The cost of CMY Developer

[SalesServiceGuy]

The dealer cost of Toshiba CMY developer is very expensive. You can buy very expensive individual C, M or Y Developer or a more economical three pack for a similar high price.

K Developer is relatively inexpensive and not a concern.

Often CMK Developer will last more than the Factory spec and sometimes not. Sometimes the customer will notice the colors fading away and sometimes not as the copier accumulates more color clicks.

Depending on the model, the factory estimated spec (no guarantee) can range from 56,000 pages to 180,000 pages on a 20 to 50 cpm A3 model.

Depending on the model, the cost to replace the Developer could be the sole reason to declare the copier uneconomical to repair and strongly suggest the customer upgrades their copier to a new one.

This also puts used copiers in a more suspicious light if the color meter read is much above 10k.

How do you handle this in your service contract and do you have a similar experience with other OEMs regarding the cost of color Developer?

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

I would hope that the dealer has factored the cost into his service contract. Sometimes a component will fail prematurely and we have to eat that cost. If it happens too much, it's time to reevaluate what you're selling.


Edit: Nothing ground breaking here, but when it comes to service contracts, it's all about the numbers. Being able to pull up the historical average of components by model is the way that I go. When you have the average number of pages on the DV units, then you'll know the cost and what to charge.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

... I am interested in how you handle the cost of CMY Developer for current customers with copiers that are older than five years.

Do you sink $800.00 into a copier that might only last two more years before it turns into a bucket of headaches just to keep a customer happy that this is your expense and not theirs?

I think after any new copier that has been under service contract for 66 months and the color meter is starting to get up there, you have to start writing service contracts that excludes select parts like color developer, boards and HDDs.

Some vendors offer 72 month leases with matching service contracts offering even more exposure to losing money on the backend of a service contract.

Toshiba includes CMYK Developer in the box with the purchase of any new copier.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

... I am interested in how you handle the cost of CMY Developer for current customers with copiers that are older than five years.

Do you sink $800.00 into a copier that might only last two more years before it turns into a bucket of headaches just to keep a customer happy that this is your expense and not theirs?

I think after any new copier that has been under service contract for 66 months and the color meter is starting to get up there, you have to start writing service contracts that excludes select parts like color developer, boards and HDDs.

Some vendors offer 72 month leases with matching service contracts offering even more exposure to losing money on the backend of a service contract.

Toshiba includes CMYK Developer in the box with the purchase of any new copier.

If the machine is older than 5 years, I'm assuming that it's end of lease. You're under no obligation to renew the contract and it's time to either raise the price per click so that the customer feels the pain and hopefully is motivated to upgrade or drop the customer.

At the end of the day, we're in business to make money and it's very easy to fall off into the abyss of part/supply replacement.

[copier tech]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

The dealer cost of Toshiba CMY developer is very expensive. You can buy very expensive individual C, M or Y Developer or a more economical three pack for a similar high price.

K Developer is relatively inexpensive and not a concern.

Often CMK Developer will last more than the Factory spec and sometimes not. Sometimes the customer will notice the colors fading away and sometimes not as the copier accumulates more color clicks.

Depending on the model, the factory estimated spec (no guarantee) can range from 56,000 pages to 180,000 pages on a 20 to 50 cpm A3 model.

Depending on the model, the cost to replace the Developer could be the sole reason to declare the copier uneconomical to repair and strongly suggest the customer upgrades their copier to a new one.

This also puts used copiers in a more suspicious light if the color meter read is much above 10k.

How do you handle this in your service contract and do you have a similar experience with other OEMs regarding the cost of color Developer?

Have you tried using black developer in the CMY ? Allow the device to 'flush out' the black toner & replace with YMC etc.

Not ideal but depends on what the savings are to you.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

Have you tried using black developer in the CMY ? Allow the device to 'flush out' the black toner & replace with YMC etc.

Not ideal but depends on what the savings are to you.

Sorry, I am not willing to invest $700.00 on a maybe.

[mloudy]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

Sorry, I am not willing to invest $700.00 on a maybe.

I read that it was possible to do that so I tried it in house with the machine we use to test finishers with. Installed a black DV in the yellow hopper. With enough sky shots of full yellow it eventually went from black to yellow. Not sure of any issues it may eventually cause but so far the copier hasn't had any error codes and colors have remained steady. $40 vs $152 but you have to factor in the yellow toner you are sucking through to get the DV to a good yellow state.

In our call system it flags any machine within 6 months of lease end so the techs know not to do full PM's or replace high dollar parts as they normally would.

The new A3 Sharp series lists no page life to the DV, just a "-". When I entered the new color DV into our system I put 2.5M. I honestly can't remember where I got that number. I have heard that it is good for the life of the machine unless there is a failure of some type.

Color DV for us is more like $456.00

We are able to have a high enough color cost per page to replace color DV. I see lots of dealers around us setting their color cpc so low they likely cringe any time they have to replace color DV.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

There's a duplicate thread with the same title and in the other thread blackcat said you can use the black DV unit for color. And a couple of others that I trust say the same. I'd go for it.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

All I can do is go hard line on the customer.

I am not willing to invest up to $1k to keep a six year old copier working even though the exterior plastic looks like mint.

I gave the customer a quote on a new copier. If they decline, it is not my problem anymore.

The customer generates about $45.00 per month in cpc revenue.

[tsbservice]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

....

The customer generates about $45.00 per month in cpc revenue.

With so many color copies and so low monthly revenue your color cpc seems ridiculously low. Renew your service contracts with more adequate prices!

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

With so many color copies and so low monthly revenue your color cpc seems ridiculously low. Renew your service contracts with more adequate prices!

... $0.130 Colour is not low on a toner based A3 copier.

Speaking of low, I recently saw $0.0350 Color on a new Sharp National account copier.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

... $0.130 Colour is not low on a toner based A3 copier.

Speaking of low, I recently saw $0.0350 Color on a new Sharp National account copier.

That's the highest I've ever seen for color.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

... so for customers who want to extend their copier rentals past the original lease expiry date, I am now increasing the cpc by 20% and excluding all Developer compounds, electronic boards and HDDs. The customer will have to purchase those should they fail.

CPC will only include toner, labor and minor parts like feed roller tires, etc.

[tsbservice]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

... $0.130 Colour is not low on a toner based A3 copier.

Speaking of low, I recently saw $0.0350 Color on a new Sharp National account copier.

Understand that but then your numbers are messed. Can't be wrong with high color volume customers with high cpc or you can? Did your customers buy the machines or something else?
To me it's like customers making most color clicks on cpc agreements are most valued.

[mloudy]

Re: The cost of CMY Developer

That's the highest I've ever seen for color.

We have 3 machines at .012 but they have hit 10 years and are small machines. Most are between .06 and .09.

Someone sent me a MA invoice on their Kyocera and the ccp was .065 for black and .095 for color. I repsonded and said the black rate was surely .0065 and not .065. They sent me a response from ther dealer confirming .065 for black pages was correct but they were willing to upgrade them into a newer machine with a lower cost per page. This was year two of a 60 month lease.