Shipping of 5000 units of Freedom 251 will commence on July 8th.
By Dileep Thekkethil
When it comes to launching devices, Ringing Bells is a fine example for other Indian gadget manufacturers to learn how to attract media attention, but when it comes to time bound delivery of products to customers, Ringing Bells has been a failure, at least till now.
Anyhow, the controversial smartphone manufacturer has once again taken the technology world by surprise as it launched today the first HD LED TV from its house along with a series of new mobile devices during a launch event in New Delhi.
Even as ‘Ringing Bells’ lag behind the actual delivery date of its maiden smartphone – Freedom 251, in the launch event today it tried to pacify dissatisfied customers by giving out some information regarding shipping of its first smartphone, that was priced cheaply at Rs 251 ($4).
Mohit Goel, Director, Ringing Bells said the company will start phase-wise distribution of the 5000 units of Freedom 251 mobile smartphones staring from July 8. He also denied reports that there are complaints from customers regarding the refund for Freedom 251 booked in the initial days after the launch. He said “We have no complaint. Our Terms for FREEDOM251 are cash on delivery, therefore there can be no such complaint. For the first 29200 units booked online on 18/2/2016, a sum of RS. 84 lakhs (including courier charges) was received by the payment gateway M/s CC Avenue prior to the server crash and all these funds have been refunded by the gateway itself.
He further added, “No funds were received by Ringing Bells. M/s CC Avenue Payment gateway has confirmed on 29/3/16 that all payments have been refunded to the respective customers. Post rectification and servers coming back online, only Customer Registrations were introduced and customers clearly advised that post confirmation of their orders, the Terms will be COD (cash on delivery). Therefore, cash will be paid by customers only on delivery and therefore no room for any confusion or any advance,” clarifies Mr Goel.
Coming to the devices launched today, the hottest gadget was the 31.5-inch LED TV called Freedom9900, which will hit the market for a price – as the name suggests, Rs. 9,900 ($146). The Noida-based company has announced that the TV will be up for sale by August 16.
The launch event on Thursday also saw the unveiling of the six new models of mobile phones manufactured by Ringing Bells. Four of these keypad-based mobile phones have been giving named King, Boss, Raja and Hit and the two smartphone models have been christened Elegant and Elegance.
While King, Boss, Raja, and Hit are priced at Rs. 899, Rs 999, Rs 1099 and Rs 699 respectively with the smallest and cheapest one being Hit.
The keypad-based phones feature a 32GB of expandable memory coupled with 2MP rear camera powered by batteries ranging from 1,250 mAh to 2,000 mAh. The display size of Raja and King are set at 2.8-inch whereas the smaller phone Hit features a 1.8-inch display.
In the case of the smartphones, Elegant supports the only 3G while the Elegance has 4G enabled. Elegant is a 5-inch smartphone featuring a quad-core processor with a clock speed of 1.3 GHz coupled with 1GB RAM. It also has an 8MP camera in the rear and a 3.2 MP selfie camera. Elegant is powered by a 2,500 mAh battery.
Elegance has a very similar hardware specification but with a superior 2,800mAh battery and 4G VoLTE enabled.
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