CopierShark

How we can help you.

2010-02-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

Before we tell you what we can do for you, consider what our customers have to say. This is why we claim to be loved by our customers and loathed by copier salesmen. This is why we have been picked by a UK top 20 accountancy firm to advise their business customers. And this is why we KNOW we can save YOUR business from hidden costs and contractual pitfalls.

"The whole process was an education as well as hugely beneficial
financially. Everything has gone very smoothly indeed. Highly recommended" -
Steve Thomas, Business Manager, The Holt School Berkshire (saved £20,000)

"....enabled us to save just under £13,000....and The Buyers Buddy provided
a service agent that has been excellent.....i didn't have to meet any
salesmen at all" - Stephanie Leigh, Business Manager, Chatsmore Catholic
High School

"The BuyersBuddy...reduced our costs by £100,000 by supplying higher
specification machines at trade price, removing toner and network support
charges and introduced us to a service agent that has been first class. A
superb service" - Derek Fargher, Financial Controller, Bradfield College

"We were so impressed with The BuyersBuddy's ethos, expertise and method of
supply that we recruited them to our Expense Control division to provide our
clients with the contractual protection and unique trade pricing structure
that is enabling them to save a small fortune. A valued partner and a very
effective service, they come highly recommended" - John Linnard, MD, Haines
Watts Expense Control (top 20 accountancy firm)

"Although initially skeptical, we took up references which were excellent
and signed with The Buyer's Buddy. We were truly astounded by the results.
We reduced our costs by £30,000 replacing rebadged Kyocera machines with
higher specification Canon devices. Toner charges and annual support costs
were eliminated completely" - David Yates, Chairman, Feltham Construction

"We were delighted with the results and the service provider organised by
The BuyersBuddy. Very efficient indeed" - Gill Newman, Business Manager, Cox Green School

"We made phenomenal savings and it was so easy. The service agent has been
exemplary" - Justin Coyne, Financial Controller, Sprite Construction Ltd

How we can help you ? Our approach is unique :

1. We'll review your current contract, for free;
2. We'll look at your print estate, holistically, and tell you where you can make savings;
3. If you want us to, we'll renegotiate your contracts on your behalf with your existing suppliers;
4. Or we can provide a service ourselves.

Should you ask us to do (3) or (4) you get to keep 75-80% of the savings achieved, with us retaining a smaller percentage to cover our costs.

If you want to go for our service, here is why it's unique:

1. We lease you the equipment you need at trade prices (and we operate open-book so you can see there are no hidden kickbacks).
- compare this to normal copier dealers who rarely discount hardware and hide the overcharging in the lease payment

2. We give you a competitive cost per click, backed by a national service company - but with a contract that allows you to walk away at any time, without penalty
- compare this to common copier tactics - long tie-ins with horrific penalties, annual price increases, charges for going over 5% ink coverage

In short, you get long term price discounts but with short term contracts. Call me know to find out more - James Young, 07872 916618. And if you don't believe what we are doing, here are some testimonials :

Impress Your Boss!

2010-01-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

Four months after we decided to go commercial and things are going strong. We've already saved a small primary school £43,000 on their photocopier bills. We've been contacted by a catalogue company and it looks like the copier dealer concerned with that one may have some answering to do....to the police. Altogether, the company has saved it's clients around £500k. But we are still not reaching everyone.

So we're looking for introductions.

If your company has a copier, or multiple copiers and printers, get in touch. We can guarantee your boss will like what we have to say and as we operate transparent contracts, taking only a share of the savings, rather than building in profits, we are pretty sure we can save him money too.

And as a bonus, we'll give you 30% of our fee. That could be £200, or it could be £6000.

Drop me a mail if you want to know more - james at envisionltd dot com

Good attention ....and bad attention

2009-11-25T09:24:00.000-08:00

Since i started this blog three months ago, i thought it was worthwhile reflecting on what has happened since then, and what progress has been made in battling the problem of copier salespeople.

Well, firstly I was contacted by a lady who runs a catalogue company. She was horrified to realise the extent of her company's exposure at a time when business was not going well. I was able to help her, and refer her to a specialist, who uncovered a number of instances that warranted investigation as possible fraud.

I was also contacted by a primary school in the West Midlands, whose contracts were up for renewal. The advice they received resulted in them signing a deal with an ethical supplier, saving themselves a massive £42,000 over the life of their contracts.

They have been the positive aspects of dealing with photocopier lease contract advice.

The downside has been the negative commentary from people who, i assume, are copier salespeople. There are a couple of worthwhile examples on my blog - i was tempted to delete them, but thought i'd leave them in place to show just how silly copier salespeople can be in protecting their business. Despite offering free advice, one poster claims i charged them £50. Another (by sheer coincidence posted minutes later) claims that they are a pensioner and i have ripped them off.

So let me restate my case once more. Photocopier lease contracts and service agreements are a minefield for the unwary. Copier dealers would love you to walk blindly into their agreements and earn them a huge profit. As an example, one dealership with whom a client is dealing legally claim that their margins on service are in excess of 65%. Add to that the money they make from hiding costs in lease contracts, etc; and you have a very nice little business designed to maximise the copier company's profit at your expense. And when you can't pay, they will take you to court, where English law will nearly always find in their favour.

I do not charge for advice. I can help you save money, and i can point you towards an ethical photocopier company that will save you money, and they will just retain a percentage of what they save.

So if you are a pensioner, don't send me £50. I don't want it. And if you are a pensioner, and somebody tries to sell you a copier, well, i wouldn't be surprised. Because as the posts below show, some copier dealers are capable of anything and if there is money in pensioners, they'll be along to join the queue, right behind the dodgy gardeners and roof repairers.

Why sign for 5 years

2009-09-10T03:59:00.000-07:00

There are lots of advantages to signing a five year deal with your copier supplier.

Here are just some of them.

If you don't notice the theme emerging, here it is : 5 year contracts benefit only one person - the supplier.

The copier dealer will tell you that a uk copier lease agreement makes perfect sense when considered over a 5 year period. Photocopier prices are such that a capital purchase is a big challenge to most people's budgets. But when the figure is split over 5 years, or 20 quarterly payments, it doesn't seem anywhere near as expensive.

But here's the problem : even if(!!) your copier dealer has specified a machine that is up to the job, it is unlikely to last for 5 years - the industry average is 36 months.

So after 3 years, your friendly copier dealer will be back, recommending an upgrade. And when you do this upgrade, the remaining 2 years of financing will be rolled into this new deal, meaning that you are paying interest for 5 years on the remaining balance for a machine you are no longer using.

And now you have to make a starker choice: do you upgrade the equipment to an equivalent model and pay more money, or do you settle for a new machine of lower specification. You can't do both, because you still have the remaining 2 years of your original financing to pay off.

And if you decide that you don't want to do either, you are hamstrung there too - because not only will you have to pay off the remaining 24 months, but you will also get hit with a bill from the copier supplier for 2 years of their service charges.

Still sound like a 5 year deal is cheaper? It only makes sense if you are a supplier.

What is a Loss

2009-09-09T06:43:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, the UK Courts, when considering losses on photocopier contracts, look to a 1915 decision involving Dunlop tyres!

In layman's terms, penalties are illegal under English law; damages are not.

It is establishing what the difference is that is problematic.
In general terms, the Court will not seek to intervene in a contract between equal parties, unless there is strong evidence that a copier dealer is overestimating his loss.

The legal phrase is "genuine pre-estimate of loss". Unless you are lucky enough to meet a judge who is prepared to consider your case on its merits (unlikely, because of the dependence of the legal system on precedent), you will struggle to prove that the clauses dealing with damages in your contract are anything other than pre-estimates of loss.

For example, a number of uk copier companies state, in their service agreements, that their loss is 40% of your average use. Taken to its logical conclusion, this means the copier company expects to make a 40% margin, which is generally not the case in the copier world, which is quite competitive.

However, you may know it is unreasonable, and they may know it is unreasonable, and even the judge may suspect it's unreasonable, but it doesn't mean the judge will decide it is.

Therefore, you need to follow some of the suggestions in the below posts to strengthen your negotiating position.

As ever, if you want the benefit of my experience please give me a call on 07872 916618.

Arguing the toss - driving down the photocopier dealer's damages claim

2009-09-05T05:53:00.000-07:00

So you want to terminate your photocopier or printer service agreement early? Perhaps you have no choice - your company is downsizing.

Your smiley and unscrupulous copier dealer will now try to hit you with a large bill, normally the average of the preceding 6 months spend, multiplied by the remainder of months left in the term. Some dealers may discount this number by up to 60%.

But is this really a reasonable approach?

The problem is this - because of the lack of precedents and the fact that, in most cases, contracts have been signed by equal parties, it is very unlikely that a judge will intervene. However, if you do choose to go to court, or fight through the mediation process, here are a few things it is useful to consider doing. At the very least, they should cast doubt on the supplier's claim.

Firstly, a common misconception is that the loss the dealer is entitled to claim for is the loss he has incurred - stuff he will have to pay for.

That's incorrect. The law (which, when it comes to photocopier or printer service agreements, is a total ass) seeks to put the other party (your smiley copier dealer) into the position he would have been in had the contract been fulfilled. That is, he is entitled to the profit he would have earned.

So he will try to argue that his business is very, very profitable

Take Clarity Copiers, for example. Their standard terms say that they will calculate their damages based on 40% of average use over the preceding 6 months, times the period remaining. In other words, they are saying to a judge that their profit margin is 40%.

So some tactics that can help:

1. Get hold of other copier contracts from other suppliers and use those that have lesser terms to argue that as margins are fairly standard, your own supplier is exaggerating

2. Get hold of some manufacturers and ask them to confirm what normal profit margins are see in the sales channel

3. Get hold (if you are in the UK) of the latest Finance and Leasing Association Guidelines

None of this will win you the argument in a court of law, but you are aiming to prove that the supplier is overstating his claim, and if you can create doubt in his mind, you will probably be able to negotiate the settlement downwards.

As ever, if you need advice, please get in touch.

Why is the OFT so reluctant to tackle issues in the copier industry

2009-09-05T05:48:00.001-07:00

If you've read some of my posts below, you will see that there are some very real, and unresolved, issues in the photocopying and printing leasing/service industry.

Put bluntly, even with specialist legal support, you will find it very hard to get out of a service agreement, even if the photocopier supplier is not performing.

The courts are reluctant to intervene in contracts between consenting adults and, at least as far as i can tell, there are few if any documented precedents. And a judge without a precedent is about as much use as a Frenchman to a General.

So why is it that the OFT is so reluctant to tackle selling practices that have seen schools pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in lease and service agreements for photocopiers worth less than £10,000 ?

After all, the problem has existed now for 20 years or more. And surely, at the moment, with companies going bankrupt and charges such as those levied by these photocopier suppliers adding to the burden, the time is right to act.

Even the FLA recognises that termination charges need to be reasonable - its members are limited to 6 months, if the contract has more than one year to run, or the remainder of the term if less than one year. But none of the photocopier suppliers are joining the FLA!

Answers on a postcard to....

Hidden in the Small Print - an example.

2009-09-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

This is a good example of how copier companies use small print and selective use of words to hide bad practice. Of course, I cannot name names for fear of being sued, but if you are considered doing a deal with a copier company that begins with F, or has a name similar to a bird of prey, look very carefully.

The clause says:

"You will also have to pay an additional charge for any maintenance or repair which arises because of your neglect or misuse including the use of non-approved toner, consumables and other media. Fxxxxx may increase the Copy Charge annually but if the increase is higher than nineteen percent you may give Fxxxxx written notice of termination"

The next clause along says this :

"(failure to pay on time) gives Fxxxxx the right to charge interest at 2.4% per month on all overdue amounts"

Isn't it interesting that in the second clause, the supplier chooses to use the numeric (2.4%) but in the former, the verbal (nineteen percent) is used?

And isn't it interesting that an annual increase on the entire contract is hidden at the end of a clause that relates to misuse?

You could argue that this particular bird of prey was banking on the customer skim reading the first part of the sentence and ignoring the second, which is unrelated. And you could also be fairly sure that using the numeric (19%) would have got the customer's interest.

Read those contracts. And if you are not sure, give me a call on 07872 916618 - i will be more than happy to help.

Need Help?

2009-08-26T03:40:00.000-07:00

Well, things have taken an interesting turn! When i set this blog up (just yesterday, although i've already had a lot of interest in it) it was simply to warn people of some of the sharp sales practices in the industry. But i've had a number of people ask me if i can help them on a more formal basis.

So if you want to give me a call on 07872 916618 / 01305 755605 or drop me an email james at envisionltd followed by a dot com (just to confuse the spam spiders) i'll help you out.

I can review your contract for you entirely free of charge and point out where you are vulnerable to price increases, etc.

If it's of interest, one of the guys that contacted me runs a company that will work according to my ethical standards - ie, he will lease you a copier at trade price, and strip out all the harmful clauses. He takes a percentage of your savings and doesn't take kick backs, and is thus motivated to get you the very best deal - so you can't fail to save. His clients include a college that saved £100,000 over 3 years.

But that's only if it's of interest. If you are just here for the free pointers, read on below, but don't hesitate to get in touch. There is too much sharp selling going on. As the saying goes, together we can crack it.

The mantrap: Termination Clauses

2009-08-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hint: if he's smiling and his lips are moving, he's lying. Mr Unscrupulous Copier Dealer has only one interest. His wallet.

And that's why he'll quite happily bankrupt your company to get his hands on your money if, for any reason, you want to or have to terminate the contract early.

Let's say you have an existing service agreement and an existing lease. He may tell you that if you sign with him, he will pay off existing agreements. You'll agree, because he is offering you a better price. He'll tell you that existing service agreements won't be enforced by the outgoing company.

Then you'll get the threatening letters from the outgoing company's lawyers, drawing your attention to the cancellation clauses.

Even though, when you signed the contract, it was for a minimum volume, they will calculate the termination charge based on the average volume over the preceding 6 months, and then multiply it by the months remaining. You will get a huge bill and they WILL press you to pay up.You may be able to settle out of court (call us and we'll give you some ammunition for this) but it will be difficult to wiggle out of the contract because the courts are reluctant to intervene between "consenting adults".

It was because of these clauses, and my frustration at the spinelessness of the OFT, the Courts and the industry's own trade association, that i began this blog.

[My story: I ran a project that resulted in £250,000 of liability in contracts that contained terms that, whilst legal, were grossly unfair. If you want more advice for free call me on 07872 916618]

Service Agreement Scam #2 - The 5 year deal!

2009-08-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

This is a great one. Mr Unscrupulous Copier Dealer signs you up to a 5 year service agreement. Now, if he has done what he probably can't resist doing, he will have signed you up to a 3 year lease agreement. So there's a 2 year gap between the copier lease agreement and the end of the service agreement. Nice. Now he can sell you another copier. Or he can carry on charging you rental on the one that you've got, for which the finance will have been paid off in the 3 year term.

And don't worry, if he does sell you an upgrade, you can bet your last pound (if he hasn't already nicked it) that he will be renting the one that he told you was too old to somebody else.

Don't sign a 5 year deal. 3 years is long enough.

[My story: I ran a project that resulted in £250,000 of liability in contracts that contained terms that, whilst legal, were grossly unfair. If you want more advice for free call me on 07872 916618]

Service Agreement Scam Number 1 : Annual Increases

2009-08-25T09:28:00.000-07:00

So we all know about inflation - every year, here in the UK, it runs at somewhere around 2 - 3%.

But Mr Unscrupulous Copier Dealer doesn't know this. Somewhere deep in the small print of your copier agreement, look to see what he has put in there to cover annual increases. My bet is that it's somewhere between 10 and 20%.

His argument will be that the amount is justified because the copier will get more expensive to maintain as it gets older. Rubbish. If the copier he sells you is up to the job, it will last 3 years and more. There is a word for this - it's not inflation, its profiteering.

[My story: I ran a project that resulted in £250,000 of liability in contracts that contained terms that, whilst legal, were grossly unfair. If you want more advice for free call me on 07872 916618]

Lease Scam Number 1 - 11+2 make 12

2009-08-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

OK, so you want a three year lease? Check your payment schedule. Mr Unscrupulous Copier Salesman may have decided to have a little fiddle here, too. Payments are normally quarterly, and a 3 year lease is 12 quarters. Why then, does your contract state that payments are 2 in advance, followed by 11, making 13?

[My story: I ran a project that resulted in £250,000 of liability in contracts that contained terms that, whilst legal, were grossly unfair. If you want more advice for free call me on 07872 916618]

Start Here

2009-08-25T09:03:00.000-07:00

This is my story.

In 2009, i was working for a large UK PLC and one of the projects i was running was to consolidate our entire printer estate. I ended up on the wrong end of a set of legal claims totalling £250k from several UK based copier dealers.

In my attempts to save my client from exposure to these risks, i delved into the secret world of the copier dealer and i learnt (the hard way) the tricks that these guys use to win your business, tie you into contracts, and charge you above the odds.

This blog is here for one reason : i want to educate you on what to look out for. I offer a free contract review and i GUARANTEE that i can also deliver you savings and remove the contractual tie ins that you encounter.

Without obligation

James Young MBA