Distributor competing against you?

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Dynamic

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#97101 10-Feb-2012 16:06

Hi Team,

If anyone has had experience in the last 12 months of a local distributor competing against you in the antivirus space, can you PM me please?

Cheers
Mike

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#582288 16-Feb-2012 11:48

I can now confirm that a local antivirus distributor (who by definition does not sell to end users) has competed against me by (what I consider theft) of two key clients from my client list and significantly undercutting our pricing for at least one of these two clients.

This has hit a contract salesperson associate of mine directly in the pocket.

I'm meeting with my lawyer on an unrelated matter next week. I'll check I'm on solid ground before I name and shame.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Zeon

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#582297 16-Feb-2012 12:08

So a competitor is bettering your pricing and customers are using their services instead. So what's the problem?

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allan

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#582300 16-Feb-2012 12:22

I read this as Dynamic saying that the distributor of the product was directly competing against him as a reseller - not one reseller vs. another.

Dynamic

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#582303 16-Feb-2012 12:31

Checking carefully, I see they advise on their web site that they are a distributor and a reseller.

The issue remains - if I have an existing relationship with a client for a product obtained from this company, when it comes to renewal time, it is for me to go about the renewal process. The client had no relationship with the distributor until they muscled in.

Note by some incredible coincidence only the two largest clients on my books have been commandeered. Sheer fluke I'm sure.

When you are both a reseller and a distributor, your conduct needs to be above board or your reputation will be jeopardised.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Talkiet

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#582314 16-Feb-2012 12:45

It's not at all clear from what you have posted so far if you've raised this issue with your distributor... Have you? What did they say?

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Jaxson

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#582326 16-Feb-2012 13:00

Do you have any formal supply/conduct agreements in place with the distributor?

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mattwnz

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#582350 16-Feb-2012 13:35

You say 'by definition' but is it actually in their terms of the contract with you, that they can't. I see this with other industries such as hosting and domain names.

freitasm

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#582369 16-Feb-2012 13:56

Check the contract. If there's a clause saying they can't compete, they are in breach. If there's no such clause, then not much can be done.

IANAL, contact your lawyer, etc...

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insane

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#582384 16-Feb-2012 14:32

If the end customer approached them directly, bypassing you, then there is nothing wrong. If however the distributor targeted your end customer then that would be unethical in my books, regardless of whether it's illegal or not.

Dynamic

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#582681 17-Feb-2012 09:13

The company is belligerent about it.

A formal agreement is in place (their Terms of Trade).

No non-complete clause is included in that document. I have just reviewed it carefully.

Unethical, yes. Breach of agreement, unfortunately no.

As is the case with many things, the couple of grand in margin is not insignificant, but not worth engaging legal representation over. We will be expressing our disappointment to the software manufacturer about the conduct of their distributor.

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Jaxson

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#582686 17-Feb-2012 09:22

Dynamic:No non-complete clause is included

Sorry, but I expect that's the end of it right there.

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CYaBro

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#582713 17-Feb-2012 10:21

So you going to tell us who it is so we can avoid them?

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Ragnor

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#582900 17-Feb-2012 16:37

CYaBro: So you going to tell us who it is so we can avoid them?

This ^

raytaylor

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#582989 17-Feb-2012 21:32

Im keen to find out who it is also.
A distributor should not be cold calling a customer of one of their resellers.

Unfortunatly its very easy to do in the software licencing space.

So yeah, tell us who so we can avoid buying product from them on ethical grounds.

Ray Taylor

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Snowflake

#582992 17-Feb-2012 21:37

Dynamic: We will be expressing our disappointment to the software manufacturer about the conduct of their distributor.

thats probably your best course of action. and get your competitors to complain too... it cant be good for them either. i'm sure the vendor wont want all the reseller base switching to a different product and selling all their clients accross which is what they'll be facing if things dont improve.

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