A customer sued Ola Cabs over a non-functioning air conditioning unit in one of their cars for which Ola Cabs co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has been ordered to pay Rs 15,000 as compensation.
The Bengaluru-based customer, Vikas Bhusan, had registered a complaint of service deficiency against Aggarwal with the Bangalore Urban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in March 2022.
What happened?
In October 2021 Bhusan, 36, had booked an Ola Prime sedan for eight hours.
Although he was promised an air-conditioned car with extra leg room, he instead found that the AC in the cab did not work, forcing him and his co-passengers to complete their journey in discomfort.
As the ride ended, he was asked to pay Rs 1,837 as cab fare.
Futile efforts to be heard by Ola
Bhusan reached out to Ola’s customer care notifying them about the nonfunctioning AC which was part of the fare and, since it wasn’t working during his trip, he should be refunded.
He was told that he had been charged as per the rate card and there was no additional charge for AC.
Bhusan next tried to get in touch with Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal via email where he again pointed out that AC was included in the fare as per the rate and initial rental agreement.
He alo tried to reach out to the CEO via Twitter but to no avail.
Rs 100 voucher offered
He then resorted to filing a complaint against Ola with the National Consumer Helpline in November 2021, demanding a refund.
Ola finally acknowledged the incident but refused to refund his fare.
Instead, they offered him a voucher for Rs 100.
This was the last straw for the Bengaluru businessman, who then approached the Bangalore Urban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission with a formal complaint.
Judges penalise Ola
The judges looked into it and noted that Ola, by its own admission in the email, had collected the entire amount of Rs 1,837 despite the AC in the vehicle not functioning.
“Ola is duty-bound to provide all services to customers as promised. In the Bengaluru man’s case, they have caused the customer inconvenience and mental agony without providing AC service for the entire trip period of eight hours,” the judges said.
The court ruled in Bhusan’s favour and ordered Aggarwal to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation for causing mental agony and inconvenience.
He was also directed to bear the complainant’s litigation expenses of Rs 5,000, besides refunding the full fare of Rs 1,837 with interest.
