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Credit scam unearthed
Confed-ITA has unearthed a scam allegedly involving a national distributor whose sales team in Chennai has been accused of abusing the credit accounts of some resellers.
According to a Confed-ITA official, the modus operandi of the alleged scam included the distributor’s local sales team using the credit limit enjoyed by some resellers to push material to other resellers who had either exhausted their credit limit or had no credit with the distributor. This was done by issuing fake bills using forged letter heads and invoice vouchers of the credit-worthy resellers.
Such transactions were carried out without the knowledge of the credit-worthy resellers whose invoices were forged. After reporting the scam to the distributor’s headquarter, Confed-ITA members were told that even the top management was kept in the dark and the operation was managed locally by sales people. For payments, the local sales team collected demand drafts in advance from the involved resellers and deposited them before the due date.
The scam came to light when two Confed-ITA members were recently sent a notice from the distributor’s headquarter to make payments towards their outstanding credit that ran into a few crore. Shocked by the notice, as they had no credit outstanding with the distributor, these members approached Confed-ITA who intervened to take the matter up with the CEO of the distributor. Upon investigation, the scam was unearthed.
Allegedly the local executives involved in the scam have been asked to leave, while the distributor has sent payment notices to resellers involved in the scam, and plans to file FIRs if the payments are not made soon. On its part, Confed-ITA has already sent notices to prominent partners and other associations warning them about such practices.
Dell signs up Ingram
Dell is turning to two-tier distribution to better penetrate the SMB channel. The one-time channel nemesis has come full circle, signing a deal to carry fixed-configuration Vostro desktops and notebooks through Ingram Micro and Tech Data in the US.
The agreement will soon be extended to Canada and eventually to other geographies including India, and include more product lines like consumer PCs and LCDs.
It will be interesting to see how Dell manages its distribution relationship in India. For Vostro the company has two national distributors, namely Supertron Electronics and Global Infotech, and for its consumer range it has a network of regional distributors. Iris Computers is the sole national distributor for its enterprise products.
In the past, there have been speculations about Ingram and Redington tying up with Dell but both distributors have vehemently denied them. |