Warranty Woes

With a topic as sensitive as warranty, fireworks were on display at the DQCI-TAIT panel discussion. Representatives of vendors got a first-hand glimpse of problems faced by partners who used the opportunity to give vent to their dissatisfaction in a united fashion.

Vendors got a taste of channel partners’ discontent at the panel discussion

on warranty held by DQ Channels India in association with TAIT in Mumbai rcently.

Partners remain at the receiving end from customers when their warranty

expectations are not met. So it was only natural that this time around, partners

should direct the anger and frustration at vendors on the panel.

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

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

Razdan, Country Support Manager, Samsung, as panelists, bore the brunt of

complaints but with cool and poise. As moderator, Prasanto Kumar Roy, Chief

Editor, Business Magazine Group, Cyber Media, cooled down tempers and urged

partners to look at broader warranty issues.

The panel discussion attracted a huge crowd of 160 partners, who battled

incessant rains to make it to the venue. "The attendance is one of the

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

Systematics Infotech, a veteran partner. Just goes to show how much warranty

issues have affected partners and their daily business!

AVAILABILITY OF WARRANTY POLICY



One of the first issues that was tackled was whether vendors make their

warranty policies transparent to partners. Sandeep claimed that warranty was a

service that the customer bought along with the product. In light of this, HP

has communicated to partners how warranty is handled in the company’s system,

so that customers do not suffer.

"We get only 50 cases of DoA in a year, while we move 50,000 boxes a month. Our ToT is 48 hours" Naraish Razdaan, Country Support Manger, Samsung

Vijay Dhawan said that Dax’s warranty policy has two aspects: recognition

of the problem and responsibility to save time and paperwork. He added that the

company was putting in place a system where warranty would be given with no

questions asked. In short, all vendors claimed that their warranty policies were

available on their company web sites for partners to access, as well as in

printed the format.

But partners felt that making the warranty policy available on the web site

was not good enough. Only one hand among attendees went up, when a show of hands

was called for, to know how many were aware of the warranty policies of the

vendors on the panel!

DATE OF COMMENCEMENT OF WARRANTY



One of the issues that has caused consternation among partners is the

confusion over the date when warranty commences. Some vendors like HP offer

warranty from the date the end-user buys the product from dealers. Others, like

Dax, IBM and Kobian; implement the warranty from the date of sale to the

channel. Says Sunil Sharma, "When the product remains unsold for a long

time, dealers can bring proof to distributor to verify it, if there is a

warranty issue."

"Given the low margins prevalent in this business, it is not possible to replace each and every DoA product" Alok Ohrie, Country Manager, PC Division, IBM

But partners argue that this makes the entire process very long and tedious

for the dealer and the buyer. Especially if the former has to take his own sales

bill and purchase invoice to the distributor, who then sends it the vendor, who

then checks their systems to see if the two coincide.

Partners suggested that vendors should have a standard date of warranty for

all products. This would eliminate a lot of confusion. Also while asking for

proof of purchase, vendors should satisfy themselves with the customer’s bill

of purchase instead of asking for an invoice from the distributor.

Naraish clarified that only in doubtful cases customers were asked to present

proof of purchase. In ordinary cases, no questions were asked about the proof of

purchase.

GAP BETWEEN CONSUMER AND IT PRODUCTS



Several partners gave the analogy of warranty offered for consumer products

like TVs and washing machines. When a TV is dead on arrival (DoA), the customer

is offered a ready replacement. In an age where the PC is finding its place in

virtually each home, partners asked why could a similar practice not be followed

in the IT industry too.

"Solving warranty problems is in the interests of both: vendors as well as channel partners" Prasanto Kumar Roy, Chief Editor, DQCI

To this Alok Ohrie replied that in consumer products, all components of the

machine are within the box itself. But in a PC, the mouse, keyboard, cabinet and

monitor are all separate units and come from different vendors.

Vijay Dhawan said that the comparision between replacements offered for IT

products in the US and in India is unjust, adding that the volumes of PC sales

in America justified replacements. "Once India reaches these levels of

sales, I am sure most IT vendors would offer replacement here too," he

quipped.

DoA AND ToT



Partners pointed out that often terms and conditions for DoA and turnaround

time (ToT) are not mentioned clearly in black and white. In addition to this,

partners claimed that it was difficult to convince customers to take a repaired

product when they have paid the price for a new one.

Alok pointed that DoA is a functional and physical problem. "With

high-end systems, it is not possible to replace the box with a box. Customers

understand this and therefore we only replace the faulty part," he said. He

added that in case of extensive physical damages to PCs, the company has often

asked its distributors to replace the box to the reseller or SI.

"When the product remains unsold for a long time, dealers can bring proof to distributor for verification, if there is a warranty issue" Sunil Sharma, MD, Kobian

Naraish said, "We get only 50 cases of DoA in a year, while we move

50,000 boxes a month. Our ToT is 48 hours." He added that in most cases,

DoA cases occur due to mishandling of products. However, when asked whether

replacements are given on lapse of the ToT, he replied in the negative.

Vijay, on the other hand, said that though Dax has a RMA period of three

days, it replaces the product if it is not dispatched in this period. But other

vendors did not have a remedy when turnaround time lapsed. To this, Hitesh Mody

of Jaydee Electronics quipped, "If the product is not given within the

specified time frame, vendors should reimburse the user for the delay. This will

at least improve the balance sheet of every partner!"

HP repairs products, if there is a functional damage and the time for DoA is

14 days since the date of purchase by users.

Alok pointed out that given the low margins prevalent in the business, it is

not possible to replace each and every DoA product. This is why most vendors

replace the faulty components. And he asked partners that if vendors were to

replace the faulty products and repair the faulty ones, would dealers be willing

to buy repaired boxes?

To this one partner quipped that vendors should hold a ‘seconds sale’ for

repaired products and partners would buy these at discounted rates. He added

that partners could use these products as demo products in their companies.

WARRANTY FOR PARALLEL IMPORTS



Another issue that was brought to light was the warranty for legal parallel

imports. Recently HP had stated that it would not provide warranty for its

products imported parallely. Sandeep admitted that all HP products did not carry

international warranty, but he assured the assembled partners that he would try

to solve this problem.

"Dax’s warranty policy has two aspects: recognition of the problem and responsibility to save time and paperwork" Vijay Dhawan, Director, Dax Networks

Naraish also pointed out that typically all international warranties carry

the name of the service provider. So the customer could just walk in there and

get the products serviced. Vijay added that if a channel partner sells a

parallelly imported product to a user without informing him about the service

modalities, he is doing a great disservice to his customer and the brand he is

selling. So while vendors take the onus of servicing products, it is imperative

that partners too give the correct information to users.

The conclusion was that international warranty should be supported,

irrespective of whichever country the product is purchased.

WARRANTY OF BUNDLED PRODUCT



Often vendors bundle their products with those of other brands as a sales

promotion. If in such a scenario, the bundled product does not function, who is

liable for its warranty?

"All HP products do not carry international warranty, but we will try to solve this problem" Sandeep Behl, GM-Support, HP

Naraish claimed that Samsung gives bundled products of reputed companies

which carry warranty. But he said that if there have been cases where warranty

of bundled products is not respected, then he would look into the matter.

IBM as a policy does not bundle products from other companies and therefore

has not faced this problem.

The objective of the event was to provide a common platform to vendors and

partners to come together and sort out issues on warranty. This was achieved to

a great extent. Partners were very keen that more events of this kind were

organized by bringing in other prominent vendors on the panel.

VINITA BHATIA in MUMBAI