Reseller consortium The Brigantia Group has launched a scheme to help reassure end-users that their PC warranties will be maintained, in the event of a Brigantia member going bust.
Under the BuyGuard Scheme, Brigantia will select a range of PCs and notebooks built to Brigantia specifications at a uniform level of quality and pricing. The group will then add a contingency warranty plan administered by insurance firm Allied Westminster. If a Brigantia BuyGuard reseller should then cease trading, any warranty will be passed on to another BuyGuard VAR.
Clive Bishop, BuyGuard operations manager at Brigantia, said: “It’s all about customer confidence. With the way the market is, no one knows what is around the corner, so the BuyGuard scheme reassures customers that if the reseller they purchased the PC from goes under, they will still be covered.”
Brigantia currently has about 1,000 members. It has already signed 50 members to the scheme.
“It is a safeguard that VARs can offer customers,” Bishop added. “It gives resellers a unique selling point.”
Chris Hatton, technical director at VAR ComputerMan PCs, told CRN: “The idea of the scheme does appeal, but we’re waiting to see how it goes first before we sign up.”
Nick Dutch, managing director of reseller The Real Computer Shop, said: “Anything that consolidates all the resellers into one reliable offering is a good idea. However, we don’t think our customers would pay the extra £5 a system just to know that if we went bust they would be covered. For now we are going to wait and see how the scheme pans out.”
Last year, Brigantia signed a strategic partnership with Retail Profiling Consultants to allow its VARs to receive free onsite vendor training. (CRN, 20 June 2005).
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