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In my previous blog post, I spoke about my Visakhapatnam to Araku road trip. This was the first time I drove for a long distance and totally enjoyed it. So if you’ve not read that post, make sure you do it. In that post, I also mentioned that I’ll share my Visakhapatnam zoom car experience. Hence in this blog post, you can expect all the details regarding Zoomcar and their service in Visakhapatnam and my experience. Further, this isn’t my first time with Zoomcar and have tried Zoomcar in Hyderabad. However, this was my first one outside of Hyderabad.
Smooth Booking Experience as ever
One of the best things I like about Zoomcar is the ease of booking. Their mobile app makes the entire process of searching and booking a car simple and quick. Since we were going to Visakhapatnam, I just entered the dates and the location to search for available cars. Zoomcar also has a doorstep delivery service which is charged extra. Since I was in a new city, I opted for this and asked the car to be dropped at my hotel.
Since I already have a verified profile on Zoomcar I don’t need to upload the documents again. I also don’t have to pay any security deposit as well. Thus a smooth booking process as always.
If you don’t have a Zoomcar account yet, you can create one using my code atulprjugwk and get 40% off up to Rs 2500 on your Zoomcar booking!
Zoomcar Visakhapatnam Review
Pre drive checklist
The car that I had booked was the Tata Tiago. It’s a small car and just perfect for our family. Further, I have previously driven the Tiago a couple of times so had a good idea about the same. There were a couple of variants of the car available, and I opted for the one that was driven the least no. of kilometres.
The executive arrived with the car almost in time. In terms of the condition, the red coloured Tata Tiago wasn’t in one of the bestest of conditions. There were a few minor dents here and there along with the front bumper that was damaged too. Nonetheless, I had a look inside the car and it was good. It was driven about 60,000kms which wasn’t the same as when I had booked. I ignored that and took the delivery of the car.
The executive told me that there was some problem with the server and I could start the trip without starting it from the app. You usually need to fill out a pre-drive checklist before starting the delivery. In this case that didn’t happen. In about an hours time, I got a notification on the app that the trip had started.
Zoom car Drive experience
As I mentioned earlier, I’m not an expert driver. Hence I cannot pick up many issues related to the drive. From an amateur driver’s point of view, the car accelerated well, gear shift (it was a manual shift car) wasn’t an issue and the brakes were soft yet effective. All the electrical items were in place – lights, indicators, AC, were in operating condition.
In terms of the driving experience, it was a smooth ride. At no point in the drive, I felt that I was driving a car that was driven for so long. The steering was smooth which made driving along the ghat roads from Visakhapatnam to Araku a breeze. Overall, a good drive experience.
Post Delivery & Drop Off
The agent started calling me an hour before my end time. While I was ready to drop it, the calls did become nagging after a while. Anyways, I reached the hotel and the executive was already waiting. He came to the car, took photos from his phone, ended the trip from my end and took the car. All this was smooth until I get a notification in the middle of the night.
An extra distance fee was applied to my booking. And can guess the amount? It was Rs 20,000! Yes, I had driven about 260kms out of the 340 kms as per the booking. However, some error led to this. Now every time I opened the app, it showed me a notification to pay the outstanding amount. It was good of me to have taken the photos of the odometer to prove my case.
That’s when I tried reaching customer care and realised, it’s extremely difficult to talk to a human from Zoomcar. Since my booking was over, even the customer care number didn’t allow me to talk to anyone. At last, I tweeted to Zoomcar hoping for a reply. It took about a day for them to revert to DM. I shared the issue with them and I must say they were prompt.
In a few hours time, I got a response about the error from their end This error amount was taken off my account finally. So in the end, it was a good experience when it came to customer service or Zoomcar.
Overall I’d say, it’s not the end of the road for Zoomcar for me at least. I’ll definitely try them in the future. But would be a little more cautious. From taking photos to updating the status of the car in the app, I’ll ensure to carefully look at everything especially with the pre-drive checklist. So that was my Visakhapatnam Zoomcar review.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, tweet to me at @Atulmaharaj, DM me on Instagram or Get In Touch.
It’s good that you kept record of the distance driven.Human customer service is essential if it’s an issue like this.Very helpful post Atul