Ringing Bells did ring a bell as something one should not put their trust upon. Why? A price that is nowhere close to real. Taking money upfront and asking the buyers to wait for months before actually shipping the device.
As I write this, there are still two-way talks about this. One still says that the Freedom 251 will be shipped very soon, and that will be as soon as May 2016. The other story claims that the phone might never come back and even though for every person who paid for it might not see it as a big loss, but if that happens and the phones / refunds don’t reach the buyers, that’s clearly a scam.
Now, add a few hundred rupees, you see a new phone available, from a newer name in the smartphone market – Docoss X1. I’m sure you never heard of the name Docoss and I could find out the same only as a bathroom accessory seller on Snapdeal. But, on checking out more about it, we could find that the company is registered with Jaipur, Rajasthan as the location.
Why is it buzzing so well already? It is clearly about the price and nothing else. A cheap price is what is keeping buyers interested in this device. Everyone has forgotten about the always-talked-about specifications, about the brand, about the after-sales service, or whatever they look at in the list when choosing a new smartphone, because the Docoss X1 comes in with a three-figure INR price tag.
It is not uncommon to see affordable smartphones at an attractive price these days, and phones with prices as low as Rs. 2000 for entry-level specifications can be seen around. What’s the difference? those devices are from brands one knows already, and such brands that have been banking with their values won’t take a chance with such publicity stunts. Now, when no one knows Docoss, or Ringing Bells, or any such name, there is nothing about brand value here. It is all about playing with the mentality of people who run towards the “cheap (or sasta in Hindi)” price tag.
Ironically, the “Subsay Susta Bhee Subsay Acha Bhee” tagline doesn’t help with the cause for Docoss. Ringing Bells didn’t have any bad one either – “Sapne Sach Honge”. But whose dreams are they talking about? I know we haven’t already seen the end of this, and while I write this, there might be many others who are still trusting these companies to actually ship the devices, but let’s do a reality check – Do you think the phone will be made with all those components for a price of Rs. 251, or even Rs. 888? If not, even with the govt. subsidies, they won’t still be making any profit but losses for sure.
But, recently it was even learned that the govt. isn’t involved with anything being done by Ringing Bells. Docoss isn’t answering to any questions that we asked them, but they are pretty sure that the phones will be shipped from May 2nd, and an order I placed via. SMS with the Cash-on-delivery option was replied to, acknowledging the order. It makes things quite interesting because I have paid ZERO so far, but I still have the same amount of trust that a phone would arrive at my doorstep.
If not money, the company might easily gain a junk load of email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and genuine names by doing this, if they have anything in the future to market something related. The motive behind this isn’t known but we surely know how easy it is for them to do this – market such offers by offline means (mainly the newspapers) and you have so many people interested in it without checking for the legitimacy of the offer, the company, or the product. Heck, who cares? It’s not even the cost of a cab trip from the airport to my residence!
While I show my frustration here on people who trust such offers easily, or even think its worthwhile spending an hour trying to open the website and place an order, and later spend hours bashing the company for not honoring it, these things are not easily avoidable because the “Cheap” or “Affordable” tag works well in India.
