[smartBridges] Quality Control

[Nish Park]

In the last few days a lot of forum bandwidth has been spent on the perceived quality issues with our products. We are preparing a comprehensive info package to address these comments. In the mean time here is some info. 1) Our macro level (worldwide and over past 5 months) RMA rate is about 3%. About 40% of these RMA do not have any problems. So the effective rate is about 1.8%. We have comprehensive process in place to monitor this and continually improve this further. Our goal is to reach under 1% over next few weeks (more details on the process will be shared later). 2) From the nature of the forums (this as well as others), we have come to realize that it is lot easier for negative sentiments to linger around. In general, when people have some problem, they post a message. Our support staff would work with them to resolve the issue. But it is rare that a follow-up post would be made clarifying the issue. 3) Many times we see posts that do not appear to be genuine problem statements. When we reach out and try to work with those individuals, they do not reply. Unfortunately this happens often enough. 4) The product shortage and availability issues had contributed to adding to the frustration level. But by now enough shipments should be reaching the distributors to take care of ALL the back orders. In addition, new distributors have been appointed to provide you alternatives. 5) We are going through the growing pains (like 100% month over month) but please be assured that our focus on quality is unwavering.   6) Here is an issue we are trying to figure out. Any thoughts would be appreciated. The outgoing quality level from the factory is better than 99.9x%. Field return rate is  3% (or 1.8%). So what could happen in between that some people experience real bad things? Nish