re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India Quote:
Originally Posted by mustang_shelby From my update post above:
"They will charge me for 6 hours of rental (until the time I reported the issue) and refund the balance."
......
If possible, make sure you pick up the vehicle with sufficient lead time ahead of start of your trip so that you have options in case things go south. |
Closing the loop on this. I did hire a Zoomcar on 15th of this month from the Sector 43 ISBT in Chandigarh - The destination was Manali and thereabouts. Actually we were a big group and three of us got Zoomcars - two Jazzs including mine and a Figo Aspire. This would be my first self drive experience in India.
All cars were available at the promised time but my the condition of my car did not inspire much confidence for a drive in the hills. The rear tires looked like this. ![Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India-20170515_070945.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/street-experiences/1640710d1689757765t-zoom-car-reviews-self-drive-rentals-india-20170515_070945.jpg)
I'm not even sure if it is legal to drive with such bald tires. I raised the issue with the staff at the site and they "assured" me that the tire was perfectly ok to drive and just in case something were to happen the spare was available. The spare looked to be in good condition but that was beyond the point - I was worried about driving in wet conditions in the hills on these tires and it did rain.
So, I called up Customer Care and they said they were registering a complaint and would get back in 10 minutes, which they did to tell me that no other replacement was available in nearby locations and asked me to hand over the call to the site staff. Then she reiterated that the site staff had assured her that the tires were perfectly fine - the whole exchange was getting ridiculous now and I had lost a good one hour in the process and had a schedule to catch up to. So, I gave up and decided to go with the car that was assigned - so much for first time Customer Experience.
But this was not the only safety issue - The rear seats had after market covers and (as is a very common practice in India) all the seat belt buckles had been pushed under the seat rendering the seat belt useless - can't believe Zoomcar would allow such a practice.
On the positive side the car performed fine mechanically during the duration of the trip.
Experience while returning the car - had to wait for about 30-40 minutes at the site before anyone showed up to collect the car and close the trip. Then they declared that there would be a cleaning charge of Rs. 500 because the exteriors were dirty. I had washed the car at the hotel before the trip and the little muck that was there was perfectly normal from driving over a wet spot or two but then Zoomcar expects the car to dropped back in pristine condition. The funny part was that the Ford Figo had similar muck over it because we drove the same road but there was no charge for it - The only reason I could think of was the color of the cars which made it easier to spot on the burgundy Jazzs compared to the orange Aspire (both Jazzs had to pay the cleaning charge).
My Jazz had several battle wounds but none of that was of much concern (though one should document them meticulously before the trip starts) except for the wobbling left ORVM that could be very irritating at night. And yes, the 12V ACC socket never worked - so I had to manage with the lone USB port which meant that I had to drop the plan of using my dashcam.I did try to locate the fuse in the internal fuse box but to my surprise the actual layout of the fuses and those in the manual were not matching. Then I have up because I did not have much time to spare. Carrying a power bank may be a good idea next time.
All in all not a very positive first time experience - I would definitely think hard before hiring another Zoomcar.
In case you were wondering this is how the site is marked ![Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India-20170515_065601.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/street-experiences/1640711d1689757765t-zoom-car-reviews-self-drive-rentals-india-20170515_065601.jpg) |