Shimla channel want HP's attention

Amrita Tejasvi

New Delhi

October 8th, 2007

Channel partners of Hewlett Packard (HP) in Shimla are grumbling over the
various issues that they have been facing for the past few months related to
warranty, DoA cases, backend and poor replacements of products. They are now
complaining about lack of attention from the vendor.

These dealers claimed that the absence of a HP service center in the entire
state of Himachal Pradesh causes them a lot of inconvenience. They also said
that they have not been getting their claims for the last six to eight months
and do not get satisfactory response whenever they try to convey their issues to
the HP representatives based in New Delhi.

Ashwani Sharma, Proprietor of Ace Infotech Systems, a major dealer of HP in
Shimla said that whenever they come across any DoA case, dealers never get
replacement on time. Even if the replacement is offered, it is said to be below
standard and customers do not accept it.

"The replaced products are of such quality that nobody accepts it and we
have to replace it at our own cost. Recently, one of the dealers got a monitor
as a replacement and it was full with scratches. This kind of service adds lot
of frustration and customers blame us," he complained.

Partners further narrated that since there is no HP service center in
Himachal Pradesh, whenever any service is needed customers have to wait for two
to three weeks. That causes them a lot of inconvenience and it prefer not to buy
the brand.

"We have tried conveying our message to HP a number of times but do not
get positive response. We do not get much support from the vendor. Shimla is a
small place and we want more attention from our vendors," said Neeraj Sood,
Proprietor of Microbridge.

Incidentally, the partners' web portal of HP that is used for making claims
has not been working for some time, which has added to the channel's woes who
post their claims on a monthly basis. Responding to this query, a HP
representative assured that the site is under restructuring process to make the
process more efficient so that partners can get their claims without any delay
and problems are occurring due to the technical reasons. For other issues, there
was no response from the HP officials.

Dealers in other regions like Kanpur, Bhopal, Jammu, Chandigarh and Jalandhar
clarified that the only problem they were facing with HP is the non operation of
the channel website, which is a temporary matter, and as such they are not
facing any other big issue.

Sanjay Langer, CEO of Jammu based AGM Sales Corporation opined, "Once
the site starts working properly, we are hoping that we will get the claims on
time. Other than that we are not facing any problem with the vendor and are
having smooth business."