Unfair practice of providing startup supplies on state and federal contracts

Good point. But I do not think that Ricoh or any manufacturer wants to lose out up front. They want that money just like anyone else. So they can include the consumables but then they just raise cost to the dealer. In my opinion gov't contracts and bids are a waste of time. You work so hard to earn the business and there are 10 people bidding. Then you have provided the best long term solution that is proven to save them the most over 5 years. But guess what? The gov't entity is 7 million in the hole and they are instructed to go with the lowest option. Then they don't realize the red flag of the dealer providing service below the GSA contract rates when it is not an MPS bid. They look at it and say wow black and white is 0.0022 and color is 0.028 then say we are going to save the most money going with this dealer. The sad part is they are getting a box the will copy print scan and fax. They only look at the immediate cost upfront even though they are committing to a 5 year lease. Where is the logic in that? I cannot believe all the idiots we have in gov't that are hired to save the organization money and using our tax dollars to blow on a solution that will cost them more in the end.

Hello montecore - could you explain about those low intial cpc costs being quoted to win the deal - are you saying that is for the start-up supplies cpc and then the dealer can charge more for the supplies later when they run out?

To say that start-up supply costs are "lost" is not accurate and if your dealership is charging that "cost" against the G.P. of the deal, the salesrep is getting ripped off! It really isn't any different than selling supplies and getting paid via invoice in 30-60 days (which many dealerships actually pay commission for). The supplies get paid for in the subsequent clicks. This all assumes that there is a maintenance agreement that includes supplies of course.

copyme....what I mean is the CPC yes is to win the deal but the maintenance costs are for the entire deal not just the start up costs. So if this was a 60 mo lease those rates would be fixed for the term of the contract. They will not increase 7-10% on a yearly basis.