HP server offer miffs Coimbatore partners

Coimbatore: 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.

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.

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.

When Gopalakrishnan raised this issue during the IT Panchayat in Coimbatore, the
representatives present from Ingram and Rashi claimed that the issue needs to be
solved with the vendor; HP in this case.

Gopalakrishnan claimed that he was on the verge of having a consumer court
action slapped on him. Supporting Gopalakrishnan, A Dhanasekar, CEO, Virtual
Automation Systems, Coimbatore and President, Coimbatore Information Technology
Association (CITA) said that he too was facing a similar problem. He had placed
an order for the server and was among those who did not receive it.

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