Supplier suddenly cancels service agreement

Not sure if this is the right spot for this but here goes.

We are not printers by choice, but have had to learn the ropes over the last few years after falling for the salesmans lies. Originally the company we purchased from tried to get us into a lease which was not a good deal at all. We went back and forth with them and our lawyers, again, not knowing anything about the business, and ultimately ended up financing the machine with our bank at a much lower rate and payment. The entire time during our negotiations we discussed and emphasized a 60 month service agreement which matched any lease/financing term. "No problem" the salesman said thinking he was getting the lease that was 60 mos also. When we decided to purchase outright, we confirmed 60 mos for the service agreement with the actual service agreement having my handwriting on it "60 mos?" which was confirmed via call with the sales guy after noting how important it was for us not to have to worry about that portion of this new project.

Moving forward two and half years of less than acceptable service, no certified techs even in our area, we were notified that the company is cancelling the service agreement and will no longer work on the machine after mid-year 24 citing a 60 day clause in the agreement. This company purchased the rights from the manufacturer for this area and no other company exists to maintain this equipment. We believe that after we pushed them to finally start fixing and maintaining the machine as agreed (about six mos ago), they realized how much money their techs tossed at the thing in parts (again, no certified techs in the area) trying to get it up to snuff after almost 2 years of bandaids. Knowing what pieces were swapped, they spend a huge amount in the last few months.

Our attornies are well acquainted with the history but have advised us to keep paying the bill and do our best knowing we had few options. There is a 6 year statute of limitations so we have just kept records of all of the paper and products we have had to toss due to malfunctions that should have been addressed. After a new service manager took over we had hoped for better results and they seemed to be making progress, until today. So the question is, how would you handle this? Lawyers will do what they have to but we still have a business to run.

Listen to the attorney.

Where are you located? There might be an independent provider who can help you in person, or an independent provider in another area who can work with you remote on a per incident basis.

If this is a Xerox machine, you can do your own maintenance with parts from partsdrop.com, gmsupplies.com, etc. I am not familiar with sourcing parts for other digital press vendors. You would need to find a service manual and make the employee time to do the work.

You may need to get a new machine and eat the remaining payments on this one.

SoggyWinter said:

Listen to the attorney.

Where are you located? There might be an independent provider who can help you in person, or an independent provider in another area who can work with you remote on a per incident basis.

If this is a Xerox machine, you can do your own maintenance with parts from partsdrop.com, gmsupplies.com, etc. I am not familiar with sourcing parts for other digital press vendors. You would need to find a service manual and make the employee time to do the work.

You may need to get a new machine and eat the remaining payments on this one.

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we are in the upper midwest. I have asked around and all companies that serviced this equipment were purchased by the company we are dealing with and that subsequently purchased the entire territory from the manufacturer. It is not a xerox machine but another large manufacturer

You may want to post this again, but ask; Looking for service provider for (insert your machine make and model here) in upper Midwest.

That I know of, no vendor will give you credit for lost materials due to malfunctions, they will tell you that you should be watching your output and stop if you see imperfections. If not, they consider it user error.

Mega said:

we are in the upper midwest. I have asked around and all companies that serviced this equipment were purchased by the company we are dealing with and that subsequently purchased the entire territory from the manufacturer. It is not a xerox machine but another large manufacturer

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Linkedin and the trade press are your friends. You can easily find the details of your country's COO, CFO, state MD etc and email them a complete dossier (email naming conventions tend to be the same from top to bottom within most organisations). Your woeful summary, presented in the format of a "currently draft, uncirculated" article indicating intent to share amongst the trade press, should get senior people listening and acting. They won't want bad press, reputations brought into question, etc. Good luck.

You should share the original manufacture on this post for people to possibly point you in a better direction. It's fine if you don't want to share the dealer's name. Regardless, dealers are supposed to maintain a certain level of service based on an agreement with the manufacturer. If they are not doing so, you can reach out the original manufacturer....specifically a regional manager of dealers. I would also start climbing the ladder at the dealership to speak with the highest ranking people possible. Find out who your territory sales rep is, then ask for his manager, then ask for their manager, and so forth until you get someone to really take some action on your behalf. Walk into their regional office if you have to. I know you're talking with a service manager already...ask for his boss. It might also be worth noting that there may be some growing pains as this dealership takes over so many more machines in the field. They may be in the process of training more service techs, etc.

all, i appreciate the responses. I am in a bit of shock rn with the situation and am just looking for input to help steer in the right direction, at least initially. what i dont want yet is to hit them full out with the lawyers because that tends to permanently eliminate all other options.

the machine is a Ricoh and we are located in upper Michigan. Ricoh sold this territory prior to our purchase. I do have the graphic communications exec and senior program manager channel strategy for commercial and industrial printing contact info at the Ricoh but have not reached out yet.

is the machine a newer model

azehnali said:

is the machine a newer model

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7210sx

Hopefully, someone on this board that is familiar with Ricoh in your area can help you find someone to put this machine under service contract. I would be very aggressive with finding someone quickly in case your current service provider hasn’t kept up with maintenance. The new service provider will most likely require an inspection prior to putting it under service contract. If parts or service are needed to bring it up to specifications, then it will be your responsibility to pay for the parts/service if your current contract has expired. Have this done while it’s still under contract and if becomes the service providers responsibility to bring it up to specifications.

I don’t have a Ricoh but many on this board do, and they speak very highly of the 7210. I can’t imagine why they would outright want to cancel the service contract unless they either don’t service light/production equipment, you’re in an extremely remote location or there was something wrong with the machine from the start and it should have been replaced.

Heidelberg sells a rebranded version called the Versafire, they might be able to handle the service contract.

I think this is a very strange situation unless there is more to the story; I have the same machine minus the scanner, but serviced by Ricoh direct. I can’t imagine why they’d cancel, unless you are very remote or have a very problematic machine that isn’t profitable to them (which it seems they are obligated to bring up to spec or replace).

I think the folks you should be in touch with are Ricoh direct, your financial institution, and your attorneys reviewing the contracts. I would also reach out to other service providers, I’m assuming a competitive brand may be willing to buy your machine out and put in something that can be serviced locally.

kslight said:

I think this is a very strange situation unless there is more to the story; I have the same machine minus the scanner, but serviced by Ricoh direct. I can’t imagine why they’d cancel, unless you are very remote or have a very problematic machine that isn’t profitable to them (which it seems they are obligated to bring up to spec or replace).

I think the folks you should be in touch with are Ricoh direct, your financial institution, and your attorneys reviewing the contracts. I would also reach out to other service providers, I’m assuming a competitive brand may be willing to buy your machine out and put in something that can be serviced locally.

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remote, kinda. we are 2 hours from major cities but in a fairly large town with a pop of 150k+. This company purchased the territory from Ricoh without having the techs in the area to service the equipment. There are only a few of us in the area so I guess we arent a priority.

Problematic? perhaps due to deferred maintenance on their part and refusal to hire and train certified techs to work on the machine. To our knowledge, they trained one tech, who had only a couple of years in the biz on the machine. He quit a couple months later and only worked on our machine with other "un-certified" techs (but with lots of years of experience) maybe a handful of times. They spent a ton throwing parts at it this year catching up for the lack of repairs the last couple.

Hate the thought of switching machines, mainly due to the depreciation of the machine at this point but may have to. Lawyers have been involved since new and are aware of this latest situation and are reviewing options.

Mega said:

remote, kinda. we are 2 hours from major cities but in a fairly large town with a pop of 150k+. This company purchased the territory from Ricoh without having the techs in the area to service the equipment. There are only a few of us in the area so I guess we arent a priority.

Problematic? perhaps due to deferred maintenance on their part and refusal to hire and train certified techs to work on the machine. To our knowledge, they trained one tech, who had only a couple of years in the biz on the machine. He quit a couple months later and only worked on our machine with other "un-certified" techs (but with lots of years of experience) maybe a handful of times. They spent a ton throwing parts at it this year catching up for the lack of repairs the last couple.

Hate the thought of switching machines, mainly due to the depreciation of the machine at this point but may have to. Lawyers have been involved since new and are aware of this latest situation and are reviewing options.

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Without knowing the situation it’s hard to guess. What does Ricoh direct say when you call them? I’m assuming that they still want production machines in your area and would not be thrilled with your experience, I feel like they may be willing to push back at the third party. Do you want me to email my Ricoh rep and see what he thinks? I’m in the Midwest, but not Michigan.

When I recently put out the word I was thinking about a new machine I got several companies that wanted to sell and service a new Ricoh. There has to be another company that can work on that thing.

I wouldn't have the printers I do without a service contract -and- I do a fair amount of service on them already myself.

Maybe consider selling the machines, cutting your loses. If you do need an in-house print shop, then you'll take this experience forward. But it sounds like maybe selling the machines and just out-sourcing is the right path forward?

YourCastle said:

I wouldn't have the printers I do without a service contract -and- I do a fair amount of service on them already myself.

Maybe consider selling the machines, cutting your loses. If you do need an in-house print shop, then you'll take this experience forward. But it sounds like maybe selling the machines and just out-sourcing is the right path forward?

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If we could find someone that would print them at a reasonable price we would do that all day.

Hulign said:

When I recently put out the word I was thinking about a new machine I got several companies that wanted to sell and service a new Ricoh. There has to be another company that can work on that thing.

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You would think but Ricoh sold the territory to this company and they are the sole provider now for the last several years. Ricoh wont touch it because of this and the provider wont service it...

I’m having a hard time understanding why Ricoh would turn ALL their service over to a provider that can’t provide service for production equipment. In a town with a population of 150,000 people, you could have a dozen production machines between print providers and inhouse production. Sure, they’re not all Ricoh machines, but still, this is not a tiny market in a faraway land. Something is very off with this situation.

TJPrinter said:

I’m having a hard time understanding why Ricoh would turn ALL their service over to a provider that can’t provide service for production equipment. In a town with a population of 150,000 people, you could have a dozen production machines between print providers and inhouse production. Sure, they’re not all Ricoh machines, but still, this is not a tiny market in a faraway land. Something is very off with this situation.

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Ya well, they did. The provider is quite large in several states. To my knowledge, there are two production (Ricoh) machines in this town and I own one. The other has also had terrible to non existent service, we talk frequently. They cant be cut off because they are part of a national franchise with enough clout to escalate to Ricoh directly. There is a third that is 2 hours away in a small town but I have not had contact with them.