The politics that go on in this industry are unbelievable, perhaps worse than any other due to so many chains in the sales process and the cut throat pricing that is going on. The days of trust seem to be out the window. Even this story is disjointed and lacking concrete details.
One manufacturer recently took on one of our dealers direct, using the excuse that they needed to be able to compete with another brand. He didn't even let us know, waited for us to figure it out, then came back with a pocket full of excuses to justify it for himself. Now they have the cost of additional support, and credit terms, etc. Meanwhile we could have ourselves sold the dealer different brands for quite some time, but we were loyal to our demise in this particular case.
I think sales people are so scared of losing a deal or a customer these days that they will do anything even at the risk of long term reputation or what is best for their company.
I would bet that this Axis rep would argue that this was his customer in the first place, and that's probably how he has it listed in his CRM system. I'd love to hear his point of view on this. It'd be like watching the Republicans vs the Democrats. Both stories are probably so polished, we wouldn't know what to believe.
At the end of the day, if your manufacturer sees more value in your customer than you, that might be a bad spot leverage wise, so you should be careful and communicate with them in this regard.
From the manufacturer standpoint, if they are going to cross ethical lines, they must be prepared for the competitive ramifications. As in this case, I am sure the Integrator is now going to fight against Axis and the new integrator to keep his customer.