Can the company save cancellations of the pre-bookings?
India was overjoyed in July when the Ambanis announced their plans to come up with the Rs 1500/- phone which would offer unlimited talk-time on its varied subscriber plans.
Come August and with the D Date of 24 August 2017 arriving near, millions of curious Indians put in their advance deposit and booked the ‘revolutionary feature phone”. This was welcomed so positively by the junta that JIO received confirmed orders for 6.5 million handsets.
These were the customers who were promised delivery of their feature phone in the first week of September. This did not happen and then this was followed by press releases that due to “shraad period going on”, the deliveries would begin on the first day of navratras beginning 21 September.
Then came the news that deliveries began sometime later and they would begin with the interiors and rural areas and the expectant buy in a metropolitan city like Delhi or Mumbai would be the last to be delivered. The company had advertised that it had the capacity to supply half a million pieces per week. This meant that the urban person would get the delivery by around December – that is after three more months from today the 28th of September 2017.
This has resulted in frustration among the loyalist Jio brigade for several reasons:
1) It is not confirmed that WhatsApp communication wont be possible from Jio featurephone.
2) Touted as a FREE PHONE – the customer had to pay Rs 1,500 as deposit money which he cannot return and claim his refund before the end of 36 months.
3) This means that the company is assured of a minimum of Rs 153 recharge for 28 days period from MILLIONS of its customers for the next 3 years.
4) Then comes the news that Airtel is in final talks with smartphone manufacturers to provide a below Rs 2,500/- a 4 inches display smart phone with NO RESTRICTIONS in the usage of features like Whats App and others.
5) The Airtel phone would give the freedom to the subscriber to used SIM of any other company after some time UNLIKE the Reliance JIO Feature phone handset which does not have the facility of using other network’s sim card.
Millions of its prospective customers are looking for a REFUND OF THEIR INITIAL DEPOSIT before the handset is delivered to them.
The Flip Side 