The fight between online and offline retailers is getting murkier.
Given that online retailers are offering products at rock-bottom rates, it is getting very difficult for their offline counterparts to compete. Consumers are increasingly buying their products online and offline business is getting severely affected.
Now, offline retailers who are generally channel partners for product manufacturers, also double up as their service centres. Because of fierce competition from online vendors, these channel partners have no option but to stop selling the products, or go in losses.
So, how does manufacturer pacify their channel partners?
By telling them that they will not be responsible for any warranty support for products that have been bought online. In short, customer who has bought a product online does not have any warranty for the product.
Here is an example:
A friend of mine who is a NetGear channel partner recently got this email from the manufacturers’ channel manager stating exactly the same.
Here is the email reproduced below:
Though the channel partner who got this email is an offline retailer himself, even in his opinion, this was a very surprising move by NetGear and extremely damaging from consumer’s point of view.
All online retailers like Flipkart, Infibeam, Amazon and others clearly mention that the product consumers buy online are covered by warranty offered by the manufacturer. Here is what Flipkart says when it comes to warranty for most NetGear products.
From a consumer point of view, the situation is scary because once Flipkart (or any other online store) has sold the product to you, they will obviously wash their hands off the product saying, “it is responsibility of the manufacturer”.
However, as you can see from the mail given above, manufacturer will also not provide the warranty!
What does the consumer do in this case?