Imported computer innards have HP seething

By PETER GRIFFIN IT writer

Hewlett Packard has cracked down on an Auckland-based computer company claiming it is selling HP-labelled Machines that are not what they seem.

The computer giant launched an action in the High Court at Auckland last week against Gamma Computers, saying it has been selling HP's Pavilion PCs with internal parts that do not ship with the "genuine" Pavilion package.

The dispute centres on a handful of parallel-imported Pavilion machines that came into the country without a hard drive, CPU (central processing unit) and memory, which Gamma had been modifying with parts it bought separately.

HP discovered the practice when it sent people to Gamma stores to buy Pavilion machines which it then had examined.

Consumer general manager at HP Mike Carden said the company took a dim view of that because its name was associated with certain standards of hardware, service and support.

"Gamma has been selling a HP Pavilion case and software only. That's not a HP computer.

"I'd feel bad if my mother went into Gamma and bought one of those machines thinking it was a Pavilion."

A director of Gamma Computers, Abbas Shahroodi, said the machines came from another New Zealand company, PB Technologies, which imported the computer cases with genuine HP motherboards installed.

Gamma customers were given the choice of having parts installed in the stripped-down Pavilions which HP used, or other non-HP parts.

This meant buyers could upgrade their Pavilions with more memory, bigger hard drives and features such as a CD writer.

This allowed them to build a more powerful machine at a cheaper price.

"It should be left to the customer to decide what parts they want," he said.

Gamma had done around $500,000 worth of business with HP last year.

"HP is pushing to regulate the market and set the prices they want to charge.

"It's up to New Zealanders to decide if they want to buy HP when they won't be allowed to upgrade their boxes."

But HP said the upgrade issue was a smoke screen.

"HP does not sell empty cases. The name implies the whole package," said Mr Carden.

He questioned why Gamma was not selling computers under its own name if it was satisfied with the quality of all their parts.

HP had identified a number of cases overseas where its computer cases had been sold without the full set of genuine parts.

"We've seen a bit of it in the rest of the world in the last few months. It's likely all coming from the same source."

Manager of PB Technologies Pat Hall said the stripped-down machines came from an HP-endorsed company in America which was dumping excess stock.

He declined to name the company or say how many units were imported.

Mr Shahroodi said he hoped the matter would be cleared up without court action progressing further.

Gamma had temporarily stopped selling or advertising the Pavilion products in question.

But Mr Carden said "a lot of other question marks" hung over Gamma's actions, including its use of HP software.