Tussle between Rashi and First IT Forum continues

Chandigarh : It
was more than two weeks back that dealers in Chandigarh had banned Rashi
Peripherals in their region, and today despite efforts by Rashi Peripherals and
direct intervention by Suresh Pansari, First IT Forum, is firm on its stand to
discontinue the billing till the distributor agrees to practice fair trade
policies with channel partners.

Elaborating about the
standoff, Sanjeev Walia, key member of First IT Forum, the IT association of
Chandigarh said that the dealers do not have any personal issues with Rashi
Peripherals and they will start the business again if Rashi assure the partners
of fair practices and positive attitude in future. “Dealers do not have
personal issues with Rashi Peripherals. Our only problem is that for long Rashi
has been doing unfair business with dealers in Chandigarh market and we are not
going to tolerate it. We have been interacting with Rashi through e-mails but
every time we get a diplomatic response. We can straight away start the business
with Rashi but we do not want the same issues to be repeated in future. Rashi
has to assure this to all the dealers in Chandigarh and we will start the
billing,” said Walia.

First IT Forum will also
be holding an internal meeting to discuss the issue and solve the matter at the
earliest.

In a sustained e-mail
interaction with members of First IT Forum, copies of which are available with
The DQ Week, Suresh Pansari, MD, Rashi Peripherals, stated, “We have
approached you and tried to resolve all the concerns raised by you
(although most of the concerns were heard in our absence and decisions taken by
the Forum). However, we are unable to get a fair
trade practice solution/decision until now. We are
requesting once again to provide us a solution
in the interest of Members of IT Forum as well as IT Industry /public at
large.”

He further said that
partners in Chandigarh need to consider that 98 percent business of Rashi
Peripherals comes from distribution and that the company is committed to holding
on to its channel partners. However, it is evident that there are few exceptions
which every business house cannot fulfill the individual's wish list. 

Sanjay Sharma from
Chandigarh-based Microcom stated that the dealers do not want diplomatic
statements from the distributor and if they are serious for resolving the issue
they should come forward and interact with the dealers directly and assure them
about uniform trade practices.

Rajesh Kakkar from
Global Systems informed that the dealers of Chandigarh have lost faith in Rashi
to such an extent that now they are not ready to do billing with them, however,
the final decision will be taken after the internal meeting with the
association.

Last week Rashi also
organized a service camp in Chandigarh with the objective to support partners to
overcome their service vows. Commenting on the same Kakkar said, “Rashi wants
to make things appear very channel friendly but their actual trade policies are
unfair. There is a difference between attending a service camp and doing any
billing. Any partner would go to such service centers if he has service issues.
There is no reason why he should not attend the event but that does not imply
that the business has restarted.”

With the association
sticking to its stand, despite efforts being made by Rashi to solve the problem,
this standoff appears to be slated for a long haul.