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VOX POP
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Matt Goodall
Service Director,
Office Evolution
“The modern digital photocopier typically
has two types of meter, a traditional
mechanical meter and an embedded digital
meter. Neither is foolproof or beyond being
tampered with.
“The traditional mechanical meter,
as with an old car, can be tampered
with easily and in most cases misaligned
numbers and marks to the meter case will
highlight that this has happened.
“Where real concerns start to appear is
when tampering occurs with the electronic
meter. Some aftermarket companies are
now offering reset devices to enable
dealers to provide zero meter counts at
installation of a device.
“Whilst this practice is not illegal in
itself, misrepresentation of the supplied
product as either ‘new’ or having done
fewer copies than shown clearly is.
“This practice doesn’t seem to be
on the increase at the moment, but it is
something that genuine dealers need to
watch out for and advise customers what
to look for. You cannot stop bad people
doing bad things, but what you can do
is advise customers of the pitfalls and
remember that if a deal looks too good to
be true then it probably is.”
Eric Shackleton
Sales Director,
RDT Office Solutions Group
“It pains me to say it, but there are a
number of rogue operators still out there
who adopt a number of underhand tactics
to try to undercut the ethical operators in
this industry.
“Selling second hand or nearly new
equipment as new is the most prevalent
practice. There are dealers that are
installing devices that have been on
loan, out on a trial or even been sat in a
showroom for a while, after resetting the
meters to zero.
“Recently we’ve been involved in a
competitive tender that we believed we
were close to winning. It was for three
devices including a production print device;
the order value was good; and we were
very competitive. But we received a call
from the customer saying they’d received
an alternative bid that over the three-
year contract term was about £12,000
cheaper. When we queried it and asked
them to check if the equipment was
like-for-like and brand new, we discovered
that the paperwork quoted ex-showroom
equipment. That could mean anything.
“One way of tripping them up is to get
the customer to insist the kit is delivered in
the original packaging. Chances are they
will say they don’t do that, which tells you
all you need to know.
“We’ve also come across a number
of instances where dealers are triple click
charging. On one particular brand, you can
set the meter to record per development
as opposed to per click, which in essence
means it clicks per colour, i.e. cyan,
magenta, yellow and black, as opposed to
each impression. Say for example the cost
of a colour copy was 5p and a mono copy
1p, with this approach the customer would
end up paying three x 5p for each colour
and 1p for black, so the cost per colour
copy would actually be 16p not 5p. It’s
probably hidden somewhere in the small
print but, again, it doesn’t represent a
transparent and honest approach to doing
business.
“The downside is that once a customer
has been bitten, they tar us all with the
same brush, saying ‘you’re all the same’
when in reality we’re not.”
Paul Strout
Key Account Director,
ZenOffice Managed Print Services
“I believe that there is a wider issue here.
Whilst we haven’t heard of users having
the meters clocked, there is still a lot of
confusion regarding what a click actually
continued...
We've come
across a
number of
instances
where
dealers are
triple click
charging.
Paul Strout
Key Account Director,
ZenOffice Managed Print Services
Matt Goodall
Service Director, Office Evolution
