CCPA orders investigation into ‘deficiencies’ of Ola Electric after most verification calls to aggrieved consumers found discrepancies in company’s claim

NEW DELHI: The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has ordered a detailed investigation into complaints related to “deficiency” in Ola Electric’s service and products after it found that several consumer complaints remained unresolved despite the company claiming to have addressed 99% of the grievances.
CCPA is also looking into consumer complaints against other EV firms, sources said.
“We have ordered a detailed investigation into complaints of deficiencies in services and products by Ola Electric. CCPA wants to ensure that the companies concerned must address consumer grievances properly and expeditiously. We must have a robust ecosystem for this,” consumer affairs secretary and CCPA chief commissioner Nidhi Khare said when she was contacted. Sources said the authority ordered the investigation on Nov 6 and the director general of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been asked to submit the report within 15 days.
TOI has learnt that the fresh order was issued after Ola Electric gave a detailed reply to an earlier notice on the 10,644 complaints CCPA had shared with the company. These were received on the National Consumer Helpline NCH between Sept 1, 2023 to Aug 31, 2024. In its reply, the company on Oct 21 had informed the CCPA that 99.1% grievances were addressed to consumers’ satisfaction and that the firm was introducing new service initiatives, including the doubling of its service network.
However, to cross check the earlier grievances were properly addressed, the NCH reached out to consumers who had earlier lodged complaints against the company to seek their feedback. It found that grievances of many consumers were still not addressed by the company, but were being shown as resolved.
“The NCH call agents contacted a random sample of consumers who had filed complaints which were referred to Ola Electric. We found around 79.2% consumers were not satisfied with the company’s action. In some cases the vehicles were only cleaned and damages were not fixed and problems persisted but complaints were closed. In other cases, vehicles were taken to service centres and these remained there, but complaints were closed,” said an official.
He added this indicated that the claims made by the company may not be correct and there was a need to investigate. Ola Electric spokesperson did not respond to questions despite repeated attempts.