Cyfuture which is a BPO & data center company based in Noida is determined for filing an FIR and a defamation suit against Ringing Bells Pvt Ltd, the company that launched the cheapest smartphone of the world at an unbelievable price, i.e., Rs 251.
As per CEO & founder of Cyfuture Anuj Bairathi, SP (crime branch) Vishwajeet Srivastava, the officer in charge gave assurance that an appropriate action will be taken.
This is what Anuj told IANS, “After deciding to file an FIR for fraud and non-payment of dues, we are now thinking to file a defamation suit against Ringing Bells as their allegation of non-performance has tarnished our image.”
Anuj Bairathi further said, “Just a week before ‘Freedom 251’ launch this month, we were told that the company is going to do a ‘dhamaka’ and need 100 people to handle customer calls. But that they are going to launch a dirt cheap smartphone which will attract an unprecedented response was not conveyed to us at all as this exercise would have had needed at least 2,000 people.”
Cyfuture has 10 offices throughout India and about 1,500 employees. Subsequent to few meetings and discussion rounds, Anuj signed the contract; however, he now repents for taking this decision. In his words, “I have 100 kids here who were specifically hired to take customer calls for Ringing Bells. We were assured weekly payment within the contract stating a minimum lock-in period of one year and no termination before a year. What am I going to tell those 100 employees?”
But Ringing Bells Pvt Ltd denied these charges and this is what Ashok Chaddha, president of the company, maintained, “We completely disagree with the facts shared by Cyfuture BPO. Ringing bells were receiving thousands of complaints directly from the consumers that lot of people were not able to get through the helpline number. We had outsourced this job to Cyfuture BPO.”
Ashok Chaddha further stated, “Telecom companies confirmed that the helpline was receiving a volume of approx 12 lakh calls per hour. It came to our knowledge that the BPO company were not able to handle the traffic. We are looking into the situation to serve our customers better.”
But according to the CEO of Cyfuture BPO, they are in this business for over 10 years and can well handle all the customer calls requirements. “Our satisfied client list includes Fortune 500 companies like Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), among others. We have the expertise and knowledge to successfully manage any BPO project.”
The Cyfuture CEO told that they were making a request to Ringing Bells for increasing seats taking into consideration the heavy flow of calls BPO received from public from day one of the launch. In a statement, he maintained, “We explained to them that not increasing the number of seats would lead to severe call drops but they were not willing to increase the number of seats as it involved additional costs.”
In accordance with Bairathi, the smartphone company was responsible for making each pending payment in addition to providing a notice period of 30 days.