Partners let go steam on warranty

If there was a display of discontent and bitterness by partners at the first

panel discussion on warranty issues, things were no better at the second such

discussion organized by DQCI in collaboration with Traders’ Association of

Information

Technology (TAIT) in Mumbai on 13th December. Only difference this time was

that the vendors at the receiving end were different. The panel discussion this

time round saw representatives from Intel, LG, D-Link and Epson trying to pacify

partners, who had issues one too many.

At the discussion, partners sought clarifications on a range of issues. These

included delay in turn-around time, exclusion of adpators from warranty with

modems, warranty policies for repacked/remarked CPUs and inefficient service

support, to mention a few. Though all the vendor representatives–Rajesh Gupta,

GM-Technical Support, Intel Asia; Mukul Baweja, Services In-charge, LG; Prabodh

Vyas, Director-Marketing, D-Link and Vijaya Kumar, Sr Manager-Customer Support,

Epson–were at pains to convince partners about the efficient implementation of

their warranty policies, partners were anything but forgiving while offering

their grievances. "This is one rare opportunity we get to let off our steam

on vendors. All other times, it’s them we have to listen to," quips a

partner.

Some courageous partners even brought along with them faulty products and the

proof of numerous communications they had with vendors. These partners alleged

that despite all the efforts their issues remain unsolved to which vendors

assured that they will look into the matter personally. While this was a good

sign in the right direction, vendors also requested partners to take necessary

steps and communicate only through the specified channel for resolution of

warranty-related issues.

Partners also raised issues of warranty in case of product obsolescence and

demanded vendors to increase distributor-based support. On the positive side of

the discussion, individual vendors made partners aware about the specific steps

that they would take in making warranty a less worrisome factor. Intel’s

Rajesh informed that the company would be introducing 3-D hologram on its CPUs

in January to help partners differentiate it from repacked/repackaged ones.

He also assured of trying to list serial numbers of genuine CPUs on Intel’s

web site. Epson gave away booklets listing its warranty policies along with a CD

containing drivers for its printers. D-Link’s Prabodh tried to win partners’

confidence by assuring to consider adaptors also in the warranty. LG too scored

a brownie point by promising to put in place a service center exclusively for

its IT products as against a common one for consumer durables and IT products,

which is the case presently.

The panel discussion was moderated by Sylvester Lobo, Executive Editor, DQ

Channels India.

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