We often meet up with a potential customer with a story that is something like this. “I have a copier contract in Madison which doesn’t expire for 2 years, it costs $1,100 a month and we are getting killed, can you help us?” This is a tough position to be in for sure! Knowing that your copier is killing your budget and there is little you can do. So, what can you actually do to help you get out of a copier contract in Madison?
First, realize we are a copier company, not a law firm, so our advice is intended to help from our experience, not giving you specifics on the law. With that said, let’s get into what we would do if we were in this position.
- Identify why you think you are being ripped off. Are you using all your prints? Did you get a copier with a bunch of accessories you don’t need? Did you get color when you only needed Black and White?
- Identify your minimums and what is included in this minimum. Is the lease designed to just cover the equipment or does it include 10,000 color pages? This matters.
- Identify your real needs and see how this aligns with your minimums. If you are signed up to get 10,000 color prints and only need 1,000, call your rep and see if the contact can be lowered with 1,000 base. If they say no, consider selling the other 9,000 pages to another business owner so they don’t have to buy a color copier…
- Call your lease company and ask for a copy of your contract so you can see what they have as your minimums. This won’t lessen your obligation to your** copier company in Madison**, but it could tell you if they are saying they can’t help “because of the leasing company.”
- If your minimum is just the equipment, check and see if it makes more sense to make sure everyone’s drives default to Black and White instead of color copies. (You may want to consider this anyway, unless you are ALWAYS under the minimum number of color prints included, if that’s the case, this won’t help.
These are the steps we would take if we were stuck in a bad copier contract in Madison, WI!