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I recently found myself in a situation that required a tough judgment call. A prospect in was looking to replace a CANON 220s or something like that. It was about 5 years old and had a designated envelope drawer (optional drawer they purchased).

Obviously, the rep who sold it to them did a good job matching this clients needs with a product that would serve them well.

Being that they were used to having this" reliable" envelope drawer, as they looked into new pieces they wanted one again. They run a high volume of com 10's for a small office.

They brought in about 7 vendors, all of which couldn't offer that same functionality as the previous copier in regards to a specific envelope tray; but all assured them that theirs would work.

Well, what do you do, take yourself out of the running by being honest, tell them your equipment is not speced to do that at high volumes, say it does, like the other reps, or take yourself out of the race completly.

I hate to lose deals, but refuse to lie. I was honest, told them how it was specd' to run enveloeps, 10 @ a time through bypass. Not like the way they were used too.

I closed the deal and now have a somewhat unhappy client. Although I was truthful from the gate, perception and expectations can get you in the end. On top of that, a tech went in and told them it wasn't speced to run that medium at all, and my company wouldn't support it. I believe that a calm head always prevails, however, this didn't help matters. My words with that tech were unkind to put it nicely. He called RICOH, as did I, and got a nay from the service line, as to where I got the green light from pre-sales support, so I can't be that mad, although wouldn't you think that he should have enough sense to realizee that a rep sold a piece expressing the limitations og a piece an not to open their mouth in a negative manner. O.K. now I am venting.

I guess, at the end of the day, as you all face these types of decisions on your calls, how do you handle these situations. Of course envelopes are taboo, but document solutions encompass more than copy print fax scan. I'd love to hear your feedback.

thanks

brian
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Brian:

If this is situation is in reference to the envelope feeding on the 1224/1232, these machines are spec'd to run envelopes from the by-pass and this info is posted on Ricoh's TCS web site.

As far as they were running from the cassette, I would have asked the customer if the by-pass would be ok on the new system. I have been doing this too long too have ill will and problems (even though, you can do a great job and still get "hung").

If the customer then stated no, I would have tried to "change" the deal. Meaning I would have switched modes to offering an AP3200 (and it works well)or an AP600N (which will feed envelopes from the cassette) and then offered them some type of color laser printer w/scanner or tested an AP 1022/2022 for envelope feeding.

Sometimes, yes sometimes we have to know when to walk away, and that can only come from experience and that gut feeling.

Art
1232sp fully loaded.

In regards to your comment Art, I am in 100% agreement with you. I tried the best I could to front load with them 10 at a time through the bypass. I knew that the machine was spec's to do this because of the help I received from this site.

I guess just like in a selling situation, you have to know when to hold, and know when to fold!!

Now, I am a human fire extinguisher.

However, I did find an interesting way to run envelopes on this, from a drawer without crinkling and getting the image on in the right direction.

Tray 1, custom setting, might have been B5 - Envelopes face up / flap open facing the roller. Works perfect, I just hope that Ican save enough face value to upgrade them FAST!!!!

thanksa for the input.

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