Anybody used Apogee

[glennda]

Has anybody got any experience of Apogee for printer lease agreements?

Good/Bad experiences?

[dhicks]

Has anybody got any experience of Apogee for printer lease agreements?

Yes, we used them at the previous school I worked at. They were around about average - we had an all-in contract with them that covered toner and maintainence on a couple of larger multi-function devices. I can't remember how much we paid per copy, but it was a bit pricy, but then all the maintainence and so on came in with the package. Maintainence calls seemed to be dealt with efficiently enough. Most copier companies are pretty much the same - you pay a higher price per copy but don't have to buy toner or pay for maintainence. If you're looking at printing contracts, there are people who now specislise in negotiating with printer companies for you, the same way you would use a soliciter to handle denogiations for a leasing contract on premisis. Do make sure you know the kind of load your printers will be handling, how many black and white or colour copies per week / month - the printers we are currently using are decent enough printers, but rather overworked, hence we get issues. Also, if you are going to let staff do their own copying you'll want a different kind of device than for something that only has certain members of staff using it - something for the staffroom wants to be simple to use and easy to clear paper jams from, and you're probably best off avoiding having any kind of finisher for folding or stapling.

[glennda]

Staff are well averse to our photocopiers. They currently do all there.photocoping except large booklet runs which are done on our production print machine. (Nicknamed big bertha). We currently have 9 machines direct with ricoh and the contract is up in the next 6 weeks. We are looking at other suppliers for cost comparison in which apogee are competitive.

I should have given more detail at the start! From the feedback gained via PMS they seem to be good across the board.

[MatthewL]

I have used them but their Gemtec but business in Hull which they have acquired now. We bought our own copier and the team who have it went to them for maintenance..

We ended up looking to setup a managed print solution for them and Gemtec (as they were in this area) sent three people to try and sell me it all and I basically crossed them off the list there and then. The experience with their engineer seems to be ok just as a company as a whole I would avoid.

I would recommend United Carlton if anyone wants to look at managed printing, contact me via PM if you want more details.