Printerman

Hi SNAssessor I have learned that this contract has not been called Evergreen for roughly 4 years, which explains its disappearance. In its latest guise, it is called Managed Print Services or MPS contract. There are so many terms and conditions that the one I saw was printed on both sides of a piece of A2 paper then folded into 4! It is a very complicated contract that is presented in a very clever way; only their most experienced salespeople are allowed to use it. This contract is immensely profitable for this supplier but seems to bring misery to so many customers when they realise their mistake years later, but then it is too late. You are not alone; there are quite a few large “household name” organisations that have been unwittingly tied up with this contract. You have not heard about them because generally they are highly embarrassed about the situation and do not want to be perceived as being foolish by their shareholders or the public at large. This MPS contract is a bit like them helping you to “max out” your credit card every month and then helpfully they also increase your credit limit to facilitate your new spending. All goes along happily for years until one day the bank comes to take your house away! Even if you completely stop “spending” and wisely cut up “the card”, you are stuck with them, their service, their escalating bills, and your old equipment for another FIVE years! There is normally only one option, "bite the bullet" and stop the contract by electing for the fixed 5 year term to start; then do not change anything else with this company. And yes this contract is legal and has been tested in English courts. Whether it is moral is a totally different question of course! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

Hello Zahraauk Unless you changed the small print before signing, you are in fact, tied to Danwood for 5 years, not 3. Your lease may be for three years but the service contract clause says clearly, in 1:1 "Initial Term means a period of 60 months from Commencement of this Agreement" This is repeated again in clause 2 and then in clause 6.1 "This Agreement can be terminated by You 60 months after the Installation Date or on any subsequent anniversary of that date if You have given at least 90 days prior notice in writing to Us." Even if you bought the machines outright, Danwood still have a financial hold over you for 5 years! Amazingly, even if you stop using the hardware, they can still charge you for prints you would have used, clause 7.1.3 states this clearly. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Hi Torledo We thought that specialist professionals like this would be highly expensive too! In fact, on close inspection these particular consultants offer an unusual service, they only charge a proportion of any savings they make for us, so there is no real charge! If they can’t help us or save money there is absolutely zero cost, which we thought was very fair. I hear that they were really empathetic and supportive right through the process. Once they established the ground rules it really was a "no brainer" for my friend’s school. We found them friendly and highly ethical. The contracts they offer are very fair and are completely clear of the dodgy small print clauses that can so easily entangle us non legally trained bods! We heartily recommend them as a risk free and cheap way of sourcing brilliant equipment and service. This seems a very prudent way of making sure that our colleagues don't have problems like these again. “Printerman”

Hi all This £35,000 for one copier is not unusual at all. I have learnt that we in education are synically seen as a "soft target" by many copier suppliers. The way the offers are presented is very alluring and once we have signed....whoops, we are stuck in an increasingly expensive contract. That's what happened to a friend at one of our schools over here. It was no ones fault, they did the best they could but were grievously misled. By simply comparing a number of quotes it may not be immediately apparent where the expensive contractual problems will be, as the contract only comes out at the signing stage doesn't it? The head teacher was so embarrassed that she hadn't read it through properly, but it seems few of us either read or fully understand these contracts. With my help she found a specialist contract consultant to help them to move away from one of these "rip off" merchants. The new service was just brilliant, it didnt cost them a penny! They also were able to source new equipment for much less than anyone else at very low trade prices! My colleagues have saved a small fortune and are now looked after by a wonderful supplier. I cant praise them too highly! They are particularly helpful to schools that have got themselves into trouble; why not give them a try? AKPconsulting.com Contract Resolution Consultants All the best "Printerman"

Hi Dan I didn't say their service was particularly bad, I just said watch out for their contracts! Another concern I do have though is that even though the engineers are good, the poor guys have to carry parts for a range of manufacturers kit. They may have parts for HP as well as Sharp, Konica Minolta, Canon, Panasonic, Samsung and goodness knows what else. With the best engineer in the world, his chance of having the right part for your machine is severely reduced isn't it? Also how can he build solid experience in every product? One engineer that visited a friend's site to service his kit seemed very good, but on chatting to him, he seemed frustrated with trying to be a "jack of all trades" (not his words, mine). Just some ideas that may help. Even though I like the concept and some of the engineers, I will be considering other suppliers in 3 months when our own contract comes up for review. I want as close to zero hassle from my supplier as possible!

Good morning gents I now have quite extensive information that may help you to make wise decisions regarding Danwood. Having recently spoken to a number of Danwood employees and had sight of their contracts. I suggest that their contracts are not to be taken lightly. There are number of clauses that make my hair curl! For the first year you get IT support included, thereafter they charge you £75 per quarter per unit, just because it can potentially print or scan. This is really annoying as there really is no benefit to us at all. Service and parts support is already paid for in the per page cost! Watch out for how many years you get parts included for, even if your contract says "parts included" that is only for ONE Year, then you get the bills as the machine actually starts to need parts! They can increase their cost per page by only a modest 10% but if they can prove that their costs have gone up, there is NO LIMIT to the increase or how often! There are many additional provisions that the salesman can add to alleviate some of these problems. The problem I have is unless you have a highly ethical salesman, and yes they do exist, and he knows all the antidotes to the contract, I am afraid that you are stuffed! The Danwood service & or evergreen contract is very good....for Danwood. I would personally advise avoiding it and getting a standard lease and separate service contract from another OGC supplier. It may appear that you are paying slightly more initially but you will definitely save more than money in the long run!