E-Set Partners Joins Against Distribution Break Up ; Escalate With Associations

A set of channel partners associated with E-Set in India has ganged up against the security vendor after the latter snapped ties with their Indian distributor ESS distribution. ESS Distribution was the face of the E-Set in India close to a decade, has recently announced that  they will not distribute the product in India. The announcement has shaken the industry. In the meanwhile, after the issue came up, many partners found that the many products sold in India got their serial number deactivated and customers were unable to open the products.

A set of partners, failed after running from pillar to post, had brought the issue to the IT channel associations including the Federation of IT Associations (FAIITA) and ISODA, to name a few."In the first week of August 2016, the whole market was given a shock by ESET when they concluded their partnership with ESS Distribution in India. However, the bigger storm came after the partners heard all the stocks lying in the market have been deactivated and none of the stocks are saleable. We are astonished to know that the stocks sold 2 or 3 years back have not yet been activated and consequently they also would be deactivated by ESET team. Hence these stocks are also not saleable anymore.", reads a stance from the mail.

Blame game:

The affected partners had a discussion with ESS distribution and ESET wherein the blame game started. As per ESS’s version , as quoted in the mail,  ESET (Singapore) has done following wrong things, " For termination, Agreement provides for a notice of 3 months, but it was done on an immediate basis. There was no reason for deactivation and still they have done it to promote their other distributor. 2. They are not responding to any of the communications and all the requests of ESS. ESS is left on its own to resolve market issues.3. ESET is not willing to consider the 9-year-old relationship with ESS and the Management has taken a rigid decision, without considering the losses which would be suffered by the community of ESET Partners and customers in India."

as per ESET, Singapore, ESS has been quoted done the following wrong things: 1. ESS used to pay them after 60 days on activation of keys and till date whatever was not used has been deactivated. Also ESS has not made payment to ESET and there is a huge outstanding amount.

2. ESS has done some major goof up and fraud and is involved in duplicating the keys (Same keys sold to two different partners) and selling them.

3. ESS was well aware about the situation and they have purposely committed fraud and ESET has already investigated the matter and found that ESS is a clear defaulter.

For the past 8-9 months, ESS had started selling retail boxes at huge discounts on cash basis only and started billing to new set of Partners in cases where the old Partner is not picking up the stocks due to poor sales.

In the above transaction, the net sufferers are the Partners and other customers who have already paid for the stocks. According to the partners, an approximate INR 5 crore worth of stocks with 200 odd partners are lying in the market.

In view of the above developments, the affected members had saught the help of the associations to address the issue united. Some of the action plans suggested are to approach the vendor and said distributor to resolve the complete issue mutually and amicably, form a long term effect of such action on their plans for India as also on their brand equity in India. The members also saught an advisory to be made and forwarded to all the Partners making them aware of the complete situation of  ESET.

Products to be put on hold:

The members forum also demanded that further sales of the product by partners association should be put on hold and a committee should be formed who should devise a mechanism to protect the interests of Partners and the customers. It is also demanded that, in future the software companies should not be allowed to stop license keys of physical or retail product as it leads to market turmoil.