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Wayne Drysdale
Managing Director,
ePrint Digital
“Meters are reset to zero when selling a
genuine refurbished or recycled machine,
which has been stripped, received new
parts, had software upgrades etc.. That’s
fine when these devices are clearly resold
as a refurbished or recycled device, but you
can’t just ‘clock the meter’ willy nilly, and
that’s what’s happening.
“We come across instances on a weekly
basis where a business has purchased
a ‘new’ machine that isn’t new. It’s
widespread in the North West. Just last
week we visited a customer to deliver toner
for a device we supply and spotted that
they had had a new machine installed that
we’d not provided. As soon as I opened
the door and saw that the toner cartridges
were different, I knew that this was an
old model that had been superceded by
a newer one. Inspecting the paperwork,
we saw that the details specified and the
serial number didn’t match the equipment
supplied. Closer examination revealed
that the mechanical meter, which can’t
be reset, was covered with black tape. On
taking that off, the customer was able to
see the real volume – 800,000 copies –
as opposed to the 800 the serial meter
displayed.
“We are a service provider and have
seen an uptick in the number of businesses
approaching us to take out a service
contract after they’ve been left with an
unsupported device on a lease because
the provider has gone out of business. In
every case, these are old models that have
reached end of life but which the customer
has purchased in good faith.
“We are losing business because certain
players are coming in and undercutting
us, not by a few pounds but by hundreds
and thousands of pounds. They are able
to offer silly prices because although they
say they are selling new kit, what they are
actually doing is buying in used devices and
resetting the meters to zero.
“It’s unethical and it’s driving us mad.
We can’t possibly compete. Margins are
tight on hardware as it is, even before you
factor in the fact that we’re not operating
on a level playing field.
“We recently decided to take them
on. When we were told by a potential
new client that we hadn’t won the deal,
we offered to do a free check on the new
device and asked the customer to tell the
other dealer that’s what was happening.
Funnily enough, they pulled out of the deal,
telling the customer he didn’t want to sell
to them!
“We’ve contacted the OEMs to ask
them to take action to prevent these guys
clocking meters. I’m sure that they could do
more. As an industry we’ve worked hard to
clean up our act and we feel very strongly
that the actions of a few unscrupulous
vendors are having a negative impact on
our business and our reputation.”
There has been lots of talk recently about unethical operators resetting device meters
and selling old machines as new, with claims that their actions are damaging the
industry’s reputation and impairing some dealers’ ability to win new business.
Here, some of the dealer community share their opinions on a shoddy practice that they
say needs stamping out.
Buyer beware
Mark Garius
Managing Director,
ASL Group
“I don’t believe that we’ve come across
this, but that’s not to say that we haven’t.
If we’re pitching for a deal and there’s a
price difference with a competitive tender,
then we work really hard on the numbers
and do our best to keep the business. We
very rarely lose out on a deal.
“It could be that in some cases
we’re competing against these types of
operation, and we’re dropping our price,
absorbing the cost, when in reality they’re
not offering like for like. But how would we
know that?
“Maybe this is a hidden cost that we
haven’t thought of. It might be going on
and we just haven’t seen it. If you lose a
customer, it’s rare that you get to see what
they bought unless they come back to you
at a future point.
“Perhaps the bigger message here is
buyer beware: if a deal sounds too good to
be true, then it probably is.”
Mark Garius
Managing Director, ASL Group
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