AKITDA to address dealers plight

Vendor's lackadaisical approach towards some problems faced regularly by the dealer community will be taken up seriously by AKITDA. The dealers are facing problems on at the Dead-on-Arrival, Warrantee support and After Warrantee Period Service. AKITDA is planning to interfere in this matter as they think they are the victims of this gameplay by the vendors and distributors.

Toshy Mathew, VP, AKITDA says there is no clear cut guidelines and instructions in the DOA policy. Various companies have different policies. Some are replaced with new where some are repaired.

Distributors do not have any responsibility after the product is sold. Reporting a complaint

takes some time and getting a DOA Certificate is not easy. Vendor or Manufacturer are not

accepting DOA as their fault but checks for all ways to put the blame on Dealers / Dealer Staff

who had opened the box. "This adds to the dealer's woes as credit Notes are issued after 7 -14 Days. In some cases it was reported that it took 45 days in getting a credit note. We have to pay for the items even if the buyer canceled the order. The billing date is always a controversy between sub-distributors and distributors despite the fact that the vendors only dumped the same in the name of some schemes", explains Toshy Mathew.

With only few vendors having their own service centers, most of them operate through contact service centers having no Malaylam support. Channel partners face inconvenience in getting their complains registered. Toshy mathew says, "Sometimes a mother board lies for 40 to 45 days without getting repaired. Even swappable items like HDDs, and RAM gets delayed by 7-14 days when brought for exchange". After warrantee support seems more in sham as Mathew complains, "Almost no authorized service center will take non-functioning parts after warrantee period is over even when we are ready to pay for the same. Cartridges and parts are not available after one or two years. Many models are stopped and withdrawn without considering the units which are already sold. Distributor and vendors jointly introduce brands and it fails they just washes their hands off".

Considering the dealers plight AKITDA will summon the vendors and distributors and demand a satisfactory answer for the pressing issues. They intent to make a common service policy applicable for all vendors and distributors.