South Partners Deeply Concerned with TP Link

TP-Link, while launched in India had a energetic foray in the Indian market becoming a threat to the basic and mid-level networking market. The roads of the IT markets in Lamington Road, Chenoy Trade Center and Ritche Street welcomed the customers with TP-Link marketing materials.

However, in course of time, after grabbing the market, some of their channel partners felt the heat. On a condition of anonymity many channel partners from TP Link shared their views on their channel policies which they need to address immediately.

After hearing their concerns, The DQ Week sums up the top issues the TP-Link management needs to address immediately for their business in India.

Distribution model:

The biggest wit running around the WhatsApp groups of channel partners is- ‘TP-Link has more distributors than dealers.’ Increasing RD for the past two years for TP-LINK has failed to maintain stability in the market. The first thing they needed to do is to have a proper system in place and consolidate the issues.

Special focus:

Partners are quizzed why TP-LINK has not grown with respect to the SMB segment. Their other concern is that only products that are moving is Broadband WiFi and Wifi Router. They should equally focus on other products. However, after many partners raised their concerns, TP-Link has recently managed to conduct multi-city meet in 7 Indian cities. These meets were set to have SMB focus.

Tough e-Fight:

The partners in the physical stores have to give a tough fight against the price offered by TP-LINK (or the sellers of TP-Link) in various online market place. Many partners also claim that TP-Link’s full concentration is to sell vigorously in e-portals.

Warranty Support:

The warranty of many of the TP-Link products is calculated not from the day of customer-billing but the regional distributor billing. Many customers get irritated when their products are rejected terming ‘out-of-warranty’. This has become an additional headache for both the reseller and the distributor to put an extra effort not to lose their customers at their levels.

Channel Connect:

It is believed, TP-Link has not conducted any RD meet or Reseller meets for the past 5-6 years. The partners also feel that there are no forums or place where any partner of TP-Link can raise their concerns or voice.