Take this for what it's worth........
Quote from www.iteuropa.com
===================================================================
Maxtor battles to quell channel fury
IT Europa (UK/Pan-European), August 2004
HDD vendor Maxtor has fiercely denied signing a pan-European distribution agreement with Singapore-based disti eSys in order to offload a bulk shipment of faulty drives rejected by OEM partner Dell. But leading players in Maxtor's European channel have cast serious doubts on the vendor's version of events, claiming that with their return rates for faulty Maxtor products reaching 'unacceptable' levels important questions remain unanswered.
'Maxtor would never ship defective products,' says Mike Cordano, executive VP global sales and marketing at the drive giant. 'Approximately 36,000 drives were returned to us by Dell earlier in the year, but they were never reshipped.' Maxtor claims the 40 gigabyte drives had been deployed in a non-PC point of sale application that they had not been designed for, resulting in a high failure rate. On taking back the drives, Maxtor claims it quarantined the products, broke them up and added the component parts to its repair population. It also began a 'revalidation process' with Dell. Cordano says: 'We've adjusted our 40 gig product to extend its usage capabilities and Dell has embarked on testing of the product.'
Maxtor insists the returned drives were unconnected to its decision to extend the eSys alliance into Europe. According to Cordano, claims that a lack of marketing fanfare over the deal suggested Maxtor had something to hide are wide of the mark: 'We don't have a formalised mechanism for announcing alliances,' he says. 'We're now launching a system to ensure all partnerships are publicised the same way.'
But despite the denials some distis are attempting to pick holes in Maxtor's claims that this is an 'unfounded rumour', from sources with 'their own agenda'. 'I can't believe Dell only rejected 36,000 drives.' says one source. 'Maxtor credited the Dell issue as a cause for its weak sales. But 36,000 drives is nothing when Maxtor shipped 10.9m drives last quarter. It must have been a more substantial problem.' Maxtor counters that this is a 'misleading' interpretation and claims the sales shortfall was a result of the 'lost opportunity' of shipping between 1m and 3m drives while they were being requalified.
Others still reckon suspect products could have been passed onto eSys. Marius Jaworski, managing director at Polish HDD distributor Incom - which has stopped shipping Maxtor - claims: 'The rumours can't be proved without serial numbers from the Dell drives, but we're not just hearing this story from Maxtor's rivals, but its partners as well.'
Even one partner who believes Maxtor 'probably' did destroy the drives claims the vendor still has quality issues. 'Our internal failure rate for Maxtor drives has reached 3pc and climbing,' rants our insider. 'That makes it more than double Seagate and Hitachi's rate. We're talking to other distis to see if they have similar problems and are considering pushing for compensation.' Our source reckons that the applications it is seeing returned were built with components Maxtor shipped in early 2004. 'It looks like Dell tested the drives more thoroughly and spotted the fault,' he says. 'Everyone else took drives built at the same time that had the problem. Maxtor is playing the channel for fools.'
But Maxtor insists its failure rate remains in line with competitors such as Seagate and Hitachi. Cordano argues that the recent Warranty Week report - which showed Maxtor shelled out 5.5pc of product sales in warranty payments compared to just 2.4pc at Seagate - could be misleading. 'We count logistics, as well as the cost of repair, in our warranty figures. We don't know if our rivals use the same measurements.' Note, Seagate has again upped the stakes over product quality with the global launch of a five-year warranty on internal hard disk drives.
Despite the myriad of denials, Maxtor still added to partners' fears that the eSys deal will result in a channel reshuffle. 'When you add a player as large as eSys you have to make changes,' observes Didier Trassaert, VP EMEA at Maxtor. 'In areas where we have too many distis or where partners aren't hitting targets we may terminate alliances.'
The move comes too late for Incom, which ceased selling Maxtor last month. 'With eSys on board Maxtor has seven distis in Poland, but only shipped 30,000 units a quarter into the market,' says Jaworski. 'eSys' was selling below purchase prices and it was not worth being in the market.' Maxtor challenges this, insisting it can prove it terminated the relationship with Incom.
But even Maxtor's promise to strip out excess partners is doubted by several angry allies. Two partners claim that at its recent disti conference Maxtor said it would 'never' sign eSys in Europe, before recruiting it a few weeks later. Maxtor denies it ever ruled out signing eSys. www.maxtor.com
our analysis
Even if the dodgy drives were destroyed some partners are certain this is not an isolated problem and believe drives that fail in machines left on for too long were shipped. The only way Maxtor can lay this to rest is to make public its failure rates, but, when asked, Maxtor said it will not publish the figures. Of course, distribution partners are upset at the eSys' deal and Maxtor's rivals are only too willing to fuel talk of high failure rates. But with at least one pan-European distributor threatening to axe Maxtor, it will take some time to restore partner trust.
===================================================================
Quote from www.iteuropa.com
===================================================================
Maxtor battles to quell channel fury
IT Europa (UK/Pan-European), August 2004
HDD vendor Maxtor has fiercely denied signing a pan-European distribution agreement with Singapore-based disti eSys in order to offload a bulk shipment of faulty drives rejected by OEM partner Dell. But leading players in Maxtor's European channel have cast serious doubts on the vendor's version of events, claiming that with their return rates for faulty Maxtor products reaching 'unacceptable' levels important questions remain unanswered.
'Maxtor would never ship defective products,' says Mike Cordano, executive VP global sales and marketing at the drive giant. 'Approximately 36,000 drives were returned to us by Dell earlier in the year, but they were never reshipped.' Maxtor claims the 40 gigabyte drives had been deployed in a non-PC point of sale application that they had not been designed for, resulting in a high failure rate. On taking back the drives, Maxtor claims it quarantined the products, broke them up and added the component parts to its repair population. It also began a 'revalidation process' with Dell. Cordano says: 'We've adjusted our 40 gig product to extend its usage capabilities and Dell has embarked on testing of the product.'
Maxtor insists the returned drives were unconnected to its decision to extend the eSys alliance into Europe. According to Cordano, claims that a lack of marketing fanfare over the deal suggested Maxtor had something to hide are wide of the mark: 'We don't have a formalised mechanism for announcing alliances,' he says. 'We're now launching a system to ensure all partnerships are publicised the same way.'
But despite the denials some distis are attempting to pick holes in Maxtor's claims that this is an 'unfounded rumour', from sources with 'their own agenda'. 'I can't believe Dell only rejected 36,000 drives.' says one source. 'Maxtor credited the Dell issue as a cause for its weak sales. But 36,000 drives is nothing when Maxtor shipped 10.9m drives last quarter. It must have been a more substantial problem.' Maxtor counters that this is a 'misleading' interpretation and claims the sales shortfall was a result of the 'lost opportunity' of shipping between 1m and 3m drives while they were being requalified.
Others still reckon suspect products could have been passed onto eSys. Marius Jaworski, managing director at Polish HDD distributor Incom - which has stopped shipping Maxtor - claims: 'The rumours can't be proved without serial numbers from the Dell drives, but we're not just hearing this story from Maxtor's rivals, but its partners as well.'
Even one partner who believes Maxtor 'probably' did destroy the drives claims the vendor still has quality issues. 'Our internal failure rate for Maxtor drives has reached 3pc and climbing,' rants our insider. 'That makes it more than double Seagate and Hitachi's rate. We're talking to other distis to see if they have similar problems and are considering pushing for compensation.' Our source reckons that the applications it is seeing returned were built with components Maxtor shipped in early 2004. 'It looks like Dell tested the drives more thoroughly and spotted the fault,' he says. 'Everyone else took drives built at the same time that had the problem. Maxtor is playing the channel for fools.'
But Maxtor insists its failure rate remains in line with competitors such as Seagate and Hitachi. Cordano argues that the recent Warranty Week report - which showed Maxtor shelled out 5.5pc of product sales in warranty payments compared to just 2.4pc at Seagate - could be misleading. 'We count logistics, as well as the cost of repair, in our warranty figures. We don't know if our rivals use the same measurements.' Note, Seagate has again upped the stakes over product quality with the global launch of a five-year warranty on internal hard disk drives.
Despite the myriad of denials, Maxtor still added to partners' fears that the eSys deal will result in a channel reshuffle. 'When you add a player as large as eSys you have to make changes,' observes Didier Trassaert, VP EMEA at Maxtor. 'In areas where we have too many distis or where partners aren't hitting targets we may terminate alliances.'
The move comes too late for Incom, which ceased selling Maxtor last month. 'With eSys on board Maxtor has seven distis in Poland, but only shipped 30,000 units a quarter into the market,' says Jaworski. 'eSys' was selling below purchase prices and it was not worth being in the market.' Maxtor challenges this, insisting it can prove it terminated the relationship with Incom.
But even Maxtor's promise to strip out excess partners is doubted by several angry allies. Two partners claim that at its recent disti conference Maxtor said it would 'never' sign eSys in Europe, before recruiting it a few weeks later. Maxtor denies it ever ruled out signing eSys. www.maxtor.com
our analysis
Even if the dodgy drives were destroyed some partners are certain this is not an isolated problem and believe drives that fail in machines left on for too long were shipped. The only way Maxtor can lay this to rest is to make public its failure rates, but, when asked, Maxtor said it will not publish the figures. Of course, distribution partners are upset at the eSys' deal and Maxtor's rivals are only too willing to fuel talk of high failure rates. But with at least one pan-European distributor threatening to axe Maxtor, it will take some time to restore partner trust.
===================================================================
Facebook
Twitter