Gandhinagar:
During the recent Gandhinagar IT Panchayat, partners in the region raised several pending service issues pertaining to Intel products. Partners claimed that improper services, delay in replacement and faulty products from Intel was adding to their woes. While Intel stated that their process is well automated and there is regular communication at every step in terms of mails, the vendor has also agreed upon looking into the issues of affected partners personally.
In a mail response to The DQ Week, Rajesh Gupta, Director-Sales & Marketing Group, Intel stated, “Intel as a technology leading company considers highest quality and standards in product development and support. Channel customers can reach Intel's customer support by five ways-mail, web chat, online, phone and fax. As per available records customers are contacting our customer support and getting support within 15 days turnaround time. Our support team pro-actively tracks the open orders and ensures customers are been supported timely and rightly. In addition to this, we get independent surveys conducted to validate the quality of service and understand the new opportunities. However, we would like to consider this feedback with highest attention and address any feedback on improvement.”
Sharing their concerns, Jagdish Dudhat, CEO, Sky Dots Systems stated, “Intel motherboards have a severe problem and every eight out of ten motherboards have manufacturing defects (ie they are faulty). Everytime we ask for replacement, it takes more than six to seven months for a given product to be replaced whereas according to Intel's policy the turnaround time is
15 days.”
Yet another affected partner, Uren Patel of Vag Info Media pointed, “I had sent one of the motherboards that was having problems and for the third time in a row, Intel kept sending it back to me stating that the product was absolutely fine. However, later I got it repaired from a local service engineer at minimal charges.”
Responding to the above queries Gupta from Intel clarified, “As per the warranty terms if a board is not reparable and is under warranty, then Intel provides the customer with a working board different from the one they sent as defective. Many times dealers send boards to the service center that are out of warranty. Such parts are resent to dealers as it is, and it is possible that dealers could get it repaired from other sources.”
Under the Intel support process we don't have pick-up and local delivery centers but we use a courier service in most locations for door-to-door pick-up and delivery of parts.
Gupta further added that Intel motherboards have been regularly recognized by channels for their quality and performance. Nevertheless, Intel will get its channel team to work with its Gandhinagar channel and study the feedback.