Comedian Kunal Kamra 'accepts job offer' at Ola Electric but demands change

Kamra's satirical "acceptance" highlights Ola Electric's ongoing customer service woes, with a pointed list of demands for improved accountability.

By  Storyboard18| Oct 29, 2024 1:01 PM
The comedian's post addressed Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal directly, laying out specific demands to fix what he calls a 'service crisis' at the company. (L-R: Kunal Kamra, Bhavish Aggarwal)

Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has humorously escalated his public critique of Ola Electric, "accepting" an unofficial job offer at the company amid mounting customer complaints.

Kamra took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce his satirical employment, remarking that the volume of complaints tagged in his direction makes him "feel like an Ola employee." The comedian's post addressed Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal directly, laying out specific demands to fix what he calls a 'service crisis' at the company.

Kamra's post detailed his expectations in a mock onboarding process, including a series of pointed action items he believes would help Ola improve its customer service. "I have no choice but to accept @bhash's offer to work with OLA," Kamra wrote, addressing Aggarwal. "After being tagged thousands of times, I anyway feel like I am an Ola employee. OLA can seal this collaboration by committing to the below action points & looking forward to joining."

Among the key demands in Kamra's proposed action plan were:

7-Day Repair Commitment

Kamra urged Ola Electric to promise all customers that their scooter repairs would be completed within seven business days of their service requests at authorized centers.

Compensation for Delays

Should repairs take longer than seven days, Kamra suggested Ola offer customers either a temporary replacement scooter or a daily conveyance reimbursement of Rs. 500 until the repair is complete. Additionally, he proposed an extra Rs. 500 compensation per day of delay, capped at Rs. 50,000.

Comprehensive Insurance Coverage

Kamra called for Ola to bundle each new electric scooter sale with dual insurance policies: one for the scooter and another dedicated to service needs, with the latter provided free of cost.

The post marks Kamra's latest salvo against Ola, following weeks of public criticism over its handling of customer complaints. Recently, he shared a video showing poor conditions and a lack of trained technicians at a service center in Solapur, Maharashtra. He even tagged Union Transport Minister Nitin Gakdari, requesting government intervention to address Ola Electric's customer service issues.

Ola Electric has previously claimed it resolved 99.1% of the 10,644 complaints registered through the Centra Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) earlier this month. However, Kamra and several customers remain unconvinced, challenging the validity of this claim and suggesting that many issues continue unresolved.

Kamra’s post quickly gained traction on social media, with many users expressing their frustrations about Ola's customer service standards. Some supporters have praised Kamra's demands for strict service timelines and penalties as a positive step for consumer rights in India’s burgeoning electric vehicle market. Others, however, urged Kamra to be more lenient toward Ola, arguing that the company is an Indian venture striving to succeed on a global scale.

First Published onOct 29, 2024 1:01 PM

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