Office Document Strategies Blog

You Pay For Two Copiers When Upgrade Not Paid by Copier Vendor

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 @ 06:11 AM

You Pay For Two Copiers When Upgrade Not Paid by Copier VendorIts sad to say but we have seen it happen.  A potential client for a copier upgrade decides to go with a vendor prior to the end of their lease and the buyout or upgrade costs for the old unit are not paid by the vendor of the new copier.  A few weeks later the leasing company contacts the purchaser looking for payment on their lease and the company is shocked to find out that they are still on the hook for their old copier's lease.  The new vendor has not cleared the payment nor have they arranged for return of the device adding additional cost onto the deal.

So how could this happen?  There are several ways.

  • The company making the purchase has been dealing with several suppliers and during the process gets confused about the details of each proposal.  One of the vendors conveniently leaves any mention of the existing device out of their proposal (and the cost of the buy out of the current lease out of their price).  They come in as the lowest priced vendor...and get awarded the deal.

  • The company making the purchase assumes that the old machine is to be removed and will be paid out by the winning vendor but does not define this in the terms for the proposal.

  • The company making the purchase is approached by their current vendor to upgrade and save with a new machine.  No mention is made of the old lease still having several months to run and the details of this are not dealt with while the deal is being negotiated.

There are probably many more ways this can happen, but you get the point.  Unless there is something in the written proposal tendered at the time the deal is priced, the purchasing company ends up paying for two leases, or paying out the balance on the old lease to clear the debt.

Either way they pay twice for a portion of the deal. 

Of course, they really end up doing this as well in the buyout of the old machine but because the cost is incorporated into the new lease it does not seem as painful.

Why?

Typically the balance of payments for the old lease are added into the purchase price of the new device when a copier is replaced early.  Don't believe the vendor who says the payments on the old lease magically go away because they have this great deal for you to get a new machine.  Leasing companies are not in the practice of not being paid for the term of the lease...so someone must be making the payments.  If not you, then it must be the vendor and they are not doing this without compensation, either by building it into the quote or by higher margins than would be normal.

If a deal looks too good...it probably is.  If your vendor will not declare to you what the costs of refinancing are going to be if you end your lease early, then don't touch the deal.  They are trying to hide legitimate costs from you. Why do they do this?  It is a way to get you to renew a deal without bringing competition to the table.  They can ensure better margins and locked in clients.  This practice is often called 'rolling your copier lease'.  It is also used in the case of mailing equipment, (often two years out) and other leased or rented products.

Has your copier been rolled?  How many times have they come back to get you to upgrade early?  How much air is there in your copier lease?  Who are the worst offenders?  Share your thoughts below.

Lee K

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Topics: Copier, leasing