A war of words has broken out between the UK subsidiaries of Compaq Computer Corp and Dell Computer Corp. Joe McNally, managing director of Compaq UK and Ireland, has called for Dell to come clean about its UK channel trading practices. Compaq claims that DellÆs æCut out the middleman. Be direct.Æ advertising tag-line is misleading and that Dell generally does not install, maintain, train, deliver or provide support to customers direct in UK. Compaq claims that Dell tends to use other companies in the UK to do the work for it, such as Wang Global and Unisys Corp. The firm has launched an advertising campaign to highlight the issues and even went as far as projecting an ad onto the side of DellÆs Bracknell, UK headquarters on Tuesday night. Compaq marketing director, Zesy Critchon said: To us it really matters because thereÆs a real danger of the channel being marginalized.
However, CompaqÆs actions drew an angry response from Dell UK and Ireland vice president, Brian McBride. He called the campaign pathetic and said that it was ôlike the school bully whinning in the playground because theyÆve been hit back. He also claimed CompaqÆs press statement contained an inaccurracy. The statement said that Michael Dell had been contacting the principals of Britain’s major reseller companies. And that Dell had not only asked them to sell Dell equipment, but also to provide computer support services for Dell boxes. McBride denied that any such contacts had occurred. He said that contrary to CompaqÆs assertions, 95% of DellÆs business was being done direct. He also pointed out that Wang and Unisys were service partners, not resellers.
