Zoomcar or Carzonrent Myles? My experience with car rental services.

Bangalore has always been a city where innovative startups took a small step and went on to become one of the most successful ventures in India. Zoomcar is one such startup. Self drive rental services was not popular in India unlike our western counterparts. Thanks to zoomcar, who brought this concept in India and started with Bangalore.

I have rented car from Zoomcar on many occasions over the last couple of years. I've found the price quite reasonable (Expensive on weekends and public holidays though). The website mentions every detail you need to know before booking a car. If you call the staff, they are courteous enough to answer your queries. 

Zoomcar I rented for trip to Chikmagalur

I went with Carz On Rent's Myles service recently as I received positive feedback about them and it was coming a bit cheaper than zoomcar, for 1 day rental. No cap on number of kilometers run was another thing which attracted me towards Myles. The website was good and provided the necessary details. I had to rent GPS separately for Rs 300. Zoomcar provides GPS in all the cars without any charge. Anyway, I went ahead and rented figo a week in advance.

The journey day came. My booking was from 7AM. Pickup point was in Ulsoor. I was under the impression that I can go on my own vehicle, park at their office, and take my booked Figo. That's what I've always done when I rent from Zoomcar.  Fortunately, I thought of calling at the Ulsoor office and enquire about parking space before leaving from home.

The first shock

The person on other side informed me that there's no parking provision for customers. I mentioned that I am with family and can't come in public transport just to pickup the car. But the guy said, "Saar, take an auto or a bus and come, else call customer care and complain there". I was furious. But couldn't do anything as we already had plans for the day. Booked a taxi for CarzonRent Ulsoor office, went inside and met a representative.

Here comes the second shock

The rep informs me that they don't have GPS. The site has a glitch and the amount will be refunded in a few days. Wow, so CarzonRent assumes that the customers know all the routes and doesn't need a GPS. why not still charge them for it? I again tried to reason with the rep that GPS is an essential thing which they should provide free of charge. But the reply was same "Call customer care". Finally I took the car hoping for no more shocks. The car's condition was good.

We went ahead with the plan. Travelled to Mysore, explored the places there.Finally returned home after dropping the car at their Ulsoor office in the midnight, taking a cab back home.

So, what initially I thought that I'm saving money by renting from CarzonRent, proved to be wrong. I had to shell out 600Rs for cabs. I had to burn my 3g for navigation. Plus wastage of time and mental peace. I would never ever rent again from CarzonRent and will advice my friends and colleagues to go for Zoomcar anyday even if it's a bit expensive. It's worth it.

Note: I wrote this post one year ago on one of my older blogs which I've retired.