Consumers who bought the Freedom 251 smartphone will receive the refund for their payment this week. The refunding process was initiated on 29 February. This has been confirmed by the payment gateway, CC Avenues to The Quint.
All the 18,000 plus transactions amounting to Rs. 88 lakhs processed through the Freedom 251 website has been refunded by us on 29 February, on the instructions of the merchant.Vishwas Patel, Chief Executive Officer, Avenues India Pvt Ltd
The refund date may vary depending on the bank, however, customers who paid for the Freedom 251 smartphone via freedom251.com should get their refund by the end of this week, the payment gateway clarified.
While, this may come as a relief to those who were worried about the credibility of Ringing Bells, it does raise questions as to what the company has been telling us all this while. When asked as to how the payments accrued in the CC Avenue escrow account is more than the projected amount, this what Avenues India had to say:
The discrepancies in numbers are due to the fact that repeat transactions have been made from a single ID. Also, you have to consider scenarios where the transaction has failed the first time but worked the next time.Company spokesperson
This development comes on the back of the recent questioning of Ringing Bells CEO Mohit Goel by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The authorities claim to have averted a Freedom 251 Ponzi scheme in the making.
Also Read: Freedom 251: Averted Scam, CEO Goel ‘Publicity-Hungry’, Says ED
Avenues India has divulged that Ringing Bells provided false details to do its business.
CC Avenues decided to stop the payment transactions on freedom251.com, once we realised that their estimation of just 500 to 2000 orders was nowhere close to the actual numbers their site was registering.Company spokesperson
All this clearly points to the lack of ethics in the way Ringing Bells and its CEO, Mohit Goel, have run their business. It’s no wonder that they’re feeling the heat from all corners.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)