had a slight regulatory delay, but now it's all squared away).  

There was no cancellation fee and I could modify the booking as needed. 
Update: Zoom Official Response: Full fee will be charged if cancelled within 24 hours

However, the modification couldn't be done online- the site didn't allow me to extend the booking saying I can do so only after my booking commenced. This meant I either had to cancel the booking and make fresh booking OR take delivery of the car and then request an extension OR call customer care to extend.
Update: Zoom Official Response: This will be taken care soon (extending the booking online)

Taking delivery of the car: The location shown on map and actual locations were some 3-4kms apart. I didn't know the short cut that connects Malleshwaram to Brigate gateway Rajaji Nagar. I went to Orion Mall first- no one there knew about Zoom cars. After couple of phone calls, I took an exit near Brigade school and reached Zoom car pickup point which was a small counter near the compound. Anyway, this is a one off experience. Now I know how to go there easily.

Update: Zoom Official Response: we've actually since fixed this bug.  The issue was that the 3 new Figos that we had added that week we're entered with a latitude/longitude error (address was correct, but map was showing a different location).  This has since been remedied.  Apologies for the inconvenience here. 

Paper work was minimal- no swiping credit card to block the amount, so giving physical documents for security, no cheques. Sign one paper and you're ready to zoom off.

The car: The car was clean, brand new with only 660kms on the odo. I was given all documents and briefed about the car. Fairly professional. Car had a proximity sensor which was good value add. It also had a GPS device, which was frequently screaming out that it is running on trial version of the software. I couldn't effectively use it. Click here to read the review of Ford Figo ZXi.

The return: I had booked till 4 PM, got it extended till 8PM. At 2PM, we were done with whatever we had planned to visit. I called Zoom customer care from Kanakapura to ask if there's any penalty if I return early. I was told there's no penalty. Eventually I returned to Bangalore and reached Brigade Gateway by 4.10 PM. The counter was empty, (I guess because they weren't expecting any customer). I called the customer care and the fleet guys arrived in about 10 mins. But my invoice was for till 8 PM. I am fine with that since nothing extra was charged for excess kms.

Invoicing: Could have been better.I returned the car on Sunday 4.30 PM  and 24 hours since then I don’t have a clue how much they’d charge me. There’s a daily and hourly rent, per km charge, charges for damage if any etc. Monday afternoon I called their customer care to ask when can I expect the invoice. The staff said they are not aware of a timeline for this and offered to take a request if I need invoice urgently. I got my invoice on Tuesday evening. Invoice didn’t have a breakup of the total amount- daily rent, hourly rent, per km charge, charges for damages if any etc. This break up would have helped identifying if there’s any discrepancy.
 
The invoice had a link and I had to click on it to make payment. I made the payment next morning. As a customer I lose nothing if invoicing is delayed, but the business may suffer because not all customers will be that prompt. All businesses expect some payment in advance or block the amount on credit card to be safe. I was expecting something similar from Zoom. Otherwise customers may delay payments and Zoom team will have to spend lot of energy chasing people for money. I learn that Zoom is in the process of integrating payment gateway within the website, so above might be an interim arrangement, considering Zoom is only few months old. Also to be noted that Zoom might become vulnerable to anti social elements- rowdies taking the car out, using for illegal activities, not returning on time and threatening fleet guys if questioned. A person faced same situation in Chennai, sold off his self drive cars and returned to US. I hope zoom takes necessary precautions and performs well.

Other feedbacks and comments
  • I made couple of comments at their blog, they’re not approved even after a week. I guess they’re not focusing much on blogs now. Another idea to improve the blogs will be to seek photos and travel experience from their customers- this will ensure steady source of fresh, personal contents and photos for the blog. Such customers can be given some discount for future booking.
  • Update: Zoom Official Response: Our blog is being revamped and will be active soom
  • Website doesn’t seem to remember user credentials properly. Despite asking the system to remember my details, I had to enter user name, password repeatedly to use the website
  • I feel Zoom could have introduced some variations while buying new cars- All 7 Figos are ZXis and All 3 Scorpios are LX. Now I do understand that having same model makes it easy and cheap to maintain, but I am sure customers will enjoy having more options at their disposal. If I am to buy 10 cars, I would have bought different cars and different models. Couple of Figo titaniums, which have airbag and other additional features- if added- could have excited some customers who wouldn’t mind paying a few rupees more in rental for these extra features. Scorpio automatic would have been useful to those not familiar with manual transmission. Basic variant- Figo EXi can save some money. One ford Classic and One Fiesta would have given more choice to people. But again, this is my personal preference. I am sure Zoom people had their own rationale for choosing the cars they’ve chosen. I read they’d soon seek funding to introduce more cars to the fleet and I am eagerly waiting.
  • Need to have a better pickup/delivery place. The current pickup place behind Brigade Gateway/Orion Mall near Rajaji nagar is a small counter and some open space. May not be convenient during rains. Zoom should consider moving to a better place where customers can sit and wait for sometime if required, have some space to park their bikes may be and other amenities. Of course, this will cost money and may take time. I am only suggesting this as future action, not demanding it immediately.
  • Website has US server timings. Will be good if it can show Indian time for bookings made etc
  • Update: Zoom Official Response: This will be taken care soon 
  • Return date calendar can be automated to show days after pickup date. I.e. if I select 10 july as pickup date, return date calendar popup can have all days upto 10th July disabled and show July 2013 by default.
  • I feel instead of paying for fuel, better to give cash discount and let customer pay for fuel. This is because, in current model a user has no motive to save fuel by driving economically. He may use full AC when not necessary, might drive at speeds that may not give optimal efficiency and so on. 
Also read: An article on Zoom by yourstory.in
Monkey jumping off Zoom Figo
Will I rent from Zoomcar again? Yes, definitely. Have booked the Scorpio next for a day.

Zoom also planning to introduce Mahindra e20, BMW 3 series, X1 and other models soon.

Also watch out for their weekday offer.

You may also wish to read my articles on why renting a car is better than buying * Read this before buying an SUV * SUV purchase- Financial calculations * Chennai-Mysore in Skoda

If you're registering at their website http://www.zoomcar.in please use the referral code X9PDcd

74 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Great Experience!!!
    Brand new Cars with Such a low rentals on self drive... great!!

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  3. Yes. also note that post is now updated with Zoom's official reply to some of the comments

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  4. Hi there, I'm a journalist tracking Zoom's progress and working on an article about the company. What's this story about a person in Chennai starting a similar self-drive company and then quitting? I'd love any more information if you have it.

    Thanks!
    Maya

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  5. I had a horrible experience with Zoom today morning. My brother (A Photographer) was in Bangalore for a short trip and wanted to go to some outskirts of Bangalore to capture some early morning moments of the pleasant weather of Bangalore. I called Zoom Cars on Thursday evening and asked them the procedure since I had to book a car within a short time for him. I had my own driver with me (which I informed the call centre). The guy assisted me in registering me on their website and also guided me on how to book the slot and also to make payment. He also told me that the licence should be uploaded on their site - which I did instantly. The booking was for two days (Saturday early morning 4.00 AM till Sunday night 10.00 PM). I called Zoom again on Friday evening and reconfirmed the booking with them. I also told them that I will come along with my brother and the driver to pick the car.

    We started from our place at 3.00 AM & I reached the spot at 4.45 AM and to my surprise he did not give the car until I had the original licence. I told the executive that I will give you the licence but he can release the car with my brother and the driver and He can come with me to BG road and validate the licence. I spoke to the call centre and the staff was very unprofessional. They just kept on repeating the same thing that it is a company policy (like a parrot). Unfortunately after 30 minutes of discussion I cancelled the booking and they charged me 25% of my booking amount without giving me the car. During my entire coarse of interaction no body from Zoom told me that I have to bring the original licence. They kept on saying that it is mentioned on the webpage of Zoom.

    Ultimately my brother had to cancel his entire plan as he had to fly back to Scotland on Monday. Overall a horrible experience.

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  6. Hi Vinsil

    I completely understand your situation and the frustration it causes. Of course Zoom could have reminded you to bring original license or you could have carried it to be safe.

    But on the other side, we should understand their concern also- on what basis they should hand over keys of a 5-6 lakh+ worth car at 5AM if they can't verify your identity? What if someone else had collected it claiming to be you?

    Will be good if Zoom CC can give a reminder call to first time customers and mention the procedure/requirement say 1 day before the rental.

    Hope this is a one off incident and won't repeat.

    Also now they're operating from 4-5 locations. if one chooses a pickup point closer home, it should take only few minutes to go home and get the missing document.

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  7. hi,

    am encouraged by reading your blog ,
    infact i have booked a fordfigo f2 From zoom this weekend for a trip to Wayanad. , could you kindly advise the RTO Entry charges , and where is this RTO located?
    regards
    Prashanth

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  8. Hi

    I am not aware of any such fee to enter Wayanad. However, expect the guys at checkpost to ask money for coffee...

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  9. have used zooms service to travel to Wayanad , it was a pleasant experience, please note you need to pay entry tax which is RS.200
    when you enter the border at the RTO Check post.

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  10. Thanks for sharing your experience Prashant. 5 years since I went to Wayanad.. should visit again

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  11. hi guys,
    We had a great drive experience with the car that zoom provide, ford figo.
    they are friendly, as far as i know no hidden charges.
    although we had everything good, but for andhrapradesh, RTO charges for black board if u dont have license for commercial vehicles(separate transport license)
    they charge 1500 extra apart from 2690 yearly tax, even though we showed "RENT A CAB SCHEME ACT".

    But zoom executive (KRISHNA) understanding that's AP fault of not understanding the laws, they reimbursed the whole 4150 to us.

    I suggest Zoom to take care of that and we had excellent backend support & friendly.... I would recommend to my friends too..

    Thank you.

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  12. Hi Manju Arvind
    Thanks for sharing your experience.

    Earlier there was a line in Zoom policy that they will reimburse AP permit fees. I don't find that text now. Also they used to have a tag "KA Use only" for vehicles not yet registered for interstate use.

    Read this post to understand interstate permit fees http://www.enidhi.net/2014/05/interstate-tourist-taxi-permit-mafia.html

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  13. Hi,

    I am making a presentation for my academics on the challenges faced by the service companies. And i chose ZOOM CARS as the company to analyse. The blog is very informative. But i wanted to know what are the real time challenges that this company is facing in india right now. Please help.

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  14. I wanted a honest feedback about the company. I see everything good written by almost everyone. I think there is some one who is deleting bad customer experience post or this site is managed by zoomcar.

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  15. @Nasim: Be assured that there hasn't been any negative comments about Zoom so far here. There were some concerns when they announced Rs 5000 deposit scheme and few stray incidents of inconveniences (like customer not bringing DL etc)), but by and large the response is fully positive...

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  16. Whats the customer care email id for zoomcar. Have emailed to support@zoomcar...but no response...called the cust care nos but unable to connect after a long long wait....online chat on their site doesnt seem to work...

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  17. Zoom cars provide a 3rd class service .

    I recently booked a vento for a trip to tirupati and 5 -6 hrs before booking time a guy from zoom called and said that the car doesn't have right side mirror (driver side mirror) and asked me if i am still ok to take it .

    This is a ridiculous question , i denied and i was given another vento (which has mirrors) , but front left side tyre and another tyre on a back wheel were blunt (the car was wobbling during high speed drives)

    This clearly shows that they do not take good care of their cars / spend on their car before the trip .

    When i boarded the car the GPS phone was totally out of charge and the fleet exec said that it will be charged when i am on the run

    Later i found that their GPS system was not getting charged at all because of a loose pin on phone (even manually holding it tight did not help ) and i had to drive without GPS the entire trip.

    I had to argue with the fleet exec when returning the car and he said that i should have informed the cc abt this problem . (what difference does that make , they cannot replace/repair the phone when i am on the road )

    Their customer care does not want to accept the mistake and i received only ignorance from them.

    will never book zoom cars again

    Very very bad 3rd class service

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  18. Had a terrible experience with zoom cars, Bangalore
    I hired a BMW from Zoom cars on 24th November 2014 from 7pm-11pm which I further extended by 4 more hours. Following are the inconveniences caused by them –
    1. I got the car late by one hour (i.e 8.05pm)
    2. The number plate in the front of the car was broken.
    3. Due to the broken number plate, the traffic police in the city market caught me twice & I had to explain them everything producing all the documents, wasting my 30-40 mins of time.
    4. While we were on a drive on NICE road (viz. 30kms from the city), the car started making harsh noises & stopped
    5. I complained to the zoom cars support line & after explaining everything to them, they sent a car to pick us up after 1 hour of wait in middle of the road at 3am in the morning.
    6. Later I & the manager named Mr. John had a talk on phone & Mr. John promised me to payback the whole amount without charging me anything due to all the above inconveniences.
    7. Its been 10 days now & even after regular follow ups, calls & pain, not even a single rupee is refunded back to me yet. I talked to various Executives Sam, Bijosh, Reshma, Mahesh etc, all of them promise to resolve my issue in 24-48 hours but no one even calls me back to give an update.
    8. Now from 2 days I am trying to call their Bangalore helpline No. 080-42275655 & no one attends the call.
    I am filing a complaint on consumer court.
    Booking ID: JPS6EFGEQ
    Reg email ID: santoshhbb@gmail.com

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  19. @Santosh: That was unfortunate. They usually address customer complaints fairly well. Earlier there were just a few cars, locations and customers. Now that they operate in multiple cities and about half a thousand cars, it will be a challenge to maintain same level of customer service. I hope they do not fail on this aspect.

    Did you try posting the concern on the facebook page?

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  20. @Arun Kumar:

    Unfortunate. I am told that of all their cars, Vento needs highest maintenance expenditure

    Lot of time it depends on the previous customer. if previous renter returns car in bad shape, team may not have enough time to get it fixed. But I think they should keep some good cars as backup cars just in case of this kind of requirements.

    For GPS, one should be able to use the map service on our smartphones as a backup. The tablets are not designed to be kept in a moving vehicle. After sometime, either the holders fair or tablets get damaged due to heavy usage.

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  21. @kaif: Support@zoomcar.in

    Try posting a msg on their facebook page

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  22. Recently used the service. Scorpio was good. Everything as expected. Rate was good, worth it. Ground crew service was pathetic, very rude and impolite when i went to take the car. Also i didnt get the fuel reimbursed as promised, kept the bill in the toolbox only like they asked, i guess they lost the bill. everything else was good. Customer care support was average. Didnt get good response. Now they are the only player in the sector i guess. Hope they would improve their service in future.

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  23. Anon: They are not the only player. there's carzonrent and few other players as well

    Probably the staff who interacted with you were new or something. Not all their staff are bad.

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  24. Extremely unethical and unprofessional behaviour.
    We had booked a Scorpio for 24 Jan 2015 and out of the blue you get a mail stating the booking has been cancelled 3 days in advance (i.e on 21st) with no reasons. Completely upset the holiday plans.

    Even to talk to the customer care to find out the cause you have to wait for long hours . The agents don't even respond properly or connect to higher authority.

    Extremely disappointed and will never choose this as an option for any holiday plans that i make in future.

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  25. Really had a bad experience with zoom car from my first drive....

    I booked zoom car on 20.01.2015 for 02 days from 25.01.2015 - 27.01.2015 in bangalore...on a sudden got a message that my booking had been cancelled due to some unforeseen circumstances.....really a bad thing.....

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  26. Really had a bad expeience with zoom car from my first drive itseld...

    I booked on zoomcar for first time on 20.01.2015 for 02 days from 25.01.2015 - 27.01.2015....on a sudden got a message that my booking cancelled due to some unforeseen circumstances....really a bad experience... even mee tooo will not opt for holiday plan from zoom anymore....cheaters.....

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  27. Thanks Sonali & James for sharing your experiences. As they grow bigger they should put extra effort to sustain quality.

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  28. Hey whats happening? Why is Zoom not allowing any booking from bangalore location? Any one has any idea?

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  29. Hi

    This is the reply I got from Zoom

    Dear Shrinidhi,

    Greetings from ZoomCar !

    In reference with your query, we are sorry to let you know that there has been some major technical glitch in our server from past 3 days, due to which calls are not getting connected and even the vehicles are unavailable to book, our tech team have been working on this issue which will be fixed shortly, hope that it will be fixed by end of the day so that our customers can book the vehicles.


    Feel free to reach us for further queries.

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  30. Zoom Car needs more care to be taken.I rented a figo which was not having cleaned properly.Charger was not working and tab was out of battery.i found very difficult to find the route and charge my phones.these are the basic things a car should have.i don't understand what is there in taking a self driven car in such a worst condition.Rented travels car would come for the same price in bangalore.kindly look into all these small issues and retain your customers zoom car.

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  31. Hmm, hope they work on these aspects and maintain quality despite massive growth

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  32. Hi My name is Rohit. I have planned to book a car one day before starting my journey but unfortunately only car is available that is 15 km from my place. My booking is on around 7AM and when I called to concercerned operator that I will be late for 1-2 hours, and asked him not give the car to anyone. Also I had a car number. After half an hour I got a call that car has been also assigned to someone else, so that car is not available, you can come to our station, we will arrange different car for you. So, I have explicitly asked him many times that we will get the car or not becuase I have to travel such a long distance. And also I was keep on calling 2-3 times during on my way. and he was telling we will arrange for you so don't worry. When we reached over there, the scenario was completely different. He denied to give a car. We were stucked in between. I tried to call customer care many times, after being tried to 4-5 times, they picked and I explained the scenarios. they were still telling me that we will provide you the car. But After waiting 1 hour in the road, I got a call from them and they told that they dont have any car. All my plan were cancelled with too much of harrassment. I don't what is the meaning of booking then as they did to me. Then I got the call from customer care that I will be refunded all the money with 500 rupees extra. Now its almost 10 days over. I didn't get a single penny. All my amount with registration fees around 7000 has gone. I have called them several times they are not picking my call. Once they picked and told me that you will get a call from us that day itslef. But I didn't get any call.
    Now, finally I have decided to go to the consumer forum.
    Never Never go with Zoom car. They are providing Very very bad service.
    You can contact me on rohitsinghal4u@gmail.com

    As they have already irritated me a lot. I will leave them as it is.

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  33. Hello this avinash from Banglore.we friends are planning to visit gokarna and murudeshwa for a 3 day trip..so we need a five seater car from Zoom car's..and approximate travelling distance is 1300 kms..so would you please tell us how much would that cost..
    Contact : avinasha86@gmail.com

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  34. There are more self drive car rental services coming up in bangalore. I rented a Tata Indigo via http://shareup.in for a weekend trip to Mysore and it was a hassle free experience.

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  35. @Brijesh:
    Thanks for sharing. Looks like a cheaper option, but was it a white board car when you rented? or proper yellow on black?

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  36. Hi

    For three days, you get fuel worth 720kms only. After that 12-15Rs per km depending on vehicle.
    Rent also depends on weekday/weekend. You can use Zoomcar’s tariff calculator.
    For a Figo it will be Approx Rs 7200 (Weekend rate * 3 days) + 7200 (Rs 12 * 600kms), which is close to 14-15k

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  37. I made a booking for 25th May - Eco-sport in Chennai for 4:15 to 10:15. Total money paid - 5660(inclusive of 5000 refund - which I never received).


    I did not receive any refund and I gave a call to customer care on 30th June and they said they are initiating the refund process now(after 5 days of booking), and it will be refunded in 5-15 days (This is just too long), I followed up on 4th June with customer care and they said they have initiated the process on 3rd June. (contrary to the last statement where they said it has been initiated on 30th May). I asked them to escalate, and then the new guy says they are initiating it now (contrary to the last girl who said it was initiated on 3rd June).

    After all the hassle they tell me that they were trying to track the vehicle and since we have driven 58kms extra 870rs will be deducted and we will be refunded by 4130 instead of 5000. I am not angry at the fact they are charging additional money but the fact that we drove the vehicle on 25th May and on 4th June after many complaints regarding refund they tell us there is an additional amount that will be deducted. NOTE - it does not take 10 days to calculate the total kms driven by tracking a vehicle on GPS

    Not sure if they will ever refund the amount!!.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I made a booking for 25th May - Eco-sport in Chennai for 4:15 to 10:15. Total money paid - 5660(inclusive of 5000 refund - which I never received).


    I did not receive any refund and I gave a call to customer care on 30th June and they said they are initiating the refund process now(after 5 days of booking), and it will be refunded in 5-15 days (This is just too long), I followed up on 4th June with customer care and they said they have initiated the process on 3rd June. (contrary to the last statement where they said it has been initiated on 30th May). I asked them to escalate, and then the new guy says they are initiating it now (contrary to the last girl who said it was initiated on 3rd June).

    After all the hassle they tell me that they were trying to track the vehicle and since we have driven 58kms extra 870rs will be deducted and we will be refunded by 4130 instead of 5000. I am not angry at the fact they are charging additional money but the fact that we drove the vehicle on 25th May and on 4th June after many complaints regarding refund they tell us there is an additional amount that will be deducted. NOTE - it does not take 10 days to calculate the total kms driven by tracking a vehicle on GPS

    Not sure if they will ever refund the amount!!.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Worst Service, No Refund

    I made a booking for 25th May - Eco-sport in Chennai for 4:15 to 10:15. Total money paid - 5660(inclusive of 5000 refund - which I never received).


    I did not receive any refund and I gave a call to customer care on 30th June and they said they are initiating the refund process now(after 5 days of booking), and it will be refunded in 5-15 days (This is just too long), I followed up on 4th June with customer care and they said they have initiated the process on 3rd June. (contrary to the last statement where they said it has been initiated on 30th May). I asked them to escalate, and then the new guy says they are initiating it now (contrary to the last girl who said it was initiated on 3rd June).

    After all the hassle they tell me that they were trying to track the vehicle and since we have driven 58kms extra 870rs will be deducted and we will be refunded by 4130 instead of 5000. I am not angry at the fact they are charging additional money but the fact that we drove the vehicle on 25th May and on 4th June after many complaints regarding refund they tell us there is an additional amount that will be deducted. NOTE - it does not take 10 days to calculate the total kms driven by tracking a vehicle on GPS

    Not sure if they will ever refund the amount!!.

    ReplyDelete
  40. @Swapnil

    Unfortunate. The concept of deposit and refund has started lots of trouble for zoomcar and many upset customers...

    Some wallets have also been added as mode of payment which is claimed to be faster in refunds. Need to see if they are really better.

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  41. i am nithish here i took the car
    15 days back my amount did not refund i am wait from 15


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  42. They have a decent plan but execution is bad. They do not seem to have a plan to handle uncommon cases.

    I have used the service twice and both the times it took more than half an hour to open the car. Their pick-up location at Nagras Road, Aundh, Pune is a terrible area with no light. It is a real pain if you pick the car at night. You have to look for any issues in the car in torch light and fill the check-list.

    In addition, I have not received the reimbursement for the fuel charges. As per their FAQ, you need to provide the fuel receipt to the attendant. There is no acknowledgement for the same. I have received the refund of security deposit 10 days back. Since then, I have called them 5 times and mailing them daily for the fuel reimbursement. They do not even acknowledge the mails.

    I will never use zoomcar again and will not recommend it to anyone.

    ReplyDelete
  43. My experience of Zoom Car was pathetic. I had taken to my first experience with Zoom with a lot of enthusiasm, but have decided not to rent from them again unless a few things are taken care of. The car that we had been provided was a very old one with the A/c not working, scratches all over, sun visors coming out, etc. To add to that, Zoom has slapped Rs. 5K as damages for an accident where a state transport bus sped and hit the rear right bumper and tail light of the car and then sped away before anyone could stop him or note the number. Now Zoom says the deductible is Rs. 5K so the owner is liable to pay the damage. Why should I as the owner be liable to pay such heavy damages when I have spent a fortune to rent the car and purchase insurance? What is the insurance for? Is the Insurance amount so pathetic that the deductible is as high as Rs. 5K? This is utter nonsense. All in all, an extremely poor experience. Since then I have been running from pillar to post to get this rectified and make Zoom Car see reason that the insurance needs to pick up the damage, but to no avail. At this rate, nobody would ever want to rent a Zoom Car.

    Can someone provide Greg Moran's e-mail ID please? I need to escalate to him. My booking ID is JPS6V7FNG.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Hi

    unfortunate that the car was in bad condition.

    But on the accident part, you might have probably paid more if it was other agencies. Even if you take a 40 lakh Merc and totally wreck it, 5k is the maximum you will have to pay. Insurance covers rest of the expenses. I do not know exact extent of damage but damages to bumper and tail lamp etc will cost in the range of 3-5 usually, depending on model and other factors.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Post yesterday's post on the pathetic service of Zoom Car, I received a call back from a Zoom Car team, but nobody could resolve the issue as these folks do not have the authority to do anything. I have tried telling them multiple times that I need the contact numbers of seniors like Greg Moran, but to no avail. They keep quoting some obnoxious policies to me.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I presume as if you are a paid bolgger,
    Just stop all this promotions.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Hi Prakash

    Can you highlight what is wrong in the post or which point you find not factual?

    This is not a paid post. But this post is few years old, written during early days of Zoomcar. Lots of things have changed over time- now I read regular complaints about various issues.

    ReplyDelete
  48. just ignore em Shrinidhi, being on blogger for 7 years and not even a blog, I guess people are just jealous

    i personally enjoy reading your blog.

    regards
    Prashanth

    ReplyDelete
  49. It is fine. if there is a legitimate mistake or concern I can try to address that.

    ReplyDelete
  50. It was shocking to find out that ZoomCar is taking members for ride...

    I had used car around june 2015 and when i returned the vehicle early, there was early return refund.

    Looks like ZoomCar is not craving for money and even if you return the car number of days early, it is not returning the money as per new updated policy. there are many reasons one can actually need to cancel his trip or reduce.

    the app does not even indicate or warn that do i need early return or reschedule the trip, as for some reasons zoomcar believes the 2 are not same.

    it really sucks to know that one of the good service is trying to do these kind of shitty things

    ReplyDelete
  51. Agree. Now they have started charging for modifications of bookings and also there are many other policy revisions

    ReplyDelete
  52. I think cost of the zoom car is higher than a chauffeur driven car.
    For example if we book a suv (innova) it costs 12 rs per KM and if we travel for 800 kms (3 days) it will be around 800 * 12 + driver beta (200) which will come to close about 12000 but the zoom car is around 11080 for 720 kms and then additional cost per km.
    I think Zoom car makes sense for local and hourly or may be i'm wrong in my calculations as there are lot of Zoom car lovers now a days :)


    It would be good it Zoom introduces the packages with unlimited kms for weekends like Hertz does in US/Europe

    ReplyDelete
  53. Worse service I have ever seen. They do not have a good policy and the employees themselves are not clear on the policy. Their refund policy is really really horrible and never in my life I would recommend zoom cars , not even to my enemy.

    ReplyDelete
  54. @sathish- yes, long drive in Zoom car, particularly on weekend is a rip off. You have to pay huge rental in advance, then fuel up with your own money and wait for refund later while paying 3-4 times actual fuel expense for every additional km. Because of this I never rent Zoom for long drives.

    weekdays, local short distance ride- Zoom works out better usually.

    ReplyDelete
  55. @Rebecca- unfortunate- can you share details of your experience- like what went wrong or what happened?

    ReplyDelete
  56. Zoomcar easily accepts your money via credit card, including a 5k deposit, then transfers your money to Citrus Cash, a third company. So effectively, go chasing Citrus for the refund, who will not transfer the money back to your credit card. Enjoy your USELESS 5k of Citrus Cash. HUGE FAIL Zoomcar! #zoomsupport SUCKS big time - 75 minutes on call; still no refund on deposit!

    ReplyDelete
  57. Yes, I am hearing a lot about this refund delay. Carzonrent's practice of temporarily blocking an amount on credit card seems to be much more reliable.

    ReplyDelete
  58. pathetic experience. filthy cars, not roadworthy, bad customer service, nobody answers calls and responds. post returning the car, no acknowledgement, final statement or bill received. my security still with them. overall not upto the mark. hope Greg takes a note

    ReplyDelete
  59. Hmm, will try to bring it to their attention. Complaints are increasing every day.

    ReplyDelete
  60. I too had a very bad experience on Jan 6 after few good ones earlier. I had rented a Nano. It had scratches all over and looked pretty bad (KA03AB8474).
    Unfornately a cab driver tried to change lane in heavy traffic and brushed on the left front bumper. The scrach was minor and I didnt even notice that the car had brushed. Only after parking I found a few scratches. But Zoom charged me INR 2000! You can remove small scratches with even a small scratch removing pen worth 500. Zoom is indulging in money making with even small scratches. Shame!!!

    ReplyDelete
  61. Hi this is Shilpi. Hired a Ciaz this morning with the zoom exec starting the battery of the to be hired Ciaz with another car and assuring that this won't happen again. Ciaz hired for 8 days to run for 1000 kms just hit the first obstacle at just over 50kms near hasan at 11am, 2.5 hrs later!!
    The car I'm told by the local mechanic is old not the zoom claimed 2015 model. Car battery he said the problem is. car won't start???? Damn, a car taken for 8 days 1000 kms stops in the middle of the highway. Customer care asks me to wait for a call back in 15mina! !!! Ive paid the full amount to get a down n out car.

    ReplyDelete
  62. @Shilpi: Ciaz was launched only in 2014/15, so it can't be older than that.

    Ideally you should be able to get the car fixed by local mechanic and get the entire amount reimbursed by Zoom later.

    @Shirod Thanks for sharing your experience. It is sad that zoom charges amount disproportionate to the damage

    ReplyDelete
  63. Hi , we had a very disappointing experience with zoom cars. My husband Iqbal had hired a Scorpio on 5th May'16 as we had planned for a short trip to wayanad. While returning from our trip the car suddenly stopped in Mysore city. My husband called the customer care service department of zoom cars and explained the situation as we were travelling with our family and we had two senior citizens with us.The customer care service advisor requested us to hand over the car to mahindra technician and asked us to board a taxi from Mysore to Bangalore and provided the number for Alpha travels and assured that the amount would be refunded once they get the technical report. We lost one entire day sorting this issue in Mysore as it had cost inconvience for the entire family. At last we reached Bangalore and had to pay 4300 to the taxi driver. Next morning my husband emailed the bill which we were charged from Alpha travels for 4300 to zoom cars request for a refund. We were informed that they were waiting for the technical report. Hence we waited for 10 days and still did not get any response. After numerous mails and phone calls zoom cars got back to us and informed that they would not be able to refund the amount for the taxi as they got the report stating that it was the drivers fault that the car broke down. This is very annoying as there was no external damage caused to the car. The car sudden stopped in middle of a busy road which was extremely dangerous for us. The car had already crossed 40,000 km when we had hired it. When we checked the documents of the car the insurance had expired on 6th May 2016.The insurance was not renewed. Now who should be penalized the customer who had to bear all the inconvenience or zoom cars.

    ReplyDelete
  64. That is very unfortunate Fatima. Scorpios are generally very reliable vehicle (they last a few lakh kms easily, 40K is still new). Expired insurance is also a bad thing. Zoom guys should have a process to track which vehicle insurance expires when and then take steps to renew it.

    Did they explain why car stopped?

    Taking a bus would have been lot cheaper.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. they just said its drivers mistake but there was a clutch failure and it was an internal problem and the car suddenly stopped in a busy street in Mysore and vehicle's moving in high speed. zoom people suggested us also gave us the travel agency number and clearly told by one Mr sachin that the main money will be refunded had He told us the stupid terms and conditions that they follow we would have taken the step the same day. I strongly recommend people not to hire them if they are so selfish.

      Delete
  65. Seems like Zoom cars indeed take real people for a big ride.

    A car battery is one of the easiest to maintain(keep it charged and change the battery at regular intervals -that is the least a rental car company should do ,basic clean car.If i am spending my precious time on fixing their cars its truly traumatic.Going by the list of comments on your blog its actually disgusting to see the condition of the cars being dished out .Which sane person even suggests to take the car without a right side rear view mirror .They should not even go out of the garage when they are not in a condition to be rented.But everybody wants to mint money.I really pity the customers who have to take this kind of third rate service from zoom car rentals.

    At this rate ,people can rather take alternate means rather than renting a car

    The think the very idea of a stress free rental is defeated but its all due to the fact that in India its become a norm ,swalpa adjust madkoli.No value for customers time and money.

    ReplyDelete
  66. @The Wild- I largely agree with your comment, but consider the following

    Achieving 100% perfection is very difficult in service industry. An airline might operate a 1000 flight without issue each day, but one flight that had some trouble can grab headline and negative PR. People will continue to book that airline after some online ranting

    Same way, Zoomcars might be executing 1000s of car rentals every day without any problem, just a few of them result in disappointments. Of course I am not justifying Zoom's inaction. They should put an escalation matrix in place for issues that couldn't be resolved in level 1 call centre/field staff.

    ReplyDelete
  67. @Fatima- that is unfortunate. One more negative scenario for customers to factor/worry about

    ReplyDelete
  68. Most horrible experience with Zoom car( @zoomcar) in Bangalore.
    ( Booking: JPS6V3RRY )
    2 hours post the required time and travelling couple of pick up locations( 13 kms )…I was greeted with 2 non working vehicles and horrible customer support from Zoom car.

    I was in Bangalore couple of days back and booked Zoom car for a Scorpio SUV. I required the vehicle for 10 hours and used Zoom car app to do all my bookings. I was informed that I can pick up my reserved vehicle at 12 pm( JPS6V3RRY). To enable this I also deposited an amount of Rs 6920 in Zoom car’s account.
    I reached the designated place of Meenakshi mall on Bannerghaata road to pick up my reserved vehicle. From here my ordeal starts:
    1. Zoom car representative had at first no idea of my booking. So much to say for automated systems and processes.
    2. After couple of minutes of discussion, Zoom car representative informed me that same vehicle was allotted to two customers at the same time.
    3. The Zoom car representative spent some good 10 mins to allot the vehicle assigned to me to this other customer.
    4. I am left thinking what these guys are doing??. The Zoom car representative then tries to give me another SUV stationed there after 10 more minutes of discussion. Lo and behold!!!!. This vehicle will not start.
    5. By now it’s already 12:45 pm. 45 minutes spent in the level 2 basement of Meenakshi maal. Zoom car guy now says: - Sir… please contact customer support!!!. I try reaching customer support but phone networks won’t work in level 2 basement.
    6. Customer support has no clue absolutely of my situation. It takes 3 more calls and good 15 minutes to explain my situation.
    7. Customer support asks me to wait for 10 more mins assuring they will give some solution.
    8. Around 1:15 pm I was told if I can travel 6 to 7 kilometers and go to another center in J. P Nagar 7th phase( location you cannot reach without searching for 20 mins., even though you may be residing in same area). I was assured that this time I will get my desired vehicle immediately.
    9. I thought may be my bad luck… but if I get the vehicle then at least my day is not lost.
    10. Good 30 mins later I reached the god forsaken location of Zoom car. This guy also has no clue of my booking. He is not willing to even listen to me. After some 10 mins, he informs that the vehicle allotted to me is under repairs and will not be available.
    11. Its already 2 pm… 2 hours post my supposed start of journey at 12 pm. Two locations visited…. No car yet in my hand and customer support now says give me 15 more mins!!!
    12. This was the final straw!!! I had lost all my good patience by that time. Told Zoom car customer support to cancel my booking and refund the amount immediately. They gave their standard answer of systems and processes and no. of days by which the money will be refunded. I was furious by this time and told them to refund the amount immediately….else to face the consequences… Immediately my amount was refunded. This was final example of systems and processes.
    I am an entrepreneur myself and desist saying anything against startups. At least some level of sanity and right customer attitude should be evident . By the way, they called me around 2 pm to say that they can now deliver vehicle from yet another location3rd one) to my residence. So much to their credit!!!

    I was feeling horrible to loose my full day - courtesy Zoom car. Not sure if I will again try another self driven option in Bangalore. Optimist in me says I will!!!

    I am still waiting for any formal apology from Zoom car. That’s the reason I waited for 3 days before stating my ordeal in public!!!

    ‪#‎zoomcar‬, ‪#‎patheticservice‬
    #zoomcar.com ‪#‎zoomerpic‬ ‪#‎zoomblog‬ @zoomcar.in ‪#‎TypeOfTraveler‬ ‪#‎horriblezoomcar‬

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is very unfortunate- they are not that bad usually

      Delete

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