If one of the goals of your organization or district is to maintain an accurate asset list, here are some things to keep in mind when deciding what information will be kept up-to-date. It’s important to know what equipment you have and where it is located, so you’ll want to start with a list of the current location, make/model and serial number of each device. If you want to determine the cost of the equipment, then you’ll also need to track the installation date, acquisition method (purchase or lease) and cost, and service contract base and overage amounts. For any leased equipment, it is especially important to track the lease end date and the date the letter of intent is due to the lease company. (more…)

We notice that quite often, when a client of ours is incorrectly charged for property tax on a lease agreement and has tried unsuccessfully to have the charges removed, they’ll let the incorrect charges continue to accumulate, paying only the charges that are correct each month. (more…)

Are you longing for really good customer service from your digital imaging supplier? Is excellent customer service even a reasonable expectation? I attended a lecture last week in central California. The topic was ‘Extreme Customer Service’. The speaker, a very successful entrepreneur, told the professionals in attendance that extreme customer service is revolutionizing the way we do business. He predicted that consumer-demand for excellence in service will drive suppliers to excel in this area or be left behind. What is ‘Extreme Customer Service’? In a nutshell, it’s about customer delight rather than customer satisfaction. (more…)

You probably already know that returning leased equipment at the end of the lease is the lessee’s responsibility. So, how much will this “responsibility” cost? You can plan on paying about $300 to $500 per device to a shipping company to transport the equipment back to the address(es) the lease company specifies. To keep these costs at a minimum, here are few things to try: (more…)

How willing is your vendor to provide you or a consultant that you hire with information about your fleet? Have you ever asked? Recently, we requested fleet information on behalf of a school district in central California. Our client had hired us to give them an objective evaluation of their document production fleet. The vendor, who has been managing the account for 20 years, would not provide us with information unless we agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement. (more…)

Do the serial numbers on your lease invoices match up with the actual serial numbers on the assets? If there have been any asset exchanges in your fleet (for non-performing devices or upgrades), make sure the serial numbers on the lease invoices are correct. If they don’t match up, contact your vendor and ask them to submit a request to change the serial number on record with the lease company. (The vendor will have to be the one to initiate the request with the lease company.) (more…)

Here are six tips on how to proactively manage the termination process for a lease agreement:

1. Start Early - If you have leases expiring any time during the next 6 months, start the lease termination process now, even if it’s to schedule an action on your calendar. Missing the lease company’s deadlines can put you in a bind.
2. Verify the dates - Do you know for sure when the lease ends? You can’t always base it on the date on the signed contract. The end date will depend on the date the first payment was due or when the agreement was accepted by the lease company. Contact your lease company to find out.
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One of the services we provide our clients is invoice clearing and issue resolution. We review the invoices our clients receive from their suppliers and make sure they’re correct. If they’re not correct, we get the problems fixed. When one of our associates emailed our client letting her know the invoice issue was being forwarded to me, our client responded saying, “I’m glad I’m not the only one they are not getting back to. It is getting very frustrating. Makes me want to climb through the phone, update/correct the records in their system, and go on merrily about my business.” (Does this sound like a movie you saw in 1999?) (more…)

My husband usually takes our car to the mechanic for its routine service. I don’t know much about auto repair, and I’m glad that’s something he takes care of. However, when the task falls to me, inevitably the mechanic will come out mid-service, show me a filter that has been removed from my car, and ask if I’d like to have it replaced. I always laugh to myself; I don’t know what the filter looked like when it was new, let alone how it would look when it’s worn out. Has your copier repair technician told you that your copier is on its last leg and that it’s time to replace the device? If so, how do you know whether or not the person you’ve trusted to fix your device is giving you an honest assessment or has incentive to sell you a new device? (more…)

I spoke with a client recently who said he was at the point where he wanted to load the office copier in the back of a truck and dump it off a cliff. It was pretty easy to tell the issues with that copier were at the “fire” stage. However, I spoke with a lady this week who was feeling frustrated about her copier’s performance, but wasn’t sure if it was a big enough deal to bother anyone about. If you’re like her, here are a couple of quick questions you can ask to tell whether or not the issues with your copier warrant a closer look by service personnel: (more…)