B&W Docutech with no click plan?

[pworlledge]

How many of you out there bought your Docutech or B&W machine without a click plan? Just time and materials for repair and purchasing consumables. Have you found it cheaper to run that way? We would be looking at about a million clicks a month on it.

 

[kslight]

I don't see how that could possibly make sense if you want to put a million clicks a month on it...what are the odds of going a million clicks between service calls? Xerox specs at least our Docutechs at 100k-200k between calls... I think if you are planning to have one Docutech be your only machine for 1 million clicks you are asking for a lot of lost productivity due to downtime. While we definitely exceed 1 million per month on each of our 6180s, we are able to tolerate waiting for service when its needed and scheduled PMs because we aren't counting on one machine to do it all. Plus I think between the cost of supplies, and what Xerox will gouge you for labor and parts on calls, it will very quickly add up to the cost of a real service plan. It is completely intentional by Xerox to make time/materials substantially more expensive than a service plan.

We have 3 old 135s that are on cheaper plans than our 6180s, 2 of the 135s are on
25k/month with service and we just have to buy supplies on them. It works out to be fairly inexpensive for high redundancy in case we ever experience service issues or critical deadlines.

 

[pworlledge]

I probably should have said we have a 6180 on a plan. This one would remain the work horse. Not sure that changes opinion.

 

[kslight]

I still feel that if you optimistically assume 200k between service calls (but this totally depends on your level of quality expectations and what kind of jobs you run) so you are paying out of pocket for 5 service calls @ time + materials per month (Have you seen at what rate Xerox will charge you for non-contract calls, not to mention the markup on parts? I think it would be hard to place a service call for less than a grand. Just an example...one of the hard drives blew on our 6180 front end two months ago, and the cost would have been $2500 for the drive alone had we not carried a contract. PR Belts are about $600 without a contract, etc... Just think of a reasonable dollar value for a part and multiply it by 10, that's what Xerox will probably charge you for them. Not to mention that the rate per hour is something astronomical. ), plus supplies, you would spend much more than you would on a regular service contract. If cost is an issue then I would suggest negotiating a lower volume (say 800k) and then pay per click over what you use.

 

[pworlledge]

Good word then! The owner had heard from another owner that he had ran 2 DT-135s cheaper than when he had a plan. I am new to this so I don't have enough data to know one way or another. Of course Xerox says it will be cheaper but I need to hear this from an independent source.

 

[kslight]

It totally depends on your usage and quality expectations. For us, it makes more sense to have it when we need it because sometimes the 135s will just sit there if we aren't slammed and then when we have a huge rush order and we need to use them we will have to get service out on all of them. IMHO it would be complicated to try to manage machines without contracts alongside machines with them, and you probably know as well as I do that production machines can and will go down when you need them the most, so unless you are prepared to take a chance and have to cough up the bill when it needs service I think the plan is a better option. We have had a few machines without contracts that hung around for awhile (after they were EOL'ed) but they ultimately died or made crap copies until they died...wasn't worth trying to keep them going. We also have a Docujob Converter without a contract that has failed us a few times and each time it has been an expensive repair, and now one of the hard drives blew (what you have to expect with old tech) and it costs more to get it repaired than it is worth, so now we have a paperweight.

 

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Obviously in terms of total cash paid out it is more expensive in gross dollars to have a maintenance plan.

If this statement was false then Xerox, and all other brands, and independent dealers would be out of business and wouldn't offer maintenance plans.

Hands down if you can service your own equipment or have an in house copier tech then it will be less expensive than paying click charges.

Machines often run longer than their maintenance contracts so there can be years of extra benefit by running your own maintenance.

The other responders are not having a clear indication of which is the cheaper alternative because they are looking solely at Xerox.

ANY OTHER BRAND, out there has a huge surplus of parts, supplies, technician manuals, and thousands of independent dealers willing to sell a part and offer service competition. Xerox parts and supplies are more expensive and harder to get because they make it that way. Other companies don't.

Bottom line is if you can afford a technician or know how to fix your own equipment it will be cheaper. If you don't want to bear that burden or don't know how to, then you should do the maintenance plan; but you are paying more in gross dollars for the luxury of it.