Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, known for his observational comedy and his commentary on various social and political issues in the country, on Sunday, October 6, had a war of words with entrepreneur Bhavish Aggarwal, founder of the electric scooter company Ola Electric Mobility, regarding the servicing issues of the scooters sold by the EV manufacturer.
The online spat, which took place on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, along with Ola EV customers flooding the social media platform with posts regarding the servicing history of the company led to its stocks taking a dip of 9 percent, to about Rs 90 a piece on Monday morning.
The online spat, formerly known as the ‘Twitter war’ started when Kunal Kamra responded to a post on X by Bhavish Aggarwal, who posted a photo of Ola’s ‘gigafactory’, by putting a picture of several Ola Electric scooters parked together seemingly waiting for servicing.
“Do Indian consumers have a voice? Do they deserve this? Two wheelers are many daily wage workers lifeline …,” Kunal Kamra wrote along with the photo.
He tagged Union Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari, asking: “Is this how Indians will get to using EVs?” The comedian also tagged the official handle of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India @jagograhakjago, seeking an answer saying “Any word?” Kunal Kamra further wrote, “Anyone who has an issue with OLA Electric leave your story below tagging all…”.
To this, Bhavish Aggarwal responded, “Since you care so much @kunalkamra88, come and help us out! I’ll even pay more than you earned for this paid tweet or from your failed comedy career. Or else sit quiet and let us focus on fixing the issues for the real customers.”
He further said, “We’re expanding the service network fast and backlogs will be cleared soon.”
To the “failed comedy career” remark by Bhavish Aggarwal, Kunal Kamra responded by posting a video clip of one of his shows with the audience clapping and cheering and calling the Ola Electric founder and CMD “arrogant and substandard”.
In response, Bhavish Aggarwal said, “Chot lagi? Dard hua? Aaja service centre. Bahut kaam Hai. (Did it hurt? There’s a lot of work. Come to the service centre). I will pay better than your flop shows pay you.”
Kunal Kamra then challenged Aggarwal to “give a total refund to anyone who wants to return their OLA EV & who’s purchased it in the last four months”, saying he doesn’t need his money but “people not being able to get to their workplace need your accountability”.
“Show your customers that you truly care,” Kunal Kamra asserted.
Many Ola Electric consumers jumped into the spat and complained about the service quality of the company, asking Bhavish Aggarwal to address their issues.
This led to the company’s shares plunge, which was already on a downward spiral through September amid rising competition as well as its crippling service centres. As per trade analysts, the stock is currently loss-making and trading at high valuations.
The company, known for offering electric mobility to customers at attractive prices, saw 24,665 e-scooter sales last month, from 27,587 units sold in August, according to the government transportation portal Vahan.
But amid high sales, Ola Electric’s flagship S1 series EV scooter has turned out to be a nightmare for several customers as they continue to face issues like malfunctioning hardware and glitching software even from day one after purchase, with spare parts being hard to come by.
An aggrieved Ola Electric customer torched its showroom in Karnataka last month, as the company’s social media platforms were flooded with complaints about its EV scooters. As per reports, Ola Electric receives around 80,000 complaints monthly, overwhelming its service centres. On peak days, complaints rise to 6,000-7,000.
“The truth is, both your product and service models have failed. Now you’re yelling at customers for pointing out the issues? Focus on fixing your failed products and service model. No wonder your share price is declining daily, and your company isn’t profitable,” posted an X user amid the Twitter war between OLA CEO and Comedian Kamra.
(With agency inputs.)
