HP offer miffs Coimbatore partners

04 Nov 2008 00:00 IST

New Update

HP's One-Day Treat offer announced on a specific model of server backfired
when the promised scheme wasn't delivered to partners in Coimbatore. Partners in
Coimbatore received a mail from the vendor on September 24, 2008 with an
announcement that the ML110G5 server worth Rs 35,000 was being offered at almost
half the price at Rs 16,999 with four percent VAT.

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Each partner was allowed to book only three servers and that too by 4PM on
the same day. The deliveries were supposed to happen by October 10. In an
attempt to make use of this golden opportunity a few partners had called their
customers and got the purchase orders from them and placed that through the
distributors.

However, some time later partners got to know from the distributors that they
had not got the stocks from vendor, hence partners would not be able to provide
the goods to their customers. As per the information received from two major
distributors in the region, no channel partners were able to get the servers,
since they booked more than three.

HP
clarifies its stance

When HP was contacted, a
spokesperson clarified, "Specific guidelines were set for the scheme. Each
partner was allowed to avail not more than three servers; the offer was
valid till stocks last, and partners were told to act fast to get the
servers."

He informed that it was the second time the
offer was floated, after addressing the issues that cropped up during the
first launch. The spokesperson also informed that the process involved a
fairness team that would evaluate the process completely without any
discrimination and the complete guidelines were sent across in a mail a day
before the scheme. "The scheme started at 9AM in the morning and closed at
10.56AM. The distributors were online and were informed about the stock
availability. When the stocks closed at 11AM in the morning, distributors
were asked to close the collections," the spokesperson shared.

It is learnt that the partners in Coimbatore
had booked beyond their limit. Keeping the capability of the market in mind
and in order to prevent overstocking on the channels, HP decided to seal the
limit to three and act strictly on that account.

The spokesperson mentioned that more such
offers have been planned from HP, and channels need to act fast in order to
avail the offers and benefits.

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Sharing his experience with the scheme, N Gopalakrishnan, CEO, Emerald
Inffosys, Coimbatore said, "We had placed an order for around six servers with
two distributors after we got back to back orders from our customers. Later we
got a mail from the distributors stating that they were not in a position to
provide the servers due to the unavailability of stock." He also claimed that
his customers are not accepting the news. "I am unable to convince my customer
and am facing a risk of losing my credibility," said a dejected Gopalakrishnan.

HP's promo mail mentioned that the offer was valid till stocks last. However,
Gopalakrishnan questions this condition. "What is the value of the purchase
order, that we have got from our customers and passed on to the distributors, if
the vendor is going to point out the 'conditions apply' statement in the mail?"
he asked.

Both partners feel that they need an immediate solution from HP, and also
want the servers they ordered at the discounted price.

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