Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

**NeoMatrix** · 01-22-2019

Originally Posted by Lagonda

Don't take the first quote a salesman gives you, drag out negotiations for a while and make him sweat. They have all just come back from their summer hols and are terrified that the credit card statement is about to drop into the mail box so they will be hungry for a deal.

They're be licking their lips like a hungry dog in a butcher shop window...

**aussiecopier** · 01-23-2019

Update:

Going to follow through with leasing a brand new machine with a service agreement. Still researching and nothing finalised yet.

Today I had a meeting in Melbourne, Australia summary:

- The sales rep suggested MP 5055SP and MP C4504exSP

About their offer:
- Compared to b/w, the colour machines were relatively slightly cheaper to lease per month and also had a relatively lower b/w cost per copy compared to the b/w machine.
(b/w machine is 0.75c per b/w copy + GST, colour machine is 0.5c per b/w copy + GST) (if you're curious, colour machine is 5c per colour copy - but I personally won't be using this at all for my worksheets)
- He said if I default my copier to b/w toner on the colour machine, I will defs save money via this agreement by going through colour machine (provided I do not touch colour toner at all.
- He said they have a large certified team of techs available to work in our region and average less than 4 hour response rate with 95% of them being sorted in the first visit.
- He said in my specific case, if I go from MP 5055SP to MP 6055SP, I get the exactly almost the same machine with the same life count, only thing different is speed and lease cost per month. Service cost per copy will stay the same. Same thing applies with going from MP C4504exSP to C6004exSP. But he said if I were to go from MP C4504exSP to MP C3504exSP, the MP C3504exSP are a different machine and will have a lower life count as they are built similar to the MP C3004exSP.

He suggested these 4 machines for me (MP 5055SP, MP 6055SP, MP C4504exSP, MP C6004exSP) as he said they are made to take on approx 50k copies per month (which is above my current forecast of 40k copies per month), and fit my other specs of b/w printing, 50-60 cpm & finisher with stapling.

I will keep doing research and will definitely negotiate on pricing/features where possible as suggested.

What do you guys think of the copiers suggested and the structure of their offer so far? Is there anything else I should be looking out for?

**davel** · 01-23-2019

Go for the 5055, much easier to service. Colour toner will still be used for routine process control and colour units will need serviceing at some time, also the colour machine has more parts to possibly fail.

**sturmtrooper** · 01-23-2019

Originally Posted by aussiecopier

Update:

Going to follow through with leasing a brand new machine with a service agreement. Still researching and nothing finalised yet.

Today I had a meeting in Melbourne, Australia summary:

- The sales rep suggested MP 5055SP and MP C4504exSP

About their offer:
- Compared to b/w, the colour machines were relatively slightly cheaper to lease per month and also had a relatively lower b/w cost per copy compared to the b/w machine.
(b/w machine is 0.75c per b/w copy + GST, colour machine is 0.5c per b/w copy + GST) (if you're curious, colour machine is 5c per colour copy - but I personally won't be using this at all for my worksheets)
- He said if I default my copier to b/w toner on the colour machine, I will defs save money via this agreement by going through colour machine (provided I do not touch colour toner at all.
- He said they have a large certified team of techs available to work in our region and average less than 4 hour response rate with 95% of them being sorted in the first visit.
- He said in my specific case, if I go from MP 5055SP to MP 6055SP, I get the exactly almost the same machine with the same life count, only thing different is speed and lease cost per month. Service cost per copy will stay the same. Same thing applies with going from MP C4504exSP to C6004exSP. But he said if I were to go from MP C4504exSP to MP C3504exSP, the MP C3504exSP are a different machine and will have a lower life count as they are built similar to the MP C3004exSP.

He suggested these 4 machines for me (MP 5055SP, MP 6055SP, MP C4504exSP, MP C6004exSP) as he said they are made to take on approx 50k copies per month (which is above my current forecast of 40k copies per month), and fit my other specs of b/w printing, 50-60 cpm & finisher with stapling.

I will keep doing research and will definitely negotiate on pricing/features where possible as suggested.

What do you guys think of the copiers suggested and the structure of their offer so far? Is there anything else I should be looking out for?

If you only really ever need the BW get the BW machine. A color machine where the color drums are never used will slowly kill itself over time. They must be hoping you'll get hooked on having a color machine and start running a bunch of color clicks at the higher cost. Also price difference from ricoh for a MP 5055 and an MPC 4504ex is a couple thousand dollars at least. You should go over all the numbers very carefully to determine what upfront costs are going to be, what you will be expected to pay per month for the lease cost of just the machine alone before copy clicks, what kind of buyout price you are expected to pay at end of lease, etc. Personally im getting a bit of a "too good to be true" vibe on the color machine being cheaper.

Additionally anything you PRINT in full color mode will be charged as color regardless of actual color content in the file.

For both the BW and Color machines 50K a month is near the top of the MAX rated monthly volume. I think they'd do it, but you should keep that in mind.

**NeoMatrix** · 01-23-2019

Its welcoming to see that you've done a tad of home work....

With out trying to sway your decision; you've basically already answer your own question.
You've already stated you wanted a work horse black and white machine.

Would you want to buy a top line Mercedes car to drive around the city shopping, just incase you greet with royalty?
It might happen, but the additional bells and whistles may not warrant the limited justification.

Either a colour or B&W machine can work for you. From a Tech perspective a B&W machine is generally quicker and easier to service.