A far-north Queensland reseller stripped of his HP service dealership in late 2009 is back on board with the vendor, after a four month battle sparked by the loss of a single email.
Paul Chiari, owner of FNQ Computers in Queensland's Atherton tableland 80 kilometres south west of Cairns, was told on email on December 14, 2009 that his HP service contract was to be terminated before February 2010.
Chiari, who had run a HP service centre for ten years, was confused, and began making enquiries as to why his status was stripped.
He soon discovered that the cause of his problem was little more than a missed email earlier in 2009.
In October of 2009, Chiari said he stumbled on an email from HP national authorised service centre National Computer Systems and Services (NCSS), which subcontracts smaller resellers to be service agents for HP.
The email, he said, appeared to be "part two" of a tender application process for agents seeking to extend the geographical reach of their HP service-agent contracts.
"It just made no sense", he told CRN.
Chiari fielded a call to NCSS, to be told that the email referred to a tender that was released earlier in September 2009.
"We never received those documents," he said.
FNQ loses service contract
Chiari said the loss of his status would only cost FNQ a few thousand dollars a year. But of greater concern, he said, it would have deprived his local area - which is a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Brisbane - of a HP warranty service agent.
"Our immediate area used to be covered by three agents. One in Cairns, one in Innisfail and ourselves in Atherton," Chiari says.
"Now the three have been consolidated to one in Cairns.
"We have sold much HP equipment to clients over the years and we were left to explain to our customers and other HP customers in the area about HP's new policy.
"You get known in an area as a support agent and you get caught up in the middle of it all," he said.
To compound problems for customers, Chiari said HP's policy of covering on-site service within only 80 kilometres of a centre meant customers had to seek "additional travel expense" to have their equipment fixed.
"They were given the option to pay the additional fee or get the equipment to Cairns for repair. Obviously, many customers who bought HP equipment did so in the belief that they would be covered."
HP responds
The first HP knew of Chiari's dismissal from its service program was when one of Chiari's customers rang to complain at how the dealer was treated.
"[HP] was 'horrified' at the news", Chiari said, and told FNQ that its status would be reinstated.
But after investigating the matter, HP called Chiari back to inform him that "another NCSS agent in Cairns was going to set up a subsidiary to cover the area."
His status wasn't required, after all - so long as HP felt the region was covered.
A few days after CRN began asking questions about the reseller's woes, HP told CRN that FNQ's status was a matter for NCSS, as the authorised service centre for HP nationally, and not the vendor directly.
But fortunately for Chiari, NCSS reinstated his service contract, by mid-April.
HP has told CRN that the issue is "historical" and has been resolved.
NCSS
NCSS told CRN that the tender process had been designed to offer its service agents an opportunity to grow.
NCSS chairman Karl Prockter defended the tender approach - but conceded that the process of emailing the tender documents without a follow-up was flawed.
"If an agent wanted to take on other areas, they could bid for it," he said.
Prockter said that "every one of [NCSS'] agents received the tender"; one of them got it "four times".
"We sent it, [but] we can't validate that they received it," he said.
Prockter said that those resellers that claimed not to have received the tender documents were still "communicated with every day."
"We had some representations from [FNQ] and one of their customers," he said. "We took that into account and we discussed it with HP sales."
Prockter said he told the Cairns agent to maintain the program until FNQ was reinstated.
"We have a long-term relationship with HP," he said. "It's been 19 years and we've made all the mistakes that you can dealing with the agents.
"[But] we don't cut people off. There's no benefit. There is a huge amount of training that goes into an agent over time technical training process HP is very performance orientated."
Lessons: Lost in transmission
- Email should not be the sole medium for communications critical to your business, such as tenders that have a big impact on partners and customers. Follow up with a phone call.
- Tender documents should be issued in a way that retains their integrity and their receipt and action is audited (there are automated systems for this).
- Small business owners aren't online around the clock so consider multiple ways to get the information to them as part of a strategy to stay in regular contact.
Have you had problems with your accreditation or status? Share your story with CRN's Negar Salek.
Read on to page two for tips on successfully buying or selling a tender...
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