MSI and Priya’s relations sour over warranty

Micro Star International and Priya Ltd’s relations have been soured over a
period of time, mainly due to warranty and replacement problems. Priya was the
first distributor of MSI in India and has been dealing with the vendor since
five to six years. The second distributor Cyberstar Infocom Ltd has been
appointed recently.

MSI representatives were present in Mumbai last week for the launch of its
new range of products like note-books, Mega PC, mo-therboards etc. Frank Sherap,
Account Mana-ger (Sales Department-I), MSI who was present at the occasion said,
"MSI has been present in India since quite some time, but it’s time we
get serious about this market. Our distri-butor Priya has not been really
aggressive and this maybe because of the distraction created by its brand
Krypton. We are planning to have a meeting and sort this out."

However, Aditya Bhu-wania, Director, Priya Ltd had a different story to tell.
He said on contacting, "We have not been aggressive with MSI, not because
of our product line Kryp-ton, but essentially because of the poor warranty
support. As of now, we have no plans of dropping the product line for
distribution. Accel ICIM is the service provider for MSI in India and
replacement of products has been delayed to the extent of four months. RMA
management is important for a vendor especially in India. We had inventory,
therefore, we could manage the situation to a large extent, but when we saw no
changes, we slowed down with MSI."

He also added, "Cyberstar has taken up the product recently, so wouldn’t
have still faced the problem. But with time, if MSI does not take serious steps,
warranty issues may crop up leading to a major problem. This is the reason why
Priya is only distributing MSI motherboards and AGP cards and has not put its
hands in its new product lines. Product lines like notebooks need good after
sales support in India, otherwise it would not be successful here."

On contacting channels, many of them shared the same opinion on the wa-rranty
of the product, "MSI products are good in per-formance, but recently we
have been facing a problem with replacements, as it’s being delayed for more
than a month. The reason behind this delay is not clear, as it may be a lack of
efforts of the distributor or vendor," said Vikas Pa-rikh, Proprietor of
Samvik Marketing.

However market sources add that Priya and MSI have had a meeting last week to
resolve the issue on wa-rranty. MSI would be able to resolve this issue soon, as
it is also in the process of appointing its Indian rep-resentative in the next
couple of months.

MSI’s management on their visit to India had met a number of potential
candidates. The represen-tative would be the marke-ting communication re-presentative
for MSI in India. In fact, MSI has plans to further expand its Indian team as
the company’s business in the country expands.

Nancy Sudheer

Mumbai