Learn how to ask your copier rep the right questions!

The majority of people in Dallas who lease their office systems do not realize that there are certain costs that go along with leasing copiers that can remain hidden if you deal with an MFP sales rep who is not honest and upfront with you. Unfortunately, this happens everyday in Dallas-Ft. Worth and unlucky customers are stuck with the bill. The main thing that you need to be aware of as a consumer  is that at the end of an office equipment lease the system must be shipped back to the copier leasing company but they are not responsible for making this happen. You must cover the cost to package, insure, and ship the multifunction printer back which can usually run anywhere between $500-$1000 per unit. A good copier vendor will tell you about this upfront as well as other “hidden costs” such as property tax and/or documentation fees. Some MFP dealers in DFW will offer to take care of these costs for you unless they find out that you are planning on doing business with someone else and then they are no longer so helpful. We believe that if you have paid to use the office equipment then you definitely should not have to pay to return it. We have done something very unique and worked out agreements with copier leasing companies in DFW. This allows us to control the lease terms so that we ensure that our clients are never charged a lease return fee for their copiers in Dallas-Fort Worth. Give us a call today and we will help you to eliminate these charges and educate you about all of the costs involved with your office systems.

Does Your DFW Copier Provider Respond Quick Enough? Probably Not...

Many people who are in the market to buy a copier in Dallas often spend so much time trying to choose the right hardware that they overlook one of the most important aspects which is copier service. With so many manufacturers and options, it is easy to get overwhelmed and forget about the little things that down the road can turn into major problems. The most important thing  when buying a multi function printer is to choose a vendor with an outstanding reputation for servicing copiers in DFW. Don’t be afraid to ask for references of current and/or past customers and speak with them about their experiences. In addition, make sure that the vendor that you are purchasing your system from has quick service response guarantees that they are willing to put in writing. If a company is unwilling to do either of these take your business elsewhere. Most dealers in Dallas will guarantee a response time within four hours but once you are their customer you quickly find out that you are lucky if they get there by the next day. This is unacceptable and easy to avoid if you know where to get the right support. We can help you get a guaranteed 90 minute or less response time, and discounts if they run late after you place a call for copier service in Dallas. We can help you find the highest quality multi function systems in the Metroplex and support from companies with the infrastructure to take care of all your needs. Don’t let your business in Dallas Fort Worth suffer because of lost productivity due to copier service delays!

As a business owner and an end user you must invest both time and effort in order to put in enough due diligence to ensure that you are making the right decision when purchasing a copier in Dallas. This often requires meetings with copier sales reps, uncovering the unique needs of your office, studying many different products and features, trying to make sense of multiple copier leases, and making sure that you are choosing a vendor with a great reputation for copier service in DFW. With so much going on it can be easy to overlook the little things that can turn out to be very important. I always teach clients to make sure they are comparing apples to apples when looking at printer quotes. Many times if a bid seems unusually low or too good to be true then it probably is. All copiers in Fort Worth have some standard features, however many of the functions are optional and are not included out of the box. These include items such as automatic document feeders, finishers with sorting and stapling capability, hole punch units, extra paper sources, added memory, increased color capability, etc. You might get a bid from a Canon dealer in Dallas who quotes you a copier with a finisher and fax option, then another from a Kyocera dealer in Fort Worth who leaves off the same options. Many customers will carelessly go with the more inexpensive quote, not realizing until it is too late that they purchased a copier in Dallas Fort Worth that doesn’t even meet the basic needs of their office environment. Although mistakes like this happen to businesses in Dallas everyday, the good news is that they are also very easy to avoid. Contact us the next time you are in the market for office equipment in Fort Worth and we can make sure that you get a copier that meets your needs at a price that fits your budget!

Are you throwing away cash on your copier?

Let’s assume you’ve just purchased your brand new copier in Dallas or Fort Worth. The price and lease terms are set, the contracts are signed, service agreements are negotiated, and the copier is installed. Whew! All of that was a lot of work just to find a good quality copier in Dallas. Now you don’t have anything to worry about for the next 3 to 5 years until your copier lease term comes to an end. Right? Unfortunately this is where many customers in Dallas or Fort Worth create problems that could be avoided if they just would have read our tips on buying copiers in Dallas! It is essential that you carefully review and follow your end terms for your copier lease in DFW. All leasing companies have different protocols, however in general you must send a written “letter of intent” to your leasing company that you wish to terminate your lease anywhere from 60-90 days before the end of term. If the copier leasing company does not receive this in the correct time frame then you will be put into an automatic renewal from one month to an entire year! Also at the end of your copier lease in Dallas you are responsible for all final costs, taxes, and shipping charges which can add up to over $1,000! When the end of your copier lease in Dallas or Fort Worth starts creeping up on you give us a call and we’ll make sure you don’t fatten the leasing company’s pockets at the expense of your business!

Copier Sales in Dallas can be Hard to Figure Out!

Are you considering buying a copier in Dallas?   It is hard to figure out where to start when you are looking at a copier for sale.  Here are a few tips to find a copier in Dallas that you can depend on!

1. If you are going to buy a used copier in Dallas, make sure you get the service history on the copier you are going to purchase.
2. If you are purchasing a new copier in Dallas, you can often get a new copier that comes with a decent factory warranty that can save you $500 to $1,000 in the first year.
3. Work with a company that has a reputation for taking care of their customers!  You can always check out their ranking at the Better Business Bureau.
4. Work with a rep who gives you direct answers to your questions.

If you need a copier in Dallas or a copier in Fort Worth, please give us a call!

Is it Hard to Get a Straight Answer from Your Copier Rep in Fort Worth?

We all know the economy has been a bit stagnant as of late.  With tighter margins, companies get more tempted to fudge the truth and it is difficult to pin people down on the origins of charges.  Maybe you have seen your shipping costs go up some (or maybe you haven’t bothered looking…)  If you are a copier buyer in Dallas/Fort Worth, you need to be on the lookout for some common tricks people may employ during these times.

• If you are buying a new copier, make sure you run a status page when it gets there.  We have seen some people get copiers in Fort Worth which have 3,000 pages or more on them (demo units) being sold as new.  Make sure your copier is new.
• Look at the language of your contracts to make sure there are no goofy tricks like massive upcharges for extra coverage or automatic price increases.
• Look at your bills to make sure the shipping charges haven’t been going up too much!

If you need a copier in Fort Worth, please give us a call!

Many of Our Piggy Banks Have Suffered With the Downturn...

Have you been wishing you could pay less for a copier in Dallas/Fort Worth?  It is something many people are looking to do.  Can you get a cheap copier in Dallas?  Of Course! Should you?  Well, that is a completely different question.

“Cheap” always has a bad connotation.  We will use “cheap” to denote the concept of “low cost,” not to mean “poor quality.”  If what you mean is also “low cost,” there are some great copiers out in the market, especially for the low volume user.  If you are printing 2,000 pages a month, there is absolutely no problem in purchasing a little copier like the Lexmark X464de.  It’s $1,200, not $6,000 and would work awesome for a small volume application. 

Traditional copier companies will always want to sell the $6,000 because they have quotas they have to reach from the manufacturer. These quotas create the dilemna for the copier company of whether to sell you the small copier because it would work perfectly fine, but would jeopardize their dealership and then in turn this would affect the quality of service the rest of their customers received.  This is a massive dilemna for the copier company who is tied to a manufacturer which requires a quota in order to sell their products. 

Examples of copier manufacturers who require minimum annual revenue to retain a dealership are: Kyocera, Konica Minolta, Toshiba, Canon, and Oce.

Please call us if you are looking for a cheap copier in Dallas.

Are you Ready for 2010?

Your Fort Worth Company has probably struggled to break even this year and there are some normal expenses that you have put off until next year.  Maybe your copier is in that catagory.  How are you going to squeeze the new copier into a budget that is already way too tight?  Sometimes the best answers are the easiest answers! If you need a new copier in the Dallas Fort Worth area, the first thing you should be thinking about this year is what you really need.  Not what you want, but what you need.  Doing this often will save you several thousand right off the bat!

Being ready for what is coming is often a function of not having so much invested in one small piece of your business that you can not handle a slow month.  We have copiers for every budget.  From $500 to $30,000!  Please give us a call if you need a copier in Fort Worth!

Santa Gets Dismayed about Copier Reps Tricks!

If you were to look at Santa’s “naughty list” you would see there are a lot of copier reps on this list.  Why?  Well, it seems that most are more worried about the next sale than they are in actually helping you with your Dallas Fort Worth Copier needs.  If you need a copier in Dallas Fort Worth and you have been frustrated with the quality of sales rep who comes by your office, then here are a few ways to spot a nefarious copier rep without getting locked into a bad long term contract!

• If the rep comes with a spec sheet on a copier before they have assessed your needs, there is a problem. That is like showing you a house before the realtor learns if you have kids or a good paying job… Without assessing needs there should be no product talk.
• If the rep is immediately “trying to convince” you of your need for something that is more expensive, be cautious.  If they are just giving you information and seem to be OK with you choosing either option, this is generally a good sign.
• If the rep is bad mouthing specific competitors, this is generally a bad sign.  There really is no need to sling mud at a specific company.  If they are helping you to avoid a general practice, this can be productive. 
• If a rep tries to “make a deal” that expires today, this is also a bad sign in general.

Hopefully following a few of these principles will keep you from a bad copier rep in Dallas Fort Worth.

Sometimes it Feels like This is Necessary

This post is kind of a post that I think will be cathardic.  I am sometimes frustrated when a customer calls me and wants information on copiers, sometimes taking up to 45 minutes of my time with questions and then when you call back they say, “I am not interested, bye.”  OK, I understand I can’t win every deal, but this is just frustrating. They had no problem taking up 45 minutes of my time to ask questions, but once they decided to work with someone else, they can just blow off the reps they used to get information.  So why would they do this, I had to ask…  Why would they make it hard on their Dallas copier sales rep?

My only answer is either they are rude and selfish OR they have had bad experiences with copier reps in Dallas before.  If it was the latter, it makes sense as they had circumstances where they probably had to debate why they went a certain direction.  But couldn’t they offer something different, like this:

CR – Copier Rep  // C – Customer

CR – Just wanted to follow up on the copier in Dallas I quoted to you last week.

C- We decided to go with someone else.  If you had a few questions, I can answer them, but we have already made a decision so if you ask questions, please understand we have already made a decision and I am offering because you did try to help in our decision.

CR – Who did you decide to go with?

C – ABCDEFG Copier in Dallas.

CR – Were we close in price?

C – Obviously not close enough, I do appreciate your work though in getting me a quote and we’ll keep you in mind for the next copier we buy in Dallas.

CR – Well, I talked to my manger and we can come down $600 in costs on what I suggested.

C – It’s too bad you bring that up after you lost the deal, next time I would suggest you give us your best pricing up front.  Any other questions?

CR – No.  Thanks for the opportuntity.

C – Thanks for the work.  

a conversation like this would let the copier rep know what he wants to know without taking 45 minutes.  It is a simple courtesy after having asked for 45 minutes of the reps time.  Food for thought.