We came across an unusual hoodwinking situation last week…

You know we try to educate people on some of the underhand practises that go on in MFD and photocopier print & scan industry.

Things like stealth price increases, charging extra because the machine’s connected to your own network, extortionate termination charges and re-financing fresh air to sell you new equipment.

Well, here’s a new one for you to check out before you sign anything.

A customer who’s been buying office supplies from us for the last 2 years, asked for our help to assess a digital production machine print contract.

Just for context. A digital production machine is a large-scale print machine, which is very fast, can cope with heavy workloads and has lots of features and options.

It’s an expensive bit of kit and usually purchased by professional printers and universities.

In this instance it was a professional printer who was asking for help.

Basically, they’d purchased this machine 3-years earlier on a 5-year lease with an accompanying 5-year maintenance package.

The customer was sold the solution on the understanding that the maintenance package would cover all consumables, spares, and repairs for the full 5-years.

Just over three years in and the machine breaks, the customer logs a maintenance call with his service provider, and they attend site within the agreed SLA and fix the machine.

Imagine the surprise, when the very next day, an invoice for £5,000 drops into the customers inbox.

A phone call to the service provider explaining they have a 5-year agreement, would surely solve the problem, and invoicing them for the work was a genuine error.

Not so. The response. ‘You have a 5-year consumable (toner) supply agreement, but only a 3-year spares and repair warranty, which has now ended’.

‘But that’s not what was sold to me, your representative assured me it was 5 years all inclusive’, complained the customer.

‘That’s what’s in your contract’, retorted the service provider and refused to help them any further.

Since, the customer is too scared to use the production machine in case they have further problems, as they can’t afford another repair bill for thousands.

Unfortunately (in this situation) there is nothing the customer can do about it, as hidden deep in the contract terms it does say, ‘spares and repairs will be chargeable after year 3’.

Which is why we make things very simple and transparent for our customers, with rolling monthly agreements and fixed priced guarantees, which cover everything.

…our advice is to rigorously check the terms & conditions, and don’t sign until you’re satisfied.