60 months of misery- but only for you !

To alot of you readers out there I think this blog will make lots of sense because it has happened to you!It may be happening to you now.
Let me ask you a question.What is the best way to get yourself unreliable copiers with the obvious exception of using a sledge hammer?! The answer is very simple and slightly less violent...all you have to do is use a pen and sign a 5 year lease and a matching 5 year service agreement.Yes it is that easy and guess what, your friendly copier dealer is happy to oblige.Why? Because he is then able to squeeze every last ounce of profit from your account and you stand by powerless and watch it happen...just great!(for them)
Here is how it works...for those that are reliving their own horror stories by reading this please stay strong!!!
You sign a photocopier lease and service agreement for 60 months.The equipment doesn`t last for 60 months because it generally doesn`t. It doesn`t last for 60 months because the supplier isn`t incentivised for it to do so! I will explain...
There are good reasons for this.One is that if you have signed a 60 month service agreement, complete with double digit copy cost increases every year and an outrageous cancellation clause entitling the copier dealer to anything up to 90% of your historical volume for the unexpired term, you are basically going nowhere in the future! You are trapped because you don`t want to pay thousands of pounds to cancel a maintenance contract that would involve paying for service,parts and toner you will never receive.The unscrupulous salesman and his company know this.So what happens? Well because there is no need to provide fantastic service or much point in fitting the parts required to achieve reliability-they don`t!! Remember you are going nowhere. Plus the salesman earns commission every time he changes your lease/equipment and his company makes more profit too.Thats why poor service is good news for them as the equipment is in need of changing or upgrading as they call it much earlier. Even worse- You want to change it too because you are fed up with all the in house complaints.So lets say you are 3 years into your 5 year lease and service agreement and everyone is in agreement that the copier/s have to go! Now you have a choice but not a great one!! You pay off the lease, or build it in as they do and also pay off the cancellation charges of the service agreement and find another supplier(thats fun too.) Or you sign again with the old supplier, who has just failed to do the job properly, because it appears easier and cheaper.It will be neither as the whole thing is repeated time and time again until your costs become so ludicrously high that you snap.Eventually this will happen but it will be painful and expensive. Any thoughts...? Apart from snap early!!!!