My Experience with Zoom has been a kind of mixed bag so far ( Just booked once).

We had booked XUV500 in first week of December for 8 days and the pickup/drop was at Domestic Airport as I had to receive my in laws from Airport itself. The trip was planned in well advance and the car was booked in September month only.


Picking up the car :-

• When we reached the parking, the representative told me my car has been allotted to some other booking. I really can't wrap my head around the fact that my booking was done 3 months in advance and Zoomcar still had nerves to assign the car to a different booking.
• However, the guy over counter was helpful and he told me there is another XUV which has no upcoming bookings which you can take. But the fun part is, he did not have any authority to assign the car to me so he asked me to call the customer care.
• Luckily we had some buffer time before my in-laws flight landed so I did not panic much.
• Upon calling their toll free number and telling my side of story to their customer care representative and him discussing with his boss, he came up with an idea of offering me Mahindra Scorpio at another location
• I was in no mood to argue and simply passed the phone to zoomcar counter guy and he bargained on my behalf for good 5-7 minutes
• After around 35 mins of wait, I got a notification from Zoomcar saying my booking has changed and another XUV has been assigned to me. We were relieved and started checking the car for any body damage/issues
• It was fairly new model with 47000km and mechanically in decent condition. but the body was heavily damaged and scratched everywhere. I took a 360 video and gave the OTP to start my ride.
• The car had few minor issues though like the remote key did not work (had to lock the car manually), seat covers were badly torn and

Apart from this hiccup, the whole trip went really smooth. The car performed as expected and gave decent mileage as well. I paid 17k including 3k security deposit and Diesel was excluded. I had 820 free km and I ended up doing 817km in the end. Paid around 6k for Diesel so my total was around 20k excluding the deposit and tolls.

PS. I haven't got the deposit back yet.

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As a person who has rented lots of cars for varying durations in many countries across the world in the last so many years, somehow I am just unable to trust the system here in India - from whatever I have seen these self drive vehicles here, whether Zoom Cars or DriveZy or whatever, are mostly dirty, have done very high mileage, interiors in a mess and most probably not serviced at regular intervals, which means that there is potential mechanical or electronic disaster waiting right around the corner for the next renter.
This is all occasioned by the fact that we Indians do not have ANY respect for other’s property and least of all when we are renting a vehicle.
This fact is borne out by the horrible conditions in which these rented cars and bikes and e scooters are just dumped after use.
I would much rather use UBER or just rent a Chauffeur Driven luxurious and comfortable car in India like an Innova or similar, rather than try and do a self drive rental here.

Had a bad experience with zoomcar recently. More like a 1/5 experience.

The car was a Tata Tiago. About 60k odd kms on the odo. It had all sorts of strange noises coming from all direction - the hood, the underbody, the rear! The car was unclean inside and out.

Returned the damn thing earlier than I had planned and took a Revv booking. The contrast between Revv and Zoomcar - immense and tending to infinity! Very unlikely I will go back to zoomcar if they continue this way.

Mutual feelings about zoom. Had booked a ford aspire a couple weeks back. The car was dirty which is a constant with zoom these days but what got me worried was that the spare tyre was punctured.

Tried Ola self drive twice since then and I'm much happier with their level of customer service and clean cars. Only grouse being the fewer number of pick up locations.

Rented a Zoomcar in Bhopal a couple of weeks ago. It was a leisure trip with some functions to attend, so decided to keep the car for two days and see some local sights. I chose the no-fuel option (top the car up to the same level you got it at) which I think is an extremely sensible policy in line with international care renting practices.

Chose a Vitara Brezza diesel and the car was clean, well-preserved and ran well. It had 55,000 clicks on the odo but felt reasonably new. I opted for the delivery option and the delivery executive was very accommodating since the pick-up location was different from the one I had specified in the booking (2 km away). In fact I had raised a ticket to change the pick-up location but strangely never got a response to it.

My first time driving the Brezza and I was quite happy: seated 5 adults in comfort and didn't trouble too much on bumpy roads (to be fair, Bhopal has some pretty good roads and it was only in the upcountry routes that the roads got bumpy). The charges were pretty reasonable at around 2500/- a day.

Overall a positive experience. I have now used Zoomcars in 3 smaller cities- Bhopal, Mangalore and Mysore- and the experience has been uniformly good.

I had a miserable experience with zoomcar. Zoomcar let me stranded in early morning in Ahmedabad with young kid and elderly parents with with no car and no recourse.

Below is my horror story,

a. Booked a Maruti Baleno from 21 Dec to 30th Dec, 2 months back with full amount paid in advance. Pickup and drop was from Ahmedabad airport.

b. Four hours before start of the trip, got a message saying that the car is 1 kms away from the airport and we need to walk to that point.

c. Landed in Ahmedabad at 7:30 am. The first of many shocks of the day came. When pressing navigate to the pickup point, the place was 3 kms away in a decrypt side road. Since I had luggage for 4 members and a young child, decided not to risk it and booked an airport taxi.

d. When I went to the side road, no car was available. Called Zoomcar support. Then asked me to wait there for 10 minutes in the middle of the road. After 15 minutes, it was mentioned that the booked car is 20 kms away and the location given by the Zoomcar app was wrong.

e. Zoomcar helpdesk agent mentioned that she will book a new car nearby and asked me to wait for another 10 minutes.

f. 20 Minutes later, Zoomcar called, changed my booking to a Ford Aspire and asked to go to their yard which was 5-7 kms from my current place. Thankfully, still had the taxi driver with me and went to the new location given by Zoomcar.

g. Next Shock number came, where the car was visible but I was not able to find the keys inside the car's glove box.

h. Called Zoomcar and they were clueless. Asked the person manning the yard and he mentioned that Zoomcar owner/drivers are on strike and none of the keys are available. It seems the owner had 'taken' all the keys the previous night.

i. Called Zoomcar again and gave the phone to the person manning the yard. Zoomcar promised to callback and 'resolve' this scenario.

j. After 10 minutes of waiting, Zoomcar representative calmly said, there is nothing they can do and I am on my own. As a favor, they would refund my booking amount which i paid 2 months back without cancellation penalty.

What really makes me angry are the below,

a. Why give pointeless locations when car was was not even available.

b. Does Zoomcar not know that there was some kind of strike. Why make me run on a wild goose chase.

c. All the hotel booking, arrangements, prior payments and planning which i had made went down the drain due to Zoomcar.

Here i was in an unknown city (Ahmedabad) with no hotel booking (was booked in Somnath for the night), kids and elderly parents with luggage in the middle of nowhere stranded by Zoomcar with no support. I am never again booking a Zoomcar.

That is such a pathetic experience. Zoomcar should compensate you for the hardship you have faced. There is clear deficiency of service and I would suggest you file a case in Consumer Court.

The strike might be due to ZAP program. Heard they are not paying on time and are taking more commission indirectly than the promised percentage

Thanks, I posted my ordeal as a heads up to others who are planning on travelling with Zoomcar on the risks involved.

What was planned as a pleasure trip turned out to be a nightmare. First, no innova's were available. Standing in the middle of the road with luggage, parents,kids and little options, booked got a Chevrolet Enjoy for a premium of Rs15 per Km (compared to Rs 12) and continued the trip. Before that hunting for the non existing Zoomcar's took 3 hours and Rs:2000 as taxi expense.

Second, I get car sick even in the middle row. Here, I had to sit in the last row taking turns with my wife with my head hitting the roof at every bump (i am six feet). My constant companion on this trip were nausea, vomit and head/neck pain for close to 3000 kms.


Possible but they needed to have taken precautions. Zoomcar's front end is so disconnected from their back end team that they have no clue what's happening. Even if Zoomcar had cancelled the booking one day in advance, it would have given me some breathing space to book alternates.

Instead, I got a wild goose chase towards non-existing cars. I could call it a treasure hunt if not for the scenario which i found myself in. After all this ordeal, there was no treasure (Zoomcar) in the end but they were kind enough to refund my booking amount without cancellation penalty .

You should pursue the case further.
Recently Zoomcar offered a reliability promise that if the booked cars are not available, then they will offer full refund with 10000 credits.
Suggest you take it to their social media handles and highlight your ordeal.

https://www.cxotoday.com/press-relea...-to-customers/

I think the taxi exploited your situation. Rs. 2000 will get you a half day city tour in a good car in Ahmedabad.

For outstation trips, a car with a driver is cheaper than a Zoomcar with unlimited mileage. It hurts to see a product that started off well in 2015 become substandard in just 4 years. The Zoomcars I rented in the past had various safety issues.

People abuse these cars, but Zoomcar charges a premium. You can get great cars with unlimited mileage for around Rs. 2500 a day in Thailand and Malaysia. Zoomcar charges double of that amount in India for battered vehicles. The frequent Zoomcar accidents may not always be due to bad drivers. Cars that don't have working lights, pull to one side, run on damaged tires and suffer from worn out brakes are more prone to accidents.

That article is unadulterated PR BS. The kicker is they guarantee a car, it doesn't say anywhere you'll get the model you booked, or anything similar. All fine and dandy you'd think, until you realize Zoomcar also thinks KUV100 is an SUV!

Yes I know, but in this case they didn't offer any car or alternate solution.

My first zoomcar experience went pretty smooth yesterday.
Navigation till pickup point was accurate. Pickup was from a zoomcar yard. Attendant helped me as this was my first time picking up a zoomcar. Got the requested vehicle, swift automatic with 17k kms on the odo. Everything in working condition. Took photos and uploaded in app. Also took a video for my self. Same while returning. Returned with fuel 1 mark higher than received ( i had filled rs 500 diesel). No deposit was taken as I had prepaid the amount while booking.

The car however, was disappointing to drive. This was my first time driving a diesel vehicle. There was pronounced Turbo lag, head nod associated with AMT, and evident up / downshifts. Plasticky and dark interiors may hide the marks and stains, but it is pretty gloomy. Kept it under 65-70 at the most, and the car (yellow plates) has a speed governer to keep it under 80 kmph.

I just cancelled a zoom car booking 2 months after having paid for it. Reason. They charge exorbitantly for extensions. In my case, soon after I booked I wrote to their CS that I wanted to extend schedule(including early pick up). The CS said it is not possible before time, you need to go there to the spot on the day of booking and see if something is available. Nevertheless, I waited for a few more days (by the way, their 1860 cust serv is not accessible on airtel mobiles, need jio phones to dial that number. Emails to their cust serv is no good. No responses)
So finally, when I called their CS the second time, a friendly CD told me how to extend the booking via app. However, any discounts applied earlier would be completely annulled. So for me, the new additional charges for a 2 day extension were ridiculous
So dropped it.
Zoomcar lost my business entirely since they were very greedy.