Freedom 251: Call Centre says Ringing Bells is Fraud

Now there is new turn in Freedom 251 (the world’s cheapest Smartphone, which is  been sold by Noida based Company Ringing Bells).  Ringing Bells has been accused of “fraud” and non-payment of dues by its customer service provider — a charge refuted by the smartphone company. Ringing Bell has on the other hand accused the BPO company, Cyfuture, of having failed in handling the huge traffic of customer calls.

The Call Centre of Ringing Bells has been out sourced to Cyfuture.

Cyfuture founder and CEO Anuj Bairathi said, “We were always sceptical of Ringing Bells and their business model. After several rounds of discussions with Ringing Bells management team and when they showed us names of senior politicians visiting their launch event, we decided to take up their project.”

Bairathi said as per their agreement, in the event of termination due to unsatisfactory services, Ringing Bells was to provide a 30 day notice-period and make all pending payments. “They are also not taking our calls. We plan to take all necessary legal recourse including filing a police complaint to fight our case. We have started talking with police and file case by tomorrow. There will be ruckus at our company if we lay off 100 employees hired for Ringing Bells project,” Bairathi said.

Bairathi said that 100 people were hired in short span for three days who handed lakhs of calls for the Freedom 251 mobile phones. Noida-based Ringing Bells unveiled a 3G smartphone at Rs 251, taking by surprise industry players who raised questions over the possibility of such phone at the promised price.

An equivalent model of the phone is available in market for about Rs 3000-4,000. However, the company received a huge response from customers on the first day of opening of registration for the promised smartphone leading to crash of its website. The Telecom Ministry is also keeping a close watch over the development with Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad saying that the company would face action if it fails to deliver the promised smartphone.