Delhi partners rue Samsung HDD's price disparity

Some members of the channel community in Delhi have expressed discontentment over the discrepancies, which according to them exist, in the Samsung HDD prices in Singapore and India. While Samsung officials refuted the charges, channel community is divided over the issue.

Said Elcom Computers director Somesh Narang, "Samsung is charging high in the name of India warranty. It charges Rs 400 to 500 extra from customers and dealers despite the fact that there is no duty structure involved. If we compare the prices of Samsung HDDs in India to Samsung HDDs in Singapore, we find that prices in Singapore are much cheaper. This is without any value addition in the product."

Giving the reason, he added, "The possible reason for this could be that Samsung does not have adequate stocks and therefore is not showing any aggression in the Indian market. Their market share in terms of sales has gone down from 60 to 40-45 percent in the last quarter. On the other hand, Seagate's market share has increased. Seagate, though not officially announced, gives an extended three-year warranty for just Rs 199. Moreover, Seagate has a uniform pricing and warranty structure. We can buy Seagate HDDs in Singapore and can claim the warranty here in India."

When contacted, Samsung India country product manager (HDD business) Raman Khosla refuted the contention. "There is absolutely no discrepancy whatsoever in our India and Singapore prices of HDDs. The duty cuts that are being spoken about were on the cost price and not on the selling price. The reduction amounted to 20 percent of the cost price, which translates to 15 percent reduction in the end user price. Samsung is offering that benefit to the customers," he said.

He, however, did agree on the fact that there is a price differential "but not to the extent of four to five hundred rupees. It may be to the tune of Rs 50 to 75," which he attributed to the value-added services. "We have a nationwide service network and we provide maintenance and repair services to our customers. If we charge a premium of Rs 400 to 500 on a product like HDD, we won't be able to survive in the market," he added.

Rajesh Gogia, Director, Sun Systems, a leading reseller of Ghaziabad, admitted that discrepancy exists in the HDD prices even though the sales tax on it has been reduced to zero percent. He depicted another problem. "If we buy the HDDs from any other then Samsung we are not given the warranty as it says that it's not genuine. There is no way we can make out genuine from the real one's and the company too is not doing anything in this regard."

On the issue of India warranty, Khosla said, "Samsung does provide an India warranty but that's only for products sold through Samsung. Customers may not know the difference between a genuine Samsung HDD and a refurbished one. There is no denial to the fact that a significant gray market is operating in this area."

Kapil Wadhwa, Director, Champion Computers, another major partner of Samsung, however, expressed ignorance of the whole issue. He said that he had no idea about it and rather asked The DQ Week to give him the details of the issue.

On the other hand, Micromax Technologies director Rajesh Aggarwal commented, "When the duty cut had come, we were given benefits and the prices of HDDs had come down but lately we have witnessed that the prices have again soared up to five to six percent." He attributed the rise in price to shortage of supplies.

Khosla retorted, "As far as the issue of shortage of supply is concerned, Samsung India has registered its highest ever sales in the entire 7200 RPM category for the month of March this year. Yes, I agree to the fact that there was a slight rise in prices but that was in the month of February and that too because there was an inflation in HDD prices internationally which had a slight spillover effect on the Indian market too. However, the prices have been more or less uniform since then."

Karma Negi & Kusum Makhija

New Delhi