They made me wait for an hour and then I was told that nothing could be done about the issue as it is a manufacturing defect and I should just accept it.
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Update after the service centre visit
I visited the Ola Service Centre in Thrissur (Peramangalam) yesterday, and boy were there many scooters waiting to be serviced, repaired and whatnot. I don’t know how much pride they put in showing that they have over 30 vehicles waiting outside gathering dust and another 30 or so more inside the service centre.
A common sight in what I noticed was that 90% of them were either the OLA S1 PRO GEN 1 or OLA S1, with hardly a couple of OLA S1X+ and OLA S1 Air in the lot.
I had booked the service appointment in advance (timing 1 pm to 4 pm) and reached at 2:30 pm but it is of absolutely no use. The security guard displayed ownership of the service centre and said they had over 60 vehicles waiting, and the service centre staff were on a lunch break. I persisted that mine was a panel gap issue and just wanted some service personnel to take a look at it and see what they could do. He asked me to come back after 3 pm, and I could do nothing. I went into the sales section and was greeted by a nice polite lady sales personnel, and I told her my difficulties, she immediately sent me a technician she knew, and he inspected the gaps and told me to come back tomorrow to pick my scooter up.
I told them that I was coming from over far away (the service centre in Thrissur town which is just 20 km from my house said they do only small work) just to get these repaired as per the appointment given to me and I am leaving for Muscat tomorrow evening and won’t be able to wait and come back.
He told me to wait for an hour and let him see what could be done. I showed him the panel gaps and the poor fitting of the mirror the delivery executive in Thrissur had done and asked him to kindly fix that too. He obliged. While waiting I was inspecting the 30-odd scooters gathering dust outside the showroom and noticed every single one of them having a few panel gaps here and there, some were more pronounced while others were subtle.
After half an hour, the service personnel came back and told me they could do nothing and it was a “manufacturing defect”. I sighed and he told me there was nothing to do and I should just accept it. Saddened, I took my scooter and drove away.
Afterwards, in the evening I got a call from the OLA backend team who asked me whether I got everything fixed to my satisfaction I told her No, and what had happened. I don’t know if it would be of any use but anyway, I conveyed my dissatisfaction.
Anyway, while on the ride back home, I tested the scooter quite thoroughly and found most of its functions working as well as they are supposed to. The brakes were on point. Forced regen was working well, Ola Maps were accurate, and the other features like music, party mode, and mobile app connectivity all worked well. Most importantly the range shown was accurate, and even though I was riding with a pillion and some luggage (altogether 150 kg), I was able to extract 120 km from an 85% charge (100 to 15%), which left me quite impressed.
Overall, I would say that these panel gaps, fit and finish issues are the major drawbacks of the OLA S1 PRO GEN 2, while most of the other issues plaguing the GEN 1 Scooters have been fixed. However, such inconsistencies in panel gaps, including improper alignment, huge gaps in the mudguard, and panel gaps below the handlebar are unacceptable and should be dealt with by OLA ASAP.
So, to all those looking for an OLA scooter kindly look above your front tyre for the huge panel gap between the body and the mudguard as it is a common sight among many scooters. To add to the misery, my scooter comes with a panel gap below the handlebar which no other scooter gets, so I am sad to say I am stuck with a scooter with panel gaps higher than the norm for OLA scooters.
Finally, to conclude, I must say that the OLA S1 range of scooters isn’t definitely for the ones who prefer build quality and fit and finish and prefer their scooters aesthetics being top notch. For that please have a look at the Bajaj Chetak, TVS iQube etc. But for those who prefer function over form (and don’t mind the form being poor), you can go for the OLA S1 GEN 2 series (be it the PRO, AIR or X).
Update from the Ola customer backend support team
I don’t know what the service centre and Ola Backend Team are up to here, but I got a call yesterday asking me whether I had gotten everything fixed to my satisfaction, I told them NO, I had visited the service centre and they had me wait for an hour told me it’s a “manufacturing defect” and there is nothing they could do about it.
Earlier I received a couple of text messages telling me that My scooter’s repair work had been initiated and then my repair work was completed and Ola Scooter Service was done and delivered back to me.
I guess, the backend team raised a call on the response from the service centre team that they had taken the scooter for service and had completed work on it whereas in reality they made me wait for an hour, took my scooter in and after 15 minutes, told me there is nothing to do.
Now, the OLA app shows a repair estimate of Rs 265.50 when in reality absolutely nothing has been done.
In the meantime, after this thread had gone live, OLA raised a ticket on their own citing a Social Media Escalation along with an Invoice of Rs 225.
I don’t know what in the hell are they raising these invoices for when there was absolutely nothing done YET on their part to resolve my issues. The service centre personnel have shamelessly raised two invoices (one for Rs 265.50 and another for Rs 225) for doing absolutely nothing on my scooter.
I have attached the relevant screenshots.
Hopefully, they do something about my issues.
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