Task 3. Compose a summary of the text in 80 words

AGRICOMP

“ How do I make sense of all this?” asked Jody, as he prepared to write his report to the dealer relations committee. He stared at the 292 responses to a survey of AgriComp’s dealers as he began to ponder the problem. The question was whether to recommend a change to AgriComp’s current procedures for setting warranty claim disputes with its dealers.

AgriComp sold computer systems to farmers, who used the systems for such purposes as crop rotation planning and spreadsheet analysis for financial planning. Many also used the systems to provide remote access to agriculture-oriented databases, market news and even weather information. The equipment was assembled at company headquarters at Minnesota. The software was provided by subcont­ractors but it was distributed under AgriComp’s name. Both hardware and software were sold through some 350 affiliated dealers nationwide, 292 of whom had responded to Jody’s survey. It was relations with these dealers that concerned him.

The local dealers handled warranty service for AgriComp products. When hardware or software problems occurred, they arranged for appropriate repairs to be made and submitted vouchers to AgriComp headquarters in Minnesota. The headquarters staff reviewed the vouchers and issued reimbursement checks to the dealer. Occasionally claims were denied when the staff found that the particular repair was not covered by the company’s warranty or the warranty had expired. In such cases, the dealer was more or less stuck for the cost of the repairs, and this had caused occasional hard feelings.

The company had an internal appeals process for dealers to follow to protest such denials but, at the last dealer’s meeting, Jody heard a lot of grumbling about that process. More than one dealer suggested that it was useless, as appeals were always denied. For the dealers, the costs of repairs might correspond to the profits on many systems, so their concern was understandable.

Jody knew that clearer warranty instructions would help. Sometimes the dealers couldn’t understand exactly what was or wasn’t covered by warranty. In that kind of case they often arranged for the repairs (to keep the customer happy) and took their chances on reimbursement. New documentation currently being developed would probably help with that part of the problem.

In a corridor conversation at the dealers’ meeting, one dealer suggested that perhaps in cases of dispute, an important mediator, external to the company, might be called in to settle a matter. In the annual survey of dealers Jody included a question about that proposal. As a part of one-page survey, dealers were asked to respond to the statement, “The warranty appeals process should be replaced by a process using impartial mediators,” on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 indicated “Strongly agree,” 3 indicated “Neither mediators nor disagree,” and 5 indicated “Strongly disagree.” Each dealer was also asked to give the number of times in the last three years in which he or she used the warranty appeals process. Answers to this question were 0, 1, 2 and ”3 or more.”

Jody was willing to consider changing the warranty appeals process along the lines suggested, if it was important to the dealers. It would cost the company some money, both for the external mediator and for increased costs from appeals the company lost, but keeping the dealer happy was obviously important.

Task 4. Read the text “Inquiring Minds Want to Know – Now!” and translate it.

Task 5. Find answers to the following questions in the text and write them down:

1. What are the publication reader service cards used for?

2. How did Penton start its research?

3. What are the main ways of contacting advertiser?

2. What are the reasons of the need for fast response and the need for information on product availability and delivery?