Lenovo Australia has experienced some issues with the transfer of payments to some of its local resellers.
This has resulted in a few of its retailers and distributors missing out on months of rebates, following a push by the Chinese PC company to grow its consumer business in the country.
Lenovo Australia CEO, Matt Codrington, told ARN that the company recently faced some “teething issues” with regards to the transfer of payments to a new AP centre.
“In the past year Lenovo A/NZ continued to invest in new systems and processes to drive efficiency and improvements for our partner and customer experience,” he said.
“However, we acknowledge the transition to these new systems and our shared services off-shore processing team has encountered some initial challenges resulting in some delays in processing partner rebate claims.”
According to ChannelNews, the issue that was unearthed a few months ago is said to have impacted business such as JB Hi-Fi, Ingram Micro and Harvey Norman. One of the retailers alone was allegedly owed more than $1.3 million.
But Lenovo Australia said it is taking steps to rectify the problem.
“To help expedite remaining claims, we’re working with KPMG on some short-term assistance and expect to be back to business as usual this quarter,” Codrington said.
ChannelNews quoted JB Hi-Fi CEO, Cameron Trainor, who said the matter has been resolved with Lenovo.
“As Cameron Trainor's comments suggested, [the issue is] largely resolved now. We are trying to drive a better customer and partner experience and I didn't want to have any delays so also temporarily ramped some local accounting resources to cover and get us back on track quickly,” Codrington added.
ChannelNews also quoted an unnamed source who allegedly divulged that the issue has been ongoing for a few months, and that many of its customers were complaining about the company selling direct while also utilising a retail model to grow sales.
Just days ago, Lenovo reported a first-quarter loss, citing higher costs and slower growth in the personal computer market.
It added that the outlook was challenging due to supply constraints.
Specifically, Lenovo, which lost its position as the world's largest PC maker to HP Inc. in the quarter through June, faced losses of US$72 million as compared to a profit of US$173 million for the same period last year.
In competing more aggressively with its rivals, the company recently revealed a post-PC identity, following a string of data centre and commercial PC transformations.
But despite the shift towards the data centre, Lenovo said it will still bolster its PC and Smart Devices (PCSD) segment to the company’s overall value proposition, illustrating the emphasis on commercial PC services in the division’s long-term financial and go-to-market strategies.
