Surat Channel Demands Well Defined Warranty Policies

The DQ Week IT Panchayat at Surat on March 2 witnessed passionate outbursts
from the participating channel partners. And they had good cause to be. Most of
the partners present claimed that they have to deal with several issues with
respect to post-sales service support. And they were very dissatisfied with the
role distributors were playing in helping them get this support, either from
their own service centers or from the vendor.

What also annoyed several of the assembled partners was the absence of
representatives from Ingram Micro India Ltd and Rashi Peripherals. And the local
representatives for the two distribution houses did not make it to the event
even after assuring The DQ Week team that they were well on their way.

Said one partner, “The fact that they did not even bother to turn up at a
platform for redressal of channel issues, shows how important we are for them.”
Other partners agreed with him and added that there was a major communication
disjoint between these representatives and the channel partners in Surat.

THE PANELISTS: (L-R) Mohammed Hans Abbas of Cyberstar, Mandar Khade of Redington and Dharmin Shah of Neoteric Infomatique answering the queries of Surat channel partners. (Right) Vinita Bhatia, Executive Editor, DQ Channels moderating the panel discussion

Coming back to the warranty related issues, Kamal Agarwal of Ria Computers
was most vociferous and gave instances of delays in getting replacements for
faulty products. “Usually the turnaround time for dead on arrival (DoA) or
faulty products is 15 days. But there have been instances where we did not get
replacements even for three months. And when we approach the distributors, they
tell us that the problem lies with the vendors and when we approach the vendors
they pass the blame on the distributors. Ultimately, we have to suffer as our
end-customers demand instant replacement and we have to give them the product
from our own inventory,” he complained.

Dharmin Shah of Neoteric Infomatique agreed that there were delays in
replacing DoA or faulty products while Mandar Khade of Redington said

that in most cases the vendors were responsible for delays. Mohammed Hans Abbas
of Cyberstar claimed he was new to the city and therefore did not know the
modalities involved and promised that he would look into it.

Partners claimed that the issue about timely replacements could be solved if
distributors made it a point to stock ample inventory.

Another suggestion came from Bharat Randeri, President, South Gujarat
Information Technologies Association (SITA) who said that it is the time

when vendor warranty policies should be well defined and furnished to the
channel. And the distributors should take the initiative to get these warranties
from their principals. Shah, Khade and Abbas agreed with the idea.

DQC News Bureau