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India

Man Sets His Ola Electric Scooter On Fire After It Breaks Down In The Middle Of The Road

For a few months, many shocking instances where electric scooters are breaking down and catching fire have been reported from several parts of the country. This is making people with e-bikes worry about their safety.  

Now, a man who got frustrated with the constant issues he faced with his Ola electric scooter and not receiving help from customer care, set his e-scooter on fire after it broke down in the middle of the road. He poured petrol on his Ola S1 Pro to set it on fire. 

This man named Prithviraj Gopinathan, from Ambur in Tamil Nadu stated that his Ola electric scooter would randomly run out of charge. He posted the complaint he sent the customer service of Ola on Twitter.  

“This is the fourth time I am complaining. There was a 20% charge, suddenly it got down to 0%. Tried to call your stupid, idiotic, useless customer care. No answer,” he said. “It’s better if you change customer care to social media cuz you only reply on social media when I tweet tagging Mr Aggrawal.”
 

He even shared a picture of the bike on fire on his Twitter account.  

The man spoke to Times of India. He said he had been facing constant issues with the bike since he received delivery in January this year. It got unbearable on Tuesday when he went to the Gudiyatham RTO as the company had paid the registration fees there instead of his hometown of Ambur. 

On his way back to Ambur, Prithviraj’s Ola scooter ran out of battery, leaving him stranded in the middle of the road at noon.  
 

Prithviraj called the customer care and requested the company to let him leave the bike at the spot so they could pick it up later. But the customer care executive said, he will have to wait with the scooter till a technician could reach his location at 5pm. This is when Prithvitaj lost it and asked his assistant to buy two litres of petrol and set the bike on fire.
 

He claimed that Ola executives asked him to not share this on social media and news agencies. “A few minutes after I shared the video, a service engineer called me and requested me not to give any interviews to the media and promised to replace the e-bike. I bluntly told them my relationship with their company was over as soon as I burnt the bike,” he said.