The concerned distributors of renewable energy equipment in the country have urged the Pakistan Solar Association (PSA) to establish a dedicated complaint cell to take up the issues faced by the end-users in the country due to unchecked import of unauthorised solar power equipment through the grey channel.
“The bona fide distributors and EPC contractors in the Pakistani market who have the firm belief in serving their customers with complete honesty, integrity, dedication, and professionalism are seriously affected due to constant import and availability of grey channel products in the country,” said Faaz Diwan who is Director of Diwan International that is one of the leading distributors of solar energy equipment in Pakistan.
He said it was high time that PSA set up a complaint cell to properly deal with the end-users who were hoodwinked by the dishonest EPC contractors into installing grey channel products with no valid warranty offer in Pakistan.
He said the grey channel products in addition to causing massive loss to the national economy had also been responsible for tarnishing the image and reputation of the manufacturers of the top brands of solar energy equipment.
Diwan said that a mechanism should be available to look into the complaints of the end-users who had nowhere to go to get the faulty grey channel products repaired or replaced.
“We have been facing this issue as the official distributor of Huawei solar power products in Pakistan as other fellow distributors of top international clean energy equipment are also equally upset due to these grey channel products that are easily available in the market,” he said.
He said the sincere EPC contractors in the Pakistani market couldn’t compete with the equipment suppliers who installed the much cheaper solar energy products procured through the grey channel.
“The problem starts when the end-users are unable to make the warranty claim when these products become faulty after using them for a while. The end-user later goes to the EPC contractor and official distributor for help but to no avail,” he said.
He said the official distributors despite their sympathetic intentions to help out such suffering end-users couldn’t do anything because the warranty of such grey channel products is not valid in Pakistan.
“In such a situation the PSA should step in and help out such aggrieved customers who shouldn’t feel cheated as a service should be available to look into their genuine issues for the larger good of Pakistani clean energy market,” he said.
Diwan said the work by the bona fide distributors and EPC contractors who didn’t deal in grey channel products shouldn’t be affected due to the existence of a grey market in Pakistan.
“It is next to impossible to end the import of grey channel products but setting up a complaint cell to look into the issues faced by the customers due to such equipment is a feasible option,” Diwan added.
PSA urged to set up dedicated complaint cell to deal with grey channel clean energy products
