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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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