When to drop them before they drop you

[JR2ALTA]

We all know the scenario. We have a significant customer that will not upgrade. We will honor service contracts to the point of losing money. We take care of them because they've been with us a long time, they've spent a lot of money with us, and of course when they are ready to upgrade we'll be ready.

But what inevitably happens? When the machines finally die or when their books allow the upgrade they go with the competition.

A big reason they leave is because we are there so often keeping their 10 year old equipment running with duct tape and bailing wire. Our company or brand of copier become the scapegoat.

Please share your thought or your best story about getting royally screwed.

[mjarbar]

[fixthecopier]

Re: When to drop them before they drop you



Time to let them go. It will hit them first time it runs out of toner and nobody jumps through hoops to get them up.


I get screwed by government contracting. They have to be involved in everything over $3000. Gave a quote to one of my customers for 6 magic color printers and 4 shredders, and they bought them...online! Can't wait til they find out the printers they bought do not have a 3 year warranty and my shredder repair rate ir double on equipment you could have bought from me.

[mjarbar]

Re: When to drop them before they drop you

Time to let them go. It will hit them first time it runs out of toner and nobody jumps through hoops to get them up.


I get screwed by government contracting. They have to be involved in everything over $3000. Gave a quote to one of my customers for 6 magic color printers and 4 shredders, and they bought them...online! Can't wait til they find out the printers they bought do not have a 3 year warranty and my shredder repair rate ir double on equipment you could have bought from me.

Personally I would love to give them the heve-ho but the contract is tied into their other machines (4x Canon iR-Adv C5051's) which make us quite a bit of money.

It's just annoying that thay are willing to argue over a piece of crap I wouldn't either bother running over with the van if it was to be left out

The company in question have been with us for years but I the real problem is that they have someone new looking after the books and as usual all they are looking at is the bottom line.

[cccjjn]

Re: When to drop them before they drop you

Personally I would love to give them the heve-ho but the contract is tied into their other machines (4x Canon iR-Adv C5051's) which make us quite a bit of money.

It's just annoying that thay are willing to argue over a piece of crap I wouldn't either bother running over with the van if it was to be left out

The company in question have been with us for years but I the real problem is that they have someone new looking after the books and as usual all they are looking at is the bottom line.

I would suggest getting creative if it is a solid account. There is so much good pre-owned equipment out there with the brokers for pennies on the dollar that you could give them a newer machine and look like a hero.

[copiman]

Re: When to drop them before they drop you

I agree with cccjjn. If its a multi-machine account and tied to the maintenance agreement, swapping the machine out with a used machine may be your best bet. As long as it reduces the number of service calls and part replacement. Putting a machine in there that will need part replacements soon and on a regular basis would defeat the purpose. I say this because I have seen machines grabbed from the warehouse, plugged up and ran, and installed in situations such as yours. Well, I don't need to tell you how that went.

One thing I do is let the customer know when the equipment gets to the point that part availability is a concern. Look at it this way. Say you have a customer with a maintenance agreement. More so an annual agreement paid up front. Six months into it you tell them you cannot get a part. They more than likely will want six months worth of a refund. Where I used to work, I have heard the customer say " why didn't someone tell me about this before now?". Plant the seed, then water it from time to time, especially when you hear bad things about the machine, and eventually they will give in and replace the machine.

Just my .000002 cents worth.

[mjarbar]

Re: When to drop them before they drop you

I agree with cccjjn. If its a multi-machine account and tied to the maintenance agreement, swapping the machine out with a used machine may be your best bet. As long as it reduces the number of service calls and part replacement. Putting a machine in there that will need part replacements soon and on a regular basis would defeat the purpose. I say this because I have seen machines grabbed from the warehouse, plugged up and ran, and installed in situations such as yours. Well, I don't need to tell you how that went.

As an update this is what we have done, we have today installed an iR1022i on a usage only basis. it turns out that although the person (the customer) handling the quote was arguing left right and centre, her boss was much more reasonable. Would have loved to be a fly in on that conversation!!!

Anyway the machine though quite high mileage was working fine and a quick refurb later was as good as gold. Just wish the customer hadn't created the aggravation in the first place.