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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

TimB ·
Germane to the question, haven't seen those kind of escalations. We do increase maintenance reasonably after 5 years. An underlying question comes to mind though; why is it some dealers feel they need to escalate exorbitantly, if they do? Is it related to our industry's 'race to the bottom' pricing-wise and a dealership's desire to make an account profitable after-the-fact? It might not be pure greed. That, combined with the deterioration of customer loyalty and the 'commoditization'...
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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

Old Glory ·
I quipped about the possible comparison between maintenance contract escalations and the alternative forms of revenue embedded in most lease contracts. With all the talk about how important it is to be honest and open with customers, I can't help but wonder how many of you are honest and open about the lease contract you ask them to sign. Do you explain to them that they will be getting an extra invoice every year presumably to pay the lease company's property tax? How they will need to jump...
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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

Czech ·
Originally Posted by BG: Thru the use of our ERP software we review each and every contract annually for profitability. The % of increase, if any, is based upon the profitability of each contract. We do not do a blanket increase for the entire base. Increases can range from 0% to what ever it takes to get the contract on track. The whatever it takes amount is typically due to new customers having an extraordinarily high usage of toner. We track this and point it out to them as justification...
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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

txeagle24 ·
I'm sure others in the room with a number of years in this business & had to deal with questions regarding return shipping, insurance, auto renewal, property tax and the like learned early on that it's best to bring all of the above to the attention of their clients early in the process versus getting put on the offensive when a customer gets upset. I for one address each of these on the front end virtually every time I take on a new client. Occasionally questions still come up, because...
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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

Art Post ·
When it comes to leasing, I address everything, the insurance, the doc fee, no property tax here in NJ. I also have the discussion about all of the end of lease options. With some companies I even prepare a SOW and make then sign it. What I don't discuss is bumped rates, now that crap really PO's me.
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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

Art Post ·
At the end of the day, I believe the industry as a whole needs to be more transparent. Probably will not happen, but that's my opinion. I will have the come to Jesus talk with my customers about escalated maintenance rates, just because I don't need the hassle down the road or to lose a customer, they are just to darn hard to get nowadays. I'm sure, I won't get as many deals because there will be other salespeople that will lie about their maintenance costs or they are so new and naive that...
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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

Jason H ·
Originally Posted by Art Post: When it comes to leasing, I address everything, the insurance, the doc fee, no property tax here in NJ. I also have the discussion about all of the end of lease options. With some companies I even prepare a SOW and make then sign it. What I don't discuss is bumped rates, now that crap really PO's me. Art, how often do you explain it and then get people who call back upset because they weren't listening. I just had that instance the other day. A guy bought two...
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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

Jason H ·
Our contracts say 10% annually on the service. We don't increase the lease payment portion. We will negotiate as it seems the Directs will give someone a 2% increase and point out everyone else is 10%. I have customers who are as low as 4% but the majority are at 10% annual increase.
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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

Art Post ·
Originally Posted by Jason H: Originally Posted by Art Post: When it comes to leasing, I address everything, the insurance, the doc fee, no property tax here in NJ. I also have the discussion about all of the end of lease options. With some companies I even prepare a SOW and make then sign it. What I don't discuss is bumped rates, now that crap really PO's me. Art, how often do you explain it and then get people who call back upset because they weren't listening. Probably once a month, I...
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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

fisher ·
My favorite is when a customer doesn't send in proof of insurance then gets mad at me when the realize they've been paying for insurance all along at the end of term. I give the same speech on every lease advising them to send it in. Sometimes I even do it for them.
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Re: Escalating Maintenance Agreements

VinceMcHugh ·
There will always be an animosity between Sales & Service. Currently this is the most thorny issue (as long as your Service Dept provides good service). This stems, in part, from the Manufacturers getting into Direct Sales. To be fair to the Manufacturer's Direct Sales the trend was already heading this way, they just escalated it and made it significantly worse. Click charges getting lower and lower killing the golden goose of the Dealerships = Service & supplies billing! We can...
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Printer Repair Training Classes

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Escalating Maintenance Agreements

Art Post ·
There's a few things that I'm tired of in this industry.  Keep in mind that I had a dealership for 12 years, although not large, we still employed our three partners and at one time had a dozen employees.  I sold my share of the business,...
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Copier Maintenance Agreements "Are You Hiding the Cheese"?

Art Post ·
This will be the shortest blog of the season for me!!  Last night I posted a topic in the Print4Pay Hotel forums related Maintenance Agreements.    I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag on the open blog, but we've already had...
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Fleet Maintenance Agreement Cost Per Device

Art Post ·
I've seen this before and would like to know how the rest of us are billing for maintenance supply agreements for copiers.   Here's the scenario:   You have 3 copiers that are the same brand, model number and delivered at the same time...
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Best Black & White MFP for 10k/month yeild. Suggestions?

Art Post ·
From time to time I'll see an interesting thread or post on a forum and I'll take the time to give an unbiased opinion based on the questions that are presented.  Below is a thread I found on a forum that really didn't answer the question for the...
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Does anyone have a clue as to how the CPC billing model started in the first place?

Art Post ·
Cost Per Image, Cost Per Page, Cost Per Copy, Cost Per Print, whatever you call it, it all started with the copier industry. The question above was posed by Greg Walters with a recent thread that was posted on LinkedIn.  I stated the reply...
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Six Reasons Why Copiers Leases Can Cost You More Than You Signed For

Art Post ·
When you signed your last copier lease, did you happen to take the time to read that lease? How about the maintenance agreement? If you're like most lessees, you probably skimmed over the verbiage on the lease and then signed the maintenance agreement without reading the T's & C's. Not reading those T's & C's could lead to some problems in the future, because there are clauses in those agreements that will increase your costs. 1) Maintenance included with the lease: Some leases have...
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Unlimited Black and Color Page Maintenance/Supply Plans

Art Post ·
Recently went up against a company that was offering Unlimited Black and Color pages plans here in NJ. Not sure how they are doing it, has anyone else seen this crop up in their area? Here is there web address, takes while to load....http://www.copysmart.me/m/ checked to see if they were authorized for any manufacturers and came up with nothing.
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Why Don't You Have a Copier Technology Budget?

Art Post ·
I was in the field today and was helping one of my clients figure out an issue with his desktop MFP. This client is also on the board of a non-profit organization that has a seven year old color A3 MFP. Yes Ray, they need 11x17! Why do some clients have seven year old MFPs? It's because they made a purchase and can't come to grips with spending additional dollars to get a new MFP. Thus, I told the story of WHY ninety percent of my clients lease their MFPs. In fact a little more than eighty...
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Wording on a Competitors Maintenance Agreement

Art Post ·
Apologies for this being so small, however I had to cut and paste. I believe the line that states "at the then-current rate" is really vague right? Kinda means they could charge whatever they want. Thoughts, comments?
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Four Ways to Compete Against the KM Flat Rate Program

Art Post ·
Recent talk tracks in our NJ sales office has been about the new KonicaMinolta unlimited click program. Just recently one of our reps thought that they couldn't compete with the One Rate program for three A3 MFP's. Those three MFP's were doing a decent volume of color each month. When we did some more digging with the clients color volume and the monthly cost for unlimited pages, we figured the revenue for Konica Minolta was two cents for every color page. Just as the rep was ending the...
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Four Bad Leasing Clauses I Ran Across This Week

Art Post ·
In the last few days I've seen some horrible contracts/agreements/leases that clients have signed for their copiers. My first thought was to blame the leasing companies for these lame leases, but it's not the leasing companies fault. In fact it's the fault of the dealer because the dealer has the ability to structure many of the t's and c's of the lease. The Roll Over aka Evergreen Clause In one case the lease has a roll over clause like most leases do, however this lease has a roll over of...
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Re: Wording on a Competitors Maintenance Agreement

fisher ·
Not vague to me. They are going to charge a 12 month renewal on the service plan just like some leasing companies do if you don't send in the letter at the end of the lease term. How nice of them! Thanks for this bit of ammo as I just ran into this competitor for the first time recently.
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Re: Wording on a Competitors Maintenance Agreement

Art Post ·
But at the "at current rate", could mean they could charge whatever they want, correct?
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Re: Wording on a Competitors Maintenance Agreement

fisher ·
Pretty much.
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Re: Unlimited Black and Color Page Maintenance/Supply Plans

VinceMcHugh ·
IKON (Ultimately Ricoh) got sued for this "Flex Lease" Practice, where they just kept rolling things in and rewriting the whole 60 mo lease. Eventually, after the lawyers all made their money, Ricoh Settled the "UnFair Business Practices" Law Suit. Japanese companies typically don't like to go to court. At least that's My $0.02 Vince
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Re: Unlimited Black and Color Page Maintenance/Supply Plans

Czech ·
Yes, I've seen this from authorized dealers. 6 months later they called the customer and asked for their meter count and sent a bill for $700. More and more I'm seeing copies included in the lease. IMO that's cheeky, especially when a lease buyout is involved. How do you pick that apart? A customer shouldn't have to pay for service not rendered.
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Re: Unlimited Black and Color Page Maintenance/Supply Plans

Art Post ·
There outta be a law for that!
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Lead for High Volume Maintenance Agreement in Ohio

Art Post ·
see attached file
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High Wire Networks Wins $1.3 Million Managed Services and Maintenance Program for National ...

Art Post ·
BOCA RATON, Fla, May 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spectrum Global Solutions Inc . (the “Company” or “Spectrum”) (OTCQB: SGSI), announced today that High Wire Networks Inc . (“High Wire”) has been awarded a \ managed services and maintenance contract to centralize all network and desktop support at 1,240 sites across the U.S. and Canada, leveraging High Wire’s Global Command Center (GCC) Services . The value of the contract is expected to be about $1.3 million annually. High Wire will deliver...
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The Race to Zero is Over

Art Post ·
I can't decide if this will be one of those longer blogs or maybe one of the shorter ones. It's after 10PM and I just finished all of the P4P Hotel updates. What I wanted to write about is my thoughts and ideas about what our industry calls the "Race to Zero". I'm sure the phrase was coined sometime and some place long ago. For the last 25 years we've used that phrase quite often to explain a brief explanation of the copier service business model. It's my belief that the "race to zero" is...
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Lead for Copiers/Maintenance and Support in Florida

Art Post ·
see attached file
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The quid pro quo in Sales

Art Post ·
About a month ago I had a call from an existing client to meet about upgrading two of their older copiers that they owned and were under a maintenance agreement. That call came from the new IT Director since the existing IT Director was retiring. That meeting went well and since there were four other A3 printers, service has been exceptional, I priced those two MFP's with acceptable gross profit (I'm not in this business to give **** away because we all have to eat). In addition when I asked...
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Lead for fleet of Copiers and maintenance

Art Post ·
see attached file
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