D-Link dumps distie in row over ?unpaid bills?

CHS-Merisel has responded to the vendor?s action by claiming it was about to sever ties anyway

A bitter wrangle between vendor D-Link and distributor CHS-Merisel has led to a parting of ways between the two companies. D-Link has accused CHS-Merisel of not paying its bills, while the distributor said that it had decided to dump the vendor anyway.

Michael Gill, managing director of D-Link, said: ?We have not been paid for two months. Despite all of our efforts with CHS-Merisel, we can?t deal with them, so we?re sending them a Dear John letter.?

He said that the amount in question ran into six figures. ?This will drop our distributors to six. We?ve chewed it all over.?

Gill said that D-Link still had stock at CHS-Merisel but D-Link will take legal action to recover it.

Peter Rigby, networking divisional manager at CHS-Merisel, described Gill?s comments as ?a bit dirty?. He added: ?I?ve made it clear that we?re going through vendor rationalisation and he was one of them. I would say that if we owe money, it will be a reconciliation between Merisel and CHS.?

D-Link was one of the vendors CHS had inherited from Merisel when the two merged, according to Rigby. ?We have had discussions about where the relationship was going.?

Last month, Gill took similar steps to slim down D-Link?s distribution channel when he sent a Dear John letter to Pat Harvey at DMST.

At the time, Harvey said relations had been stretched. He said the firm had had no support from D-Link since last July.

Last week, D-Link appointed Midwich Thame to carry its full line of networking products.