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NEW DELHI: Central Shopper Safety Authority (CCPA) has directed ride-hailing platform Ola to supply a option to prospects to both go for a refund immediately of their financial institution accounts or a coupon that may be redeemed in opposition to reserving one other experience. It noticed that solely giving a coupon is “unfair commerce apply“.
The authority additionally instructed the corporate to supply prospects with a invoice, receipt or bill for all auto rides booked by its platform for higher transparency and accountability.
The CCPA, led by chief commissioner and client affairs secretary Nidhi Khare, noticed that every time a buyer raised a grievance on the Ola app, the corporate, as a part of its no-question-asked refund coverage, solely supplied a coupon code, which might be used for the following experience, with out giving the client a transparent selection between a checking account refund and a coupon.
“This violates client rights, and the no-question-asked refund coverage can not imply that the corporate incentivizes individuals to easily use this facility for taking one other experience,” CCPA stated.
The patron rights safety watchdog additionally noticed that if a buyer tried to entry an bill for auto rides booked on Ola, the app confirmed the message “Buyer bill for auto rides is not going to be supplied attributable to adjustments in Ola’s auto service T&Cs”. The CCPA stated this was additionally an “unfair commerce apply” below the Shopper Safety Act.
CCPA stated 2,061 complaints in opposition to Ola have been lodged with the Nationwide Shopper Helpline and the primary complaints have been increased fare charged from a client than what was proven on the time of reserving, non-refund of quantity to client, driver asking for additional money, and driver both not reaching the right location or not dropping at right location.
Following CCPA’s intervention, Ola has applied a number of adjustments, together with displaying contact particulars of grievance and nodal officers on its web site, clearly mentioning cancellation insurance policies and costs on the time of reserving, including extra choices for experience cancellation causes, and publicising fare element breakdowns.
The opposite adjustments applied have been displaying the pickup and drop location addresses to drivers, and revised cost cycles for drivers for swift cost.
