Konica Minolta Business Solutions Vietnam Co. Ltd Konica Minolta's Dishonesty h*o Chi Minh District 1

When shifting from “Specialized in book sales and book sales only to Digital printing”, Saigonbook has chosen to purchase Konica Minolta’s Digital Printers with a belief that a new machine of a well-known company will be ensured about quality and price.

On August 15, 2014, Saigonbook signed a contract to purchase a C1070P printer of Konica Minolta via Konica’s commercial agent, Sao Nam, with the price of $61,395. While Saigonbook is having a trial run of the C1070P printer, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Vietnam Co. Ltd (KMV) and Sao Nam suggested the company the Printing Shop model which was popular in Europe and North America.

KMV and Sao Nam promised to help Saigonbook to build the first Printing Shop in Vietnam at the prime location of Saigon Book Center. On October 20, 2014, Saigonbook signed a contract purchasing the C1100 printer from Sao Nam with 20% discount. According to KMV’s design consultancy, Saigonbook converted Saigon Book Center into a Printing Shop with the typical blue color of Konica Minolta. KMV attached the signboard "Printing Shop - Take a step ahead with Konica Minolta's Digital Press" at Saigonbook’s head office and promised to sell ink, materials and supply services at preferential prices. KMV also gave Saigonbook an UPS worth about $7,000 as a promotion gift.

However, after putting these 2 printers into operation, Saigonbook realized that their printing price was much higher than the market price and found out that they was cheated right from the first printer.

Sao Nam sold the C1070P printer at $61,395 while Saigon Technical Resolution (STS) offered the price of $35,349; Sao Nam sold the C1100 printer at $158,563 while that of STS was $59,953. The total difference in the selling price of these 2 printers was $124,656.

In order to prove KMV and Sao Nam’s dishonesty, Saigonbook assigned employees to act as different customers to collect proofs about their dishonest quotation. As a result, they have found out that with the same C1100 printer and at the same time, KMV made quotations of $153,488 and $102,325; Sao Nam made quotations of $180,139 and $93,023; STS made quotations of $79,069, $83,720 and $88,372; Sao Nam An made a quotation of $180,140.

Not only did they cheat on price, KMV and Sao Nam also cheated on warranty policy when they only offered the warranty period of 1 year for C1100 and C1070P printers instead of 3 years and 5 years, respectively, as in Konica Minolta’s warranty policy.

After collecting enough proofs, Saigonbook required Sao Nam and KMV to take back these 2 printers and repay the settled amount. On August 6, 2015, Sao Nam’s representatives and the Lawyer Nghiem Quang Bui visited Saigonbook’s head office and agreed to take back the printers and make full repayment. On August 14, 2015, Sao Nam and KMV recalled the C1070P printer and fully returned $61,395 to Saigonbook. However, on August 18, 2015, Sao Nam proposed taking back the C1100 printer with a sales contract which was denied by Saigonbook because Saigonbook thought they “Return the printers, not sale”.

It was more disgraceful for Sao Nam and KMV that after failing in repurchasing the printer, Mr. Tadasu Ichino – the General Director of KMV authorized the Lawyer Net Le to send documents to Saigonbook, Thanh Nien newspaper, Tuoi Tre newspaper and Saigon Businessman newspaper to deny their responsibility with the excuses: "KMV has not had any contractual relationship with Saigonbook" and "At different point of time, the quoted prices are different"; but when Saigonbook showed the proofs about their dishonest quotations and the contract KMV signed with Saigonbook pursuant to the regulations in Article 24 of the Commercial Law, KMV and Lawyer Net Le had nothing to say more!

To understand KMV and Sao Nam, Saigonbook had to collect proofs, link their words, behaviors and documents together and compare to other partners to draw the conclusion that the reason for the differences in price quotation and warranty period was their dishonesty.

KMV and Sao Nam cooperated with each other to cheat Saigonbook by first pushing the price higher, the giving discount price and UPS as promotion gift. An honest company could not “swallow” such an illegal profit of $124,656 from only one deal and “shorten” the warranty period from 3 years to one year in many other deals. KMV, Sao Nam and their Lawyers had nothing more to say because such a “swallow” was an unjustifiable crime.

Note: $1 = VND21,500.

by Kim Vinh Luong