'Stop treating us as enemies ...'

There was dissatisfaction, anger and frustration galore at the panel

discussion on warranty issues organized by DQCI in collaboration with Traders’

Association of Information Technology (TAIT) in Mumbai on 8th August. The

bitterness among the channel on warranty was well expressed when a partner

addressed the panelists saying, "Stop treating us as enemies at service

centers."

Sunil Sharma, MD, Kobian; Vijay Dhawan, Director, Dax Networks, Alok Ohrie,

Country Manager, PC Division, IBM, Sandeep Behl, GM-Support, HP, and Naraish

Razaan, Country Support Manger, Samsung, as panelists, bore the brunt of

complaints but with cool and poise. Prasanto Kumar Roy, Chief Editor, Business

Magazine Group, Cyber Media, as moderator, cooled down tempers and urged

partners to look at broader warranty issues.

Power Panel: (l-r) Naraish Razaan of Samsung, Alok Ohrie of IBM, Prashanto Roy of Cyber Media India Ltd, Sunil Sharma of Kobian, Vijay Dhawan of Dax Networks and Sandeep Behl of HP reply to come hard-hitting questions from partners

The partner turnout was massive despite incessant rains. "The attendance

is biggest ever in the history of TAIT for any event," said Gul Fagwani of

Systematics Infotech, a veteran partner.

Even though panelists said that their warranty policies were on paper and

available on the Net, during the hard-hitting Q&A session, when a partner

asked for a show of hands on how many of the attendees were aware of the vendor

policies on warranty, only one hand went up!

Partners could not get a satisfactory answer to their key question:

"When does the warranty commence: Is it from the date of manufacture or the

date of sale to the customer?" Different vendors had different answers

while partners suggested that an uniformity was required in the matter.

There was vigorous debate on DOA products. While majority of the vendors

pursued the path of repairs of products, partners presented the customer

perspective saying that they had paid for a brand new product and would not like

to work with a defective one.

Turnaround time was another big issue. Partners wanted a commitment from

vendors on the time taken by them to repair products and if there is a lapse,

then the vendor should do the square thing for the customer and replace the

product with no questions asked.

Many dealers present voiced their disappointment that while vendors provided

instant replacement of DoA products in the US and other countries, customers in

India had to make do with repaired products. "It becomes very difficult for

us to explain to customers, why they should settle for a repaired product when

he has paid for a brand new one," pointed out Hitesh Mody of Jaydee

Electronics.

Questions were raised as to why the same company adopted different service

policies in different countries. Partners presented the view that if vendors

were unable to provide the warranty as promised, then they should admit the same

and not try to "blind-fold" the channel.

Partners wanted warranty for products that were imported legally in to the

country. Vendors said that they will look into the issue of providing support to

parallely imported goods.

There was a suggestion from partners which received a round of applause, that

vendors should replace RMA products with brand new ones and sell the former to

partners as second sales at concessional rates!

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