Anyone else out there having a business drought? I have noticed that there are more and more businesses closing up and trying to sell me a copier (worn out and old).

One thing that I have noticed is businesses do not have much capital these days for a strait up copier sale. You can have some of the best copiers out there fully loaded with everything that the customer is looking for, but if they do not have the capital to buy it, then your spinning your wheels. This year has been a very challenging year and I have noticed that every since the supreme court has made the healthcare bill constitutional, business is down quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, we are still open and working, but our estimates (when we get them) and machine sale leads (every more sporadic these days) are coming up with the same outcome. We would love to buy this product, but we just don't have the funds to do so. It's getting to the point where we almost have to finance the service charge to repair the copier (which we wouldn't do).

Case in point. We sold a couple of Xerox copiers to what seemed to be a well off doctors clinic (nice marble floors and patience lined up out the door). They agreed to a 2 phase copier and printer refresh with all reconditioned equipment. Now mind you, all of our equipment is stripped down to the bare frame and reconditioned with new parts that need to be replaced. Our copiers are a little higher than our competitors, however we find ourselves having to go behind our competition because they are selling their equipment strait from the remarketers warehouse without reconditioning it for a cheaper price. After the delivery of phase one, they emailed me and said that they neglected to see the delivery fee on the quote ($125 for all equipment) and that they will be in "hot water" because they couldn't afford that. Almost right after that, I get an email stating that they need me to drop the price down an additional $200 off of the equipment (mind you nothing has changed from the quote and the final invoice). I arrived to their office with the same truck that delivered all that equipment the next day to take it all back. After several "heated" conversations, they admitted that they were not doing well. I told them that maybe we could try this in a few months or years. Maybe then, they will have enough capital to do business without playing dirty little tricks. I doubt they will call... whatever. I have more dignity in my company than to pawn at their dirty tricks.

I had to go to a printing company the other day on a Minolta Bizhub Pro C5500 that the guy bought and needed service. I go out there and everything except the color drums and developer needed to be replaced. The IBT belt was trashed as well as the Bias transfer roller. The black drum and developer were worn completely out as well as the fuser assembly. Of course the machine is down and cannot be patched (which I wouldn't do anyway) to get up and running. I gave him a very conservative estimate understanding the sting he was going to take because of the parts costs. He said no way and wanted to know if he could rent a DocuColor from me for $200/300 a month Lol. Well, I don't rent DocuColors and if I did, it surely wouldn't be to a print shop. Wow... He said he didn't have enough money to afford the repairs (which I understand completely) and will have to run his production off of a 35ppm color Sharp. This company told me that if they didn't have an internet business, he would have to shut his doors. He said that there is just not enough business in Memphis to keep the doors open. I can agree to that.

On the flip side, we did have some awesome service sales which evened everything out for July. Is it me or is it slowing down for you guys out there? Share some of your business horror stories and some of your successes.