Ingram Micro Canada - Frustating - Infuriating - Downright Obnoxious

NOTE: Frustration induced post...

Up here in Canada, we have essentially the Big Three suppliers for purchasing IT stuff at jobber/wholesale:

• Synnex
• Tech Data
• Ingram Micro

There are a couple of others that we have dealt with from time to time.

While we are not a large I.T. business by any means, our sales do make a difference.

Here is our breakdown for purchases:

1. Synnex 70%
2. Tech Data 24%
3. Other 5%
4. Ingram Micro 1%

There are reasons we only give Ingram Micro Canada less than 1% of our business:

1. Try getting an RMA within the alloted time frame for that product
2. Try getting product recovery that was damaged in shipping
3. Try getting the RMA credit back.

Today, we came across a situation that absolutley dumbfounds: We were issued an RMA for a DOA laptop in January where the credit is still not reflected on the credit card.

So, we called up the customer service folks at Ingram Micro to find out why there is a credit sitting in their bank that belongs to us almost 3 weeks later. Apparently the credit needed to be processed manually!

Not only that, we were the ones that needed to chase them down in order to get that credit issued. No phone call from their customer service people to say, "Mr. Elder, there was a hang up in our system and your credit will be processed as soon as we clarify things" around the time the original RMA credit transaction happened.

The kicker is this: Checking our Ingram online statement while talking with the customer service representative showed another credit from quite a while ago. Upon requesting clarification on that credit, it too had not been issued!

Folks, want to really insert expletive here off your clients? Hang onto their money for a little while with no explanation or initiative to give it back.

When looking back across the transactions we have done with Ingram Micro over the last number years, less than 10% of them were trouble free. To rephrase: Over 90% of all transactions we have ever done with Ingram Micro Canada had a problem.

Folks, just because a company is the cheapest on the block, doesn't mean that we are going to buy from them. The extra point or two that we pay at the other guys is justified when we need to turn to them for anything and they give us the red carpet treatment.

And believe me, the extra service from phone calls from our sales representatives, to product promotions calls, to "how are things going" calls from the various Synnex and Tech Data people makes a whole world of difference to us.

That same standard we hold to those we deal with in our day to day business life is the one we hold against our own business: Our clients and their business come first.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

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