India’s top product certification agency will investigate e-scooter maker Ola Electric’s deficiency in service standards and product issues, India’s consumer affairs secretary told Reuters on Thursday.

Last month, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) sent Ola Electric a notice seeking an explanation from the SoftBank-backed company after the consumer rights agency received an unusually high 10,000 complaints.

Ola, India’s top e-scooter maker, responded that it had resolved 99.1 percent of the complaints.

After reviewing that response, the CCPA has now asked the Bureau of Indian Standards to conduct a detailed investigation into the matter, consumer affairs secretary Nidhi Khare said on Thursday.

Ola Electric did not immediately respond to a Reuters email seeking comment.

The complaints were mostly for “minor” issues, Ola’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal said on an earnings call last week.

“Two-thirds of it actually are just minor issues like loose parts or customers unfamiliar with the software used,” Aggarwal said.

The rising complaints and ensuing regulatory scrutiny have cast a shadow on the e-scooter maker, following its stellar market debut in August.

Ola Electric’s shares are down about 7.6 percent from their listing price of 76 rupees. On the day, its shares were down about one percent, while auto stocks had risen 0.5 percent.

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New Delhi: Facing a barrage of customer complaints amid poor after-sale service, Bhavish Aggarwal-run Ola Electric saw its stock plummet to a record low on Wednesday — below Rs 80 apiece in the morning trade — as market experts said the share may soon trade below its debut price of Rs 76.  

At the end of the day, the stock closed marginally higher at Rs 81.76. During the session, the share touched Rs 79.15 on the lower side and Rs 83 on the higher side. The EV company’s stock has fallen about 48 per cent from its highest level of Rs 157.40.

Ola Electric’s shares were listed in August. After listing, a sharp rally was seen in the Ola Electric and the counter made an all-time high of Rs 157.40. Jigar S Patel, Senior Manager- Technical Research Analyst, Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers, said for Ola Electric, the support will be at Rs 76 and resistance at Rs 86. Market experts said that the strong support of Rs 86 has broken in Ola Electric and the next target is Rs 75 and the “trend in the counter continues to be negative”.

The stock remains weak and selling is being seen at all levels. Due to the weakness, investors should stay away from this stock and invest in stocks with strong fundamentals, said market analysts. The reason for the fall in the shares of Ola Electric is the decline in sales and service-related problems.

According to the government portal Vahan, Ola Electric sold 24,665 e-scooters in September. In August, this figure was 27,587. As per reports, Ola Electric’s flagship S1 series EV scooter has become a nightmare for hundreds of customers who are consistently facing issues like malfunctioning hardware and glitching software and spare parts are hard to come by, resulting in inordinate delays.

Market analysts say that the share is showing extreme volatility due to challenges the company faces as well as rising competition and service-related issues.

NEW DELHI: Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has directed ride-hailing platform Ola to offer a choice to customers to either opt for a refund directly in their bank accounts or a coupon that can be redeemed against booking another ride. It observed that only giving a coupon is “unfair trade practice“.
The authority also instructed the company to provide customers with a bill, receipt or invoice for all auto rides booked through its platform for greater transparency and accountability.
The CCPA, led by chief commissioner and consumer affairs secretary Nidhi Khare, observed that whenever a customer raised a grievance on the Ola app, the company, as part of its no-question-asked refund policy, only provided a coupon code, which could be used for the next ride, without giving the customer a clear choice between a bank account refund and a coupon.
“This violates consumer rights, and the no-question-asked refund policy cannot mean that the company incentivizes people to simply use this facility for taking another ride,” CCPA said.
The consumer rights protection watchdog also observed that if a customer attempted to access an invoice for auto rides booked on Ola, the app showed the message “Customer invoice for auto rides will not be provided due to changes in Ola’s auto service T&Cs”. The CCPA said this was also an “unfair trade practice” under the Consumer Protection Act.
CCPA said 2,061 complaints against Ola were lodged with the National Consumer Helpline and the main complaints were higher fare charged from a consumer than what was shown at the time of booking, non-refund of amount to consumer, driver asking for extra cash, and driver either not reaching the correct location or not dropping at correct location.
Following CCPA’s intervention, Ola has implemented several changes, including displaying contact details of grievance and nodal officers on its website, clearly mentioning cancellation policies and fees at the time of booking, adding more options for ride cancellation reasons, and publicising fare component breakdowns.
The other changes implemented were displaying the pickup and drop location addresses to drivers, and revised payment cycles for drivers for swift payment.