Maker ‘3-euro smartphone’ returns money after fraud allegations
People who have placed an order for the Freedom 251 smartphone in India for just over three euros will get their deposit back. The manufacturer still claims to actually deliver the devices, but customers now only have to pay on delivery.
Payment provider CCAvenue has refunded the money people paid to order the Freedom 251 online to customers, India Times reported. The refund would have been initiated by Ringing Bells itself, the manufacturer of the cheap smartphone. The company would have taken this measure because of the many allegations of fraud. The manufacturer still says that it will actually deliver the device for the price of 251 Indian rupees, converted 3.40 euros. Customers now only have to pay when they have the device in their hands.
It would involve the refund of 30,000 transactions from 14,800 customers. Many more people would have ordered the smartphone, but they never received a confirmation with a link to pay. To the Indian Gadgets360, the manufacturer says that a total of 70 million registrations have been made and that the company will order parts to make 2.5 million smartphones. However, the manufacturer still has to figure out how to select the first 2.5 million customers from all registrations.
After the introduction of the Freedom 251, the manufacturer came under scrutiny. Initially, it was thought that the company would make the smartphones with a government subsidy. The device was presented in the presence of an Indian minister and contains apps created by the government. However, Ringing Bells soon announced that the company will receive no subsidy and that the minister is ‘an old friend’. It also turned out that the device shown is in fact a smartphone from the Indian manufacturer Adcom, whose logo was taped.
The actual aircraft has yet to be produced. The Freedom 251 is an Android smartphone with a 4″ IPS screen with a resolution of 960×540 pixels. It has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage space, which can be expanded with a micro-SD card of up to 32GB. The soc has four cores with a speed of 1.3GHz and there is a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus.
It seems unlikely that Ringing Bells can manufacture a smartphone with these specifications at the stated price without making a loss. For that reason, and due to a lack of clarity about the company itself, many people, including politicians from India, think it is a scam. The manufacturer denies all allegations and says it will deliver the Freedom 251 before the end of June.
Photo: gadgets360.com