On Sunday, 6th October, Ola Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal got into an online spat with alleged comedian Kunal Kamra when the latter attempted to target his company’s customer care service. In one of the posts, Bhavish questioned Kamra’s not-so-successful career as a comedian and pointed out that he was trying to behave as if he had some authoritative role. He said, “Comedian ban na sake, chaudhary banne chale.”
Bhavish Aggarwal, who is co-founder of Ola and founder of Ola Electric and OlaKrutrim, also offered Kamra a job Ola if cared about customer service so much, saying that he would pay more than what Kamra is earning from comedy.
It all started with a post by Kamra, where he questioned the possible backlog of pending service requests for Ola Electric Scooters outside an Ola showroom. In his post, Kamra wrote, “Do Indian consumers have a voice? Do they deserve this? Two-wheelers are the lifeline for many daily wage workers…” He tagged Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari and the Department of Consumer Affairs, and asked if this was “how Indians will get to using EVs?” He also urged people to post their stories about Ola Electric under his post. He had quoted Bhavish’s post where he had shared Ola’s Giga Factory’s photograph.
Do indian consumers have a voice?
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) October 6, 2024
Do they deserve this?
Two wheelers are many daily wage workers lifeline…@nitin_gadkari is this how Indians will get to using EV’s? @jagograhakjago any word?
Anyone who has an issue with OLA electric leave your story below tagging all… https://t.co/G2zdIs15wh pic.twitter.com/EhJmAzhCmt
Quoting Kamra, Bhavish sarcastically offered Kamra a “job” to help Ola out and said he would pay Kamra more than he earned from the post or from his ‘failed comedy career’, suggesting that Kamra’s post targeting Ola could be a paid social media post. He said, “Since you care so much, Kunal Kamra, come and help us out! I’ll even pay you more than you earned for this paid tweet or from your failed comedy career. Or else, sit quietly and let us focus on fixing the issues for the real customers. We’re expanding the service network fast, and backlogs will be cleared soon.”
Since you care so much @kunalkamra88, come and help us out! I’ll even pay more than you earned for this paid tweet or from your failed comedy career.
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) October 6, 2024
Or else sit quiet and let us focus on fixing the issues for the real customers. We’re expanding service network fast and backlogs… https://t.co/ZQ4nmqjx5q
Replying to Bhavish’s sarcastic post about his “failed” comedy career, Kamra tried to portray himself as successful and shared how the audience reacted when he “surprised” them during a show by another alleged comedian, Grover (possibly Varun Grover). He wrote, “On my failed comedy career, here’s a clip from last year when I surprised an audience & opened for Grover… Anything else, you arrogant, substandard prick, Bhavish?”
On my failed comedy career here’s a clip from last year when I surprised an audience & opened for Grover…
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) October 6, 2024
Anything else you arrogant, substandard, prick @bhash pic.twitter.com/e7bQzVcCrT
Bhavish again quoted him and questioned whether he had hurt Kamra’s ego. He wrote, “Chot lagi? Dard hua? Aaja service centre. Bahut kaam hai. I will pay better than your flop shows pay you. Show your audience how much you truly care and whether you’re only full of gas and BS,” and once again invited Kamra to work for him, promising better pay.
Chot lagi? Dard hua? Aaja service center. Bahut kaam hai. I will pay better than your flop shows pay you.
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) October 6, 2024
Show your audience how much you truly care and whether you’re only gas and BS. https://t.co/yEvxhoGTvR
Kamra again targeted Bhavish and asked him to refund money to his customers who had bought Ola Scooters in the last four months and wanted to return them. He wrote, “Instead, can you give a full refund to anyone who wants to return their OLA EV and who has purchased it in the last four months? I don’t need your money—people not being able to get to their workplace need your accountability. Show your customers that you truly care.”
Instead can you give a total refund to anyone who wants to return their OLA EV & who’s purchased it in the last 4 months?
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) October 6, 2024
I don’t need your money people not being able to get to their workplace need your accountability.
Show your customers that you truly care? https://t.co/tI2dwZT2n2
Bhavish quoted him and pointed out that there are programs in place to deal with delays and again urged Kamra to come and do some real work with Ola. He said, “We have enough programs for our customers if they face service delays. If you were a genuine one, you would have known. Again, don’t try and back out of this. Come and do some real work rather than armchair criticism.”
We have enough programs for our customers if they face service delays. If you were a genuine one, you would have known.
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) October 6, 2024
Again, don’t try and back out of this. Come and do some real work rather than armchair criticism. https://t.co/HFFKgsl7d9
Bhavish Aggarwal and Kunal Kamra’s online spat continued as Kamra again poked him and gave him other options if Bhavish could not offer refunds including 85% refund for 1-2 months, 75% refund for three months and so on. To his post, Bhavish used a sarcastic punchline and said, “Comedian ban na sake, chaudhary banne chale. Do your research better next time. And the offer to come and help us out in our service center remains open. Take up the challenge. Maybe you’ll learn some real skills for a change.”
Comedian ban na sake, chaudhary banne chale.
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) October 6, 2024
Do your research better next time. And the offer to come and help us out in our service center remains open. Take up the challenge. Maybe you’ll learn some real skills for a change. https://t.co/4KekvB5Qbu
Ola’s CEO Bhavish has made headlines several times in the past for his comments on different topics. In May this year, he slammed woke culture and spoke out about schools brainwashing kids. In a post on X, he talked about LinkedIn’s new Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot and its reference to him with pronouns such as ‘they/ their.’ Bhavish Aggarwal then raised alarm about multinational companies indoctrinating unsuspecting Indians with ‘pronoun illness.’
He wrote, “Hoping that this “pronoun illness” doesn’t reach India. Many “big city schools” in India are now teaching it to kids. Also see many CVs with pronouns these days. Need to know where to draw the line in following the west blindly!” He further emphasised, “Most of us in India have no clue about politics of this pronouns illness. People do it because it’s become expected in our corporate culture, especially MNCs.”
“Better to send this illness back where it came from. Our culture has always had respect for all. No need for new pronouns,” Bhavish Aggarwal concluded.
Kunal Kamra, on the other hand, has made headlines for his strange behaviour. In 2020, he made headlines for hackling Republic TV chief Arnab Goswami on an airplane resulting in him getting banned from several airlines. Later, in February 2023, he came out in support of alleged comedian Tanmay Bhat after Kotak withdrew its ad campaign featuring the latter over his old child rape tweets. He even praised Cred for keeping Bhat’s campaign alive but later deleted that post.
Ola Electric, India’s largest electric scooter manufacturer, has seen impressive growth since its launch. But in recent times, it has faced a large number of complaints regarding the quality of the vehicles and quality of service. One of the most common complaints from Ola Electric owners is the long wait time for repairs and services. Many people have complaints of having to wait for over a month to get their scooters repaired. Shortage of spare parts is another issue faced by customers.
As Ola operates on a direct-to-consumer model, it does not have dealers and franchise service centres, the company manages everything. While this was supposed to help the company control every aspect of the two-wheelers, the company has struggled to meet the demand for servicing and repairs.
