Bits & Bytes at loggerheads with WeP

Jaipur

Aug 4, 2008

WeP Peripherals and Arvind Modi of Bits & Bytes, Jaipur are at
loggerheads, with Modi alleging cheating and breach of trust by the vendor.

According to Modi, Bits & Bytes was appointed as an exclusive regional
distributor for WeP Peripherals for Jaipur region. “However, they gradually
started breaching the agreement by billing to other parties as well. As WeP
business was going down, we decided to part ways with them and put our pending
orders on hold. By then an advance of Rs 1.2 lakh was already with WeP and when
we asked for a refund, they refused, giving us some lame excuses. However, later
they agreed to bill us material for the requisite amount instead of returning
cash.”

He further informed that in order to resolve the issue Bits & Bytes
agreed to get the material billed. “Here again they tried to play dirty by
increasing the rate at which the material would be billed, to which we refused,”
he accused

On being asked what could be the reason behind the deal going sour, Modi
said, “It is WeP's local guy's vested interest. No one from the top is
taking any action against it. They have a laid back attitude and are not ready
to sort out the issue.”

This was in early January 2008 and the matter has been hanging since the last
eight months. Despite repeated mails WeP is yet to refund the money. According
to Modi, the vendor has stopped responding completely.

On being asked about what further action he is going to take, miffed Modi
said that his company is not going to deal with WeP anymore. “We do not have
any WeP products left. We are going to wait for another 10-15 days and if they
do not take any action, then the only option left with us is to take legal
action against them. I am planning to report the matter to Monopolies and
Restrictive Trade Practice Commission (MRTP) for unethical and restrictive trade
practices,” he said.

When The DQ Week called Ashok Dash, Sales Manager, WeP Peripherals to get
their point of view, Dash informed that it is not the matter of money but more
about principles, emotions and trust. Throwing some light on the matter, Dash
said that Modi had put an order of Rs 1.2 lakh with WeP Peripherals but after
two months, he decided not to go ahead with it. “We had already procured the
matter from our vendor companies and now the products are lying with us. If some
other partner was involved, we would have never returned the money but since
Bits & Bytes is our old customer, we finally agreed. But instead of
returning the money we asked him to buy the products, to which he refused.”

Talking about the other allegation by Modi, he said, “We had come out with
Bulk Distribution Authorized Partner (BDAP) policy in December. According to the
policy, we were appointing BDAP, where partners would place a single order of Rs
12 lakh and the partner will get an additional two percent discount. The BDAP
were supposed to pay 10 percent of the whole amount ie Rs 1.2 lakh in advance
and in case any partner retracted from the deal, the money was non-refundable.
So if we go by this policy, the money was non-refundable, but since Modi has
been associated with us for the last 13 years, we asked him to take products of
equal amount instead.”

Reacting to WeP's clarification Modi said the new policy was at a nascent
stage and they were not very sure how to take it forward with local guys. “After
paying the advance we found that instead of just one BDAP, they were billing it
to more partners, which was breach of the agreement, hence we retracted. The new
policy was formally launched on March 13, 2008 in Mysore, so I do not come under
this policy.”

Modi also informed that when asked for money they kept on delaying it. “They
never intimated me in writing that we have a policy of forfeiting advance or are
forfeiting the amount. They just kept silent and avoided the issue. It's only
later on they said that instead of returning cash we'll give you goods against
this amount,” he added.

As WeP and Bits & Byte refused to budge from their respective stance, it
seems like the battle between the two might drag on for a while.