‘Don’t ever choose Zoomcar’: Man’s post on ‘dark pattern’ prompts response from company

“Zoomcar has a crazy way to defraud customers,” a man claimed and wrote in a post accusing the car rental company of running a scam. His post has gone viral.

A man from Bengaluru took to X to share his experience with Zoomcar. In his post, he accused the company of running a “straight-up scam” and claimed that it has a “solid dark pattern that makes it ‘collect’ money and not be accountable for what ensues.” His tweet has gone viral and prompted similar reactions from many. The company took notice of the tweet and shared its side of the story.

The image shows a part of the note that a man shared on his experience with Zoomcar. (X/@adadithya)

“Zoomcar has a crazy way to defraud customers, and it's straight-up a scam. Here's how it works. Once you pay up, they add the caveat of verification. Not before. After you pay. And if that fails, there's no way to get in touch with anyone and resolve it. This is despite having a Driving License, Aadhaar and all the relevant documents,” X user Adithya Venkatesan shared. He then claimed that after ‘collecting’ the customer’s money, "they just disappear and you can't get this money refunded either”. He goes on to share a few more lines on his experience and concludes the post by saying “Don’t ever choose Zoomcar”.

Take a look at the entire post on Zoomcar here:

The viral post was shared a day ago. Since then, it has accumulated more than 96,000 views. The tweet has further collected close to 1,100 likes. The share has also prompted people to post varied comments. Zoomcar, too, responded to the share.

How did Zoomcar react to the viral tweet?

Zoomcar reacted to the post and shared, “Hello Adithya, as previously communicated over DM, we've reviewed your profile status and observed a discrepancy between the face on your driver's license and the uploaded selfie. Hence, the profile was rejected.”

In a follow-up tweet, the company added, “Since you've cancelled the booking, a full refund has automatically been initiated and should reflect in your source account within the next 5-7 business days. In case you need any help or require further clarification, please feel free to DM us.”

Zoomcar also shared a clarification post:

“As a Nasdaq-listed company, we uphold rigorous standards of safety and integrity in all aspects of our operations and it is non negotiable. Customer verification plays a pivotal role in the well-being of both our guests and hosts community ensuring a secure environment for everyone involved. Failure to do so leads to a booking cancellation with automatic refund which takes 7-10 days. We are fully committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of our customers, and we will continue to prioritise their safety and security above all else,” Greg Moran, Co-founder & CEO, Zoomcar said in a statement.

How did X users react to this post on Zoomcar?

“The company is not doing too well on the public markets. So something’s definitely up,” shared an X user.

“I have had terrible experiences twice. Never using Zoomcar again,” posted another.

“I've had a pathetic experience once. The car was just not there, and there was no one to contact. Customer care didn't help at all,” expressed a third.

“I moved away from it and realised that it's actually pretty easy to find driving rentals in every city. A lot cheaper and hassle-free without a clunky app interface,” commented a fourth.

“Been through that, had to file a consumer complaint, used ChatGPT also to write those long emails, took four months to get my money back, no compensation for jeopardising the trip though,” wrote a fifth.