Resellers in West are not quite happy with the post-sale service of HP.
According to the channel community in the region, the quality of post-sale
service given by the IT major has touched an all time low. This has got them
feeling that the vendor is only bothered about its marketshare.““Previously HP
used to hold regularly meets, where we could sort out our problems during the
interaction. But this has now disappeared. HP is just concentrating on bigger
fish as they have a huge marketshare,” said Sampath Iyengar of Mumbai-based Sam
7 Computers and Networks, who is one of the partners having long pending issue
with HP. When asked about the problems he was facing with HP's service Sampath
lamented, “A simple thing like a DVD recovery is not available in the service
center. Did you know that in some of the HP Pavilion laptops the DVD recovery
refused to start? I have three customers whose laptops have this problem and I
am afraid to think what will happened if their HDDs fail.” Channels also allege
that HP is not bothered about servicing because all their products are selling
like hot cakes in the market. Similarly, channels are not willing to take on the
vendor fearing bad relationship with the major. “HP holds a monopoly in this
segment and thus are not very bothered about their services. More so because
despite their service being really unorganized and bad, all their products are
doing well,” said Prashant Ugemuge, President, Vidarbha Computer Media Dealers
Welfare Association (VCMDWA). He also said that the response at the HP meets is
not very encouraging since, “Everybody wants their own problems to be addressed
first, everyone keeps shouting about their problems and no larger solution is
reached” he added.
Shital Nahar, President, Computer and Media Dealers Association (CMDA), Pune
expressed similar sentiments. Nahar pointed out that post-sale service of HP is
a big issue among the channels in Pune. When asked about some of the major
problems dealers are facing Nahar said, “When an end customer goes to an HP
service center he is asked to produce original distributor invoice, which is not
supposed to be with him as there are channels involved in between. Secondly,
people at the service center insist that the serial number of product should be
printed not hand written. And lastly, service center people refuse to give
on-site service.”
When contacted, M Vinayagamurthy, Country Manager-Consumer Support, Imaging
and Printing Group, HP India Sales clarified that producing an original
distributor invoice was not a standard HP support service process. “We
facilitate our customers with web-based entitlement system. Under this, the
customer entitles warranty in a seamless manner. At times, the customer is
requested to share the purchase invoice, only if the particular product is
showing out of warranty in the system and the product is within the warranty
period as per the date of purchase.”
He added that at times the customer is requested to share the purchase
invoice, only if the particular product is showing out of warranty in the system
and the product is within the warranty period as per the date of purchase. In
such cases customers are requested to produce genuine proof of purchase.
With regard to on-site warranty, Vinayagamurthy said, “We offer our customers
after sales support on the basis of the standard warranty terms, which can be
either carry-in or on-site, depending on the product range.