Ola Electric Founder and CMD Bhavish Agarwal during an interview with PTI, in New Delhi, Tuesday, August 20, 2024 | Photo: PTI
A war of words erupted between Ola founder Bhavish Agarwal and stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on Sunday (Oct 6, 2024) on social media platform X over the quality of the company’s after-sales and service of its electric scooters.
It all started when Mr. Kamra responded to a post on X by Mr. Agarwal who posted a photo of Ola’s gigafactory by posting a photo of several Ola Electric scooters parked together, seemingly waiting for service.
“Do Indian consumers have a voice? Do they deserve this? Two-wheelers are a lifesaver for many daily wage labourers..,” Mr Kamra wrote along with the picture.
He tagged Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, asking, “Is this how Indians will start using electric cars?” The comedian also tagged the official response of the Ministry of Consumer Protection, Government of India @jagograhakjago, seeking an answer, saying “some word?” Mr. Kamra further wrote, “Anyone having problem with OLA electric leave your story below by tagging all…”.
To this Mr Agarwal replied, “Since you care so much @kunalkamra88 come help us! I’ll even pay more than you earned for that paid tweet or your failed comedy career. Or sit back and let us focus on fixing problems for real customers.”
He further said, “We are expanding the service network rapidly and the backlog will be cleared soon.”
To the “failed comedy career” remark by Mr. Agarwal, Mr. Kamra responded by posting a video of one of his shows with the audience cheering and applauding and calling the Ola Electric founder and CMD “arrogant and out of line.”
In response, Mr. Agarwal said, “Chot lagi? Dard hua? Aaja service center. Bahut kaam Hai. (Does it hurt. It is much less. Come to the service center). I will pay better than your flop shows you they pay.”
Mr Kamra then challenged Agarwal to “fully refund anyone who wants to return their OLA EV and who bought it in the last four months”, saying he didn’t need his money but “people can’t to reach their workplace needs your accountability’.
“Show your customers that you really care,” said Mr. Kamra.
Mr. Agarwal hit back, saying, “We have enough programs in place for our customers if they face service delays. If you were real you would know. Again, don’t try to back out of it. Come and do some real work, not armchair criticism.”
Many Ola Electric users joined the controversy and complained about the company’s service quality, asking Mr. Agarwal to address their issues.
Published – 07 Oct 2024, 01:04 AM IST
