The story of our 2nd Ola S1 Pro: Customer care still needs improvement

The under-seat storage space and acceleration are the biggest USPs I see in the scooter. We have always been getting a range of 120+ km for full charge.

BHPian katchkamalesh recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Our 4-month-old S1 Pro has been performing flawlessly (despite the initial hiccups with the BCM), and we have covered 4,500 km to date. The scooter did visit the ASS twice but those were for minor niggles, which were fixed immediately. The problems that I have with the scooter are

1. Front discs make a squeaking noise and no matter the cleaning, it is back in no time.
2. The seat construction should have been sturdy. If I ride with a pillion and over a hump, the seat makes a sound that makes me feel that it is about to break.
3. The entire handlebar assembly started shaking after the scooter went over a pothole at a decent speed; I have not experienced this in other scooters or motorbikes.

We also have a TVS N-Torq; honestly, I prefer to take out the OLA for errands. The under-seat storage space and acceleration are the biggest USPs I see in the scooter. We have always been getting a range of 120+ km for full charge.

Below is the story of how we ended up booking a second S1 Pro.

My brother-in-law was in the market for an electric scooter and after considering many options, we decided to stick with OLA - this was primarily because of the spec (range, top speed) and availability. My in-laws reside near Pondicherry (technically in Tamilnadu) and almost all the dealers declined to service us. Because the scooter had to be registered in TN, the dealers refused to do it and wanted to us do all the RTO formalities ourselves and this was not feasible for us. We also briefly considered buying an Ather in Chennai and taking it but then we dropped the idea.

We saw that OLA was retailing via e-commerce platforms. During the great Indian sale, the amount of discounts offered was crazy. OLA S1 Pro had a 10K discount on ex-showroom price and on top of this, cards offered another 17k. In total, we got a discount of 27K for the S1 Pro. On the other hand, there were no offers for Ather and it was not available on e-commerce platforms. We bought our first S1 Pro for close to 1.6 Lakh in June 2024 and now, we paid a total of Rs 1.34 Lakhs for the S1 Pro and this includes insurance (5 yrs own damage + 5 yrs zero dep + 5 yrs 3rd party + RSA + Personal Accident cover), 1-year Rat-bite insurance, 1-year Care+, 1-year Screen protection, and home delivery.

A compelling package considering that Ather is retailing for 1.8x Lakhs for much lower benefits and 80-90 km range.

Therefore, we booked the scooter on Oct 5th by paying the ex-showroom price and it was supposed to be delivered on Oct 12th. Initially, the customer care team from OLA called us frequently asking us to pay the registration fee and insurance fee but after we paid the amount, there has been radio silence from them. I wrote multiple emails (even CC’ed their CEO), and spoke with them a couple of times and nothing happened.

Fortunately, my brother had developed some contacts at OLA and we decided to seek their help. I reached out to one Mr. Prashant (who I believe works in Chrompet, Chennai, and is part of the servicing team) and he immediately put me in touch with Mr. Sudhakar, cluster head of Krishnagiri, and Mr. Akshay, Area Sales Manager. Within days of talking to them, they arranged for registration and as I type this, the scooter has been registered and awaiting number plates.

Due to labor shortage, they said home delivery might be a challenge and I informed them that we would take delivery of the scooter as and when it is ready. Next lies the herculean task of reaching out to OLA’s customer care team for a refund of the home delivery fee (Rs 1,000).

A big shout out to Mr. Prashant and Mr. Sudhakar who went beyond their line of duty to sort out the problems and to Mr. Akshay for coordinating with the teams. OLA’s customer care team needs a major rejig and unfortunately, the only way to reach them is an email ID or via telephone, both of which do not yield any results. I am not sure if anyone even sees the tickets that we raised on the app, I do not even have any acknowledgment for my tickets. They need to set up an escalation matrix and make sure every complaint is attended in 1-2 business days.

From my experience, I see that folks in the OLA service center are trying their best to resolve any issues and it is the lack of drive from the management and customer care team that has led to this much backlash.

P.S. I did not recommend OLA to my BIL, I gave him the specs, the price, and finally, the 50K difference between OLA and Ather favored OLA.

BHPian katchkamalesh shares the following update:

Since I did not get any response from OLA regarding my complaints, I raised a complaint on INGRAM portal, and the very next day (25th Oct) I got a call from the customer care team. They promised to look into the issues.

We took delivery of the scooter on the 26th of Oct from the showroom ourselves.

We opted for and paid for the screen and charger protection and rodent protection cover (Rs 799 and Rs 699, respectively) via their website. I was told that (at least in the couple of showrooms that I visited), they do not provide these covers. Apparently, Tata-AIG stopped offering these covers, and these 2 covers are already included in the own-damage cover.

I have escalated the issue with the customer care team and awaiting a refund of Rs 2500. Rs 1499 for insurance and Rs 999 for home delivery. If I do not get the refund, I intend to raise another complaint on INGRAM.

To all those looking to book an Ola, do not opt for these two covers or at least visit the showroom and confirm this with the employees before paying for it. Since I paid everything online, I have no option but to contact their customer care team.

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