Evergreen contract & Danwood

[BirmITSU]

Hi everyone,

 

I've seen a few comments on here about Danwood and their Evergreen contracts. Has anyone successfully escaped one of these contracts, or can offer any advice to us?

 

Many thanks,

 

Birm.

[m25man]

@synaesthesia, Im sure it probably is legal, but there is a big difference between legality and morality...

 

I used to work in the copier industry when it was at it's dirtiest and ended up an outcast as I turned "expert witness" for a city barrister against similar organisations.

 

Even the manufacturers back the contract initiators as it means they keep selling boxes. Unless you can prove that the contract has been broken or mis-sold in the first place eg. they installed a 90cpm copier in a staff room that only does 30 prints a month your pretty much knee deep in doodoo.

@BirmITSU seek the legal advice of your LEA if you think you are being had over, or look for a class action that might be in progress I cant remember how many it takes to get this sort of thing handed over to the courts so it doesnt cost you anything to participate but I know a lot of small businesses got out of a lot of trouble by joining them.

 

Essex CC have a specialist legal dept for these matters I guess your own LEA will have a similar service.

School's News Letter - Essex Legal Services

 

However being in Brum and seeing that most of your establishments have already been assimilated into the BSF you may have already given up any chance of escaping as such as Danwood appear to be the "preferred provider" in many of these expertly negotiated managed services.

 

In the meantime I would refrain from discussing any details of your own contractual predicament on these forums as these are not usually very nice people to upset.

[synaesthesia]

It's unfortunately true, I think what I mean is that it's closer to unenforcable, legally.

[SNAssessor]

Hi everyone,

 

I've seen a few comments on here about Danwood and their Evergreen contracts. Has anyone successfully escaped one of these contracts, or can offer any advice to us?

 

Many thanks,

 

Birm.

 

 

Hi

 

I was just wondering, did you have any success in finding anyone who had actually managed to negotiate out of one of these contracts?

 

Kind Regards

[lunnmh]

Hi,

 

Did you get this fixed.

 

I work for a company owned by one of the manufacturers and would be happy to investigate for you.

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[BuyersBuddy]

The problem the customer has is that there are so many copier dealers who are proud of their restrictive, often onerous terms and conditions and they believe anything that makes it more difficult for a client to leave is worth inserting into the SLA. The costs escalate over the years. Until they reach breaking point and the customer says enough is enough...

[synaesthesia]

It's amazing how many of you guys have cropped up recently. As said, there's plenty of people not happy with Danwood but the irony of the competitor remarks here have been amusing at least.

[etco]

I'm another unhappy Danwood customer. We have had a "Managed Print Service" contract with them for almost a year and they have failed in almost every aspect of delivery so far.

They've had 5 unsuccessfull attempts at installing their print management solution on our server...(this is still unresolved).

They conducted only one quarterly review in 12 months and didn't even share the findings from that despite my repeated requests.

The only Danwood staff who have done their jobs well have been the service engineers, but we've only had a handful of callouts so that's not much of an endoresment.

 

We sought legal advice and it seems that, despite the complexity of the contract, it places very few positive obligations on Danwood...basically they don't promise to deliver what the salesman sells you but once you’ve signed you are stuck with it.

 

I would advise anyone in the market for printing services to be extremely cautious if dealing with Danwood. Leave nothing to chance...involve your company lawyer at the outset...read everything twice...then read it again....make sure you see the contract before your FD/MD signs it (the terms you agree with the sales rep may not be reflected in the contract)....if all this sounds like a nightmare for what should be a simple business transaction...it is!

 

Shop around.

Edited December 11, 2012 by etco

[etco]

Apparently I need to have made 2 posts before I can PM another member...so here's No.2

[dankearn]

I'm another unhappy Danwood customer. We have had a "Managed Print Service" contract with them for almost a year and they have failed in almost every aspect of delivery so far. They've had 5 unsuccessfull attempts at installing their print management solution on our server...(this is still unresolved).They conducted only one quarterly review in 12 months and didn't even share the findings from that despite my repeated requests.The only Danwood staff who have done their jobs well have been the service engineers, but we've only had a handful of callouts so that's not much of an endoresment.We sought legal advice and it seems that, despite the complexity of the contract, it places very few positive obligations on Danwood...basically they don't promise to deliver what the salesman sells you but once you’ve signed you are stuck with it.I would advise anyone in the market for printing services to be extremely cautious if dealing with Danwood. Leave nothing to chance...involve your company lawyer at the outset...read everything twice...then read it again....make sure you see the contract before your FD/MD signs it (the terms you agree with the sales rep may not be reflected in the contract)....if all this sounds like a nightmare for what should be a simple business transaction...it is! Shop around.

Hi Ecto, Didi you ever get this resolved? I used to work for the comany and may be able to help?

[007-Elvis]

The Danwood evergreen contract model is a very serious concern for a business I know of too.