Negligent Indian Startups

I booked a PG with Zolo on June 1st. I called their customer service the next day. An agent answered my phone who confirmed the room and asked me to pay the deposit. I paid the deposit through their website. He said I can walk-in anytime on June 6th.

June 6th

I called their customer care and asked if I can check-in today. She said “You can, after you pay first month’s rent”. I paid.

I recently had a surgery on my left knee. I can’t give it much strain. When I walk-in with my heavy bag. The first sentence the property owner uttered was

“Come back on June 10th, Room khali nahi hai. We can’t do anything , It’s Zolo’s mistake they didn’t confirm with us.”

I stayed there, made many calls to their customer service. Every call, I had to wait 5 to 10 minutes to speak to their agent. They say “I will get back to you”. They never called back.

They asked to adjust on the down floor for a few days and we will shift you to another room. The “other room” was not the room I paid for. It doesn’t even have an attached bathroom. I waited for an hour. Now, they are running around for a key. Am not sure if that’s a drama , indirectly asking me to leave the premise.

I contacted Zolo customer care via email [email protected] (This is mentioned on their website).

The reply was “Thanks for writing to Zolo. However, this is an unmonitored inbox and emails to this account would not receive a response.”

Luckily this is HSR, Bangalore, I have bunch of great friends here who can accommodate me.

But, I wonder what if it was someone else, Who was new to Bangalore? The poor guy would be helpless.

These startups run behind growth and don’t give a shit about customer experience.

Update : An agent from Zolo customer desk called and sorted out the issue. He apologised on behalf of the entire organisation. He has promised me such events will never happen again. I analysed the situation and have written another story on how this could have been prevented here.