IT Panchayat : Blame Game Continues Between Distis And Channel

Post-sales service, dead on arrival (DoA) policy and maximum retail price (MRP)
were the key issues taken up by the Nashik channel community during the IT
Panchayat, held in the city in association with The DQ Week and DQ Channels on
Dec 3, 2008. Nearly 100 distributors and resellers turned up at the venue to air
their grievances and find solutions to their problems, which are giving them
sleepless nights and revenue losses.

The jury comprised Santosh Dalmia of Rashi Peripherals, Yogesh of Ingram
Micro and Rohit of Redington. Starting the discussion, repre­sen­tatives of
Computer Associa­tion of Nashik (CAN) brought up the issue of post-sales
services, which is affecting almost every one in the community. Sanat Jain of
Acer Cybertech and Ajay of Indai Computers Electronics represented CAN.

Sandeep Landhu of West Trading Corp complained of a two-month old issue
regarding newly bought printers, which is yet to be resolved, despite repeated
requests. “The service center should have buffer stock, so the products having
problems can be replaced without any hassles,” said Landhu. Similarly, Nitin
Gite of Nice Computers also raised a two-month old unresolved issue regarding
DoA delivery of 14 monitors.

In reply, the jury members passed the buck to vendors, saying that they do
not have much role to play in post-sales and DoA cases.

While surmising the issue, Vinita Bhatia, Executive Editor, DQ Channels who
moderated the event suggested that distributor should take some responsibility
of DoA and post-sales service, and try to put pressure on vendors for better
service.

Distributors billing over the MRP, was another issue that came up. First the
jury members passed the buck to vendors and said that the prices were increased
regularly in the past, it was not updated on the products. The answer did not go
well with the channels. “We face a lot of problem while selling a product to an
end customer charging him above MRP. Distributors should not pass the buck to
vendors every time. They should be made responsible, as we are buying the
products from them only,” lamented Satosh Trishna of Right System.

In the end, the channel and jury members agreed that rates should be properly
updated. They have asked for a time of three weeks to resolve the issue.

AKHILESH SHUKLA

akhileshs@cybermedia.co.in