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Follow UsWarranty issues related to
Dead on Arrival (DoA) products have long been a serious bone of
contention between vendors and channels. Although each vendor has set
its own DoA policy, depending on the products. However, the lack of
clarity of this policy among channel partners is something which is
creating differences between the two. In general DoA products are
defined as products that fail to function substantially in accordance
with published specifications due to defects in manufacturing or
materials during the first year from the date of purchase. Buyer must
report this situation to the seller within 48 hours after delivery of
the product.
Vendors DoA Policy
Almost all principal
companies do have a DoA policy in the system, but it varies from case
to case. As per Intel's DoA policy, a product is considered DoA if
the failure happens within 30 days of sale. Customer has to visit the
distributor with the invoice copy and the product. Distributor
validates the invoice and checks for the damage. The product will be
replaced if the invoice is valid and meets the terms and conditions
of the product warranty. R Ravichandran, director, sales,
South
Asia pointed out, “There are many factors that drive DoA, for
example how things are handled during shipment/transportation,
sometimes simple software, and driver issues etc can cause DoA.”
Vishal Mhalsekar, country service manager, Asus (India) mentioned,
“Under our DoA policy, software failure is handled by
service center on immediate repair basis. Any failure due to virus
issues also comes under normal cases and is repaired. However,
physical damage, customer induced damage and liquid flash is not
covered under our DoA policy.” Asus claims its motherboards are the
only motherboards that are covered for 100% burnt and corrosion
warranty throughout the warranty span of the product which is 3 years
for most motherboards and 5 years for TUF series motherboards.
Sunil Grewal, sales head,
Gigabyte Technology India defined, “Our DoA policy involves 3
stages. Firstly, any product that does not power up properly,
function properly and has non-informed bug/defect; secondly all
products failed during installation at end customer or within 120
days of date of manufacture; and thirdly, within 45 days of date of
shipment from distributor, or products failed during installation at
end-customers within 7 days of date of invoice.” Nikit Rambhia,
director, Panache Infotech said, “As per our company, if the
product as a whole or any of its components fail to function during
15 days period after the shipment, we treat it as DoA. If DoA
warranty claim comes to us we replace the entire unit not a
particular component. There aren't any stringent terms, it is just
that if claim has been made after 15 days then it falls under regular
RMA.”
DoA Factors
DoA can imply different
things to different people. From the manufacturer perspective, if a
product does not perform as per stated specifications when the
product is freshly taken out of the box then it is DoA. However, for
a customer if the product does not work in his environment then it is
DoA. As evident the issues related to compatibility, environmental
conditions, damage during transit etc, are bit of gray areas which
either side may try to play to their advantage. Ravichandran
highlights, “DoA can happen due to various reasons like customer
handling, integration errors, compatibility issues or real product
issues. Actually DoA covers only the product failure and the handling
or integration or compatibility issues. So, Intel tries best to
investigate the real reasons behind DoA on a case to case basis.”
In the words of Atul Khosla, director, Om Nanotech, “DoA could
happen because of faulty
manufacturing process but it can also happen due to poor transit
conditions like vibrations or shocks during transit, high humidity or
water seepage or even electrostatic discharge.”
It could also happen that
the equipment used by the customer may not be of standard. So
depending upon the manufacturer's perception, the manufacturer may
form a tight DoA policy to insulate himself from such conditions. Due
to such fine print the customer may feel frustrated. Rambhia of
Panache Infotech says, “The prime reason of delay in DoA cases is
logistics and transportation failures/ delays. Non-free movement of
goods between states and jurisdictions tend to defeat us on our
turnaround time promise. Though we are highly efficient in this area
too, but still if India's logistics infrastructure had been better
or even if document processing for interstate goods transfer been
quicker we could have promised a replacement within 24 hours.”
Agreeing with him, Sanjoy
Bhattacharya, product group head, IT products,
India says, “The
lack of standardization of warehouse and poor handling of the
products by porter are some of the other gray areas which amount to
DoA cases. Although we have introduced special packaging to avoid
such cases, but still once the product moves to the distributor ends,
we have no control to monitor such negligence.” The main cause
behind DoA cases is logistics as it is managed by a third-party and
during transportation products get damaged and so are reported as a
DoA case. Emerson has several checklists before the product reaches
to the end customer such as products are packaged as per global
standards, for transport and rough handling taking their weight and
dimensions into consideration. From manufacturing facilities in India
and abroad, the hardware passes through warehouses, distributors,
sub-distributors, partners, and local offices before finally reaching
the customer. “We take complete responsibility of the hardware till
it is delivered to the distributor from the warehouse, after which
the distributor manages the logistics. If some part of the
consignment gets damaged during transportation to the distributor, it
is reported and the logistics provider has to pay a penalty,” said
Ankesh Kumar, director, channel products and marketing, Emerson
India.
Best Practices
Vendors follow various
best practices to minimize DoA cases. “Low margins in the industry
are hitting DoA policies for many companies. This is why we ensure
everyone associated with us earns good margin so that he can support
his down channel till end customer. We feel the most important factor
is to make sure that the customers, resellers, distributors, freight
forwarders and our own service centers follow our guidelines on how
to handle our products and also follow our return merchandise
authorization procedure and policy,” said Ajay Kogta, country
manager, Indian Subcontinent, Strontium Technology.
For Strontium, DRAM
modules DoA cases are negligible since the company uses only major
brands chips to produce modules; the company claims it has hardly got
any such cases in the last 6 months. Yes, in flash products some
cases came up, but again the ratio was very nominal, less than
0.0005% of the total products sold in any year. “We take these
cases with utmost priority and provide over-the-counter immediate
replacement at all our service locations which are spread across
India at 52 locations,” said Kogta. Gigabyte claims it offers on
the table replacement. “If buffer is not available, we are
committed to offer replacement within 3 days in metro cities, and
within 7 days in non-metros/upcountry markets,” said Grewal.
“Tech-Com has facilitated complete box replacement at the
point-of-purchase itself within 48 hours so as to save the customer
the harassment of visiting different places to get their work done.
Also, it saves on time economy as there is no incessant waiting for
the customer to get their phone operational.” explained Shridhar
Bagade, head, product support, mobile phone division, Tech-Com.
Channel Complaints
Though most of the vendors
claim their DoA cases are miniscule in numbers and have satisfactory
mechanism to settle DoA cases, partners have a different story to
share. According to resellers, the issue of DoA is not so much about
getting the replacement as it is about the time taken and the
indifferent attitude of distributors and vendors. Most of the
partners are discontent with the vendors' biased attitude towards
small city resellers. “In large cities, replacement takes 10 days,
while in most cases we have a turnaround of 30 or more days. Also,
there are no local vendor representatives that we can escalate the
problem to and are always at the mercy of dealers who are least
interested in resolving the issues,” said Kishore Makhija, CEO of
Raipur-based Priyanka Computers. “There is an inordinate delay in
getting replacement. Most vendors have a replacement policy of 30
days, but that commitment is never met. Often the distributors refuse
to accept DoA cases asking us to speak to vendors. While, vendors say
that the distributors have been provided with replacement stocks and
we should deal with them,” explains Jitin Gupta, owner, Usha
Infotech.
Agreeing on the same, a
Kerala based-partner said, “The problem is really very acute with
component vendors who have a practice of back-checking the incidence
of damage. Once the product is reported as DoA by the reseller, the
vendor will check whether it happened at the customer end or
reseller's or dealer's. This process alone takes several weeks
and often, once the DoA is verified, we are told that the product is
out of stock.” Gupta asserted, “By the time the replacement
arrives the product pricing has changed or a newer model has been
launched and this adversely affects our margins. While a lot of
vendors provide price protection of 30 days, replacement usually
takes longer. Our committee will also highlight such anomalies in
vendor policy.”
Mhalsekar of Asus said,
“We are aware of this problem and to counter the same, we offer
free pick and drop service in 768
locations in the country which comprise chiefly of C, D and E class
cities. This ensures faster turnaround time as well as convenience
for our customers. In remote locations, sometimes the same product is
not available on an immediate basis, but we either arrange the
products on immediate basis or offer an alternative to the customer.”
He further added, “Mainly, the disagreements are due to improper
understanding of the DoA policy. At Asus, we do our best to educate
our partners and customers about our DoA policy so that such a
situation doesn't arise.” Khosla of Om Nanotech asserted, “Yes,
in some cases the warranty policies have too many ifs and buts and
pre-conditions or compliance to be made before the DoA warranty is
honored. We have total confidence in our products and hence, we offer
no strings attached to amazing warranty.”
Eric Yang, country
manager, Edimax Technology India suggests, “DoA policy needs to be
defined properly and educating partners is required which most of the
companies do not adopt or their team is unable to convey in the
market. Companies should have a channel-friendly DoA policy so that
partners are able to manage effectively.” Kumar of Emerson says,
“Yes, the problem in smaller cities is higher for DoA. This is due
to the fact that by the time the product reaches the small city it
might have gone through 3
or 4 shipments and enough care may not have been taken to keep the
product safe during transit. To counter this problem we use better
quality packaging which is tamper proof and is robust to withstand
expected mishandling. With such measures we are able to safeguard our
products to a large extent from DoA.”
“In India there are
still no established regulations in areas such as logistics or taxes,
so as a vendor we have to take the fall at times. Though processes
are in place at our end, we have to take some quick decisions on the
ground. At times it costs us additional taxes or transport costs
because the customer doesn't want to wait, but we have to consider
these extreme cases to provide good service. However, as the number
of DoA cases is very less it doesn't affect us in the long run,”
says Bhattacharya of LG India. Partners Education Must Kumar
explains, “We have seen DoA cases happens due to the lack of
understanding of partners. At times a partner might over commit on a
particular product to close a sale, though that machine would be
suited only for a particular kind of application.” For example if a
machine that is fit for IT networking applications is put under
industrial load, it will not work. The customer obviously claims it
is a DoA case. “It becomes a very difficult situation for us
because we understand that even if the unit is replaced it won't
work. Partners and also vendors must ensure that these details are
not overlooked. Every product is meant for something and works best
in that application,” he added. In the conclusion it is obvious
that any vendor does not take its DoA policy lightly, because a
customer with a bad experience will never come back with a new order.