Photocopier Scam Development

simplemaths

Has anyone come across the following photocopier scam as my company has been caught out.

We are renting 2 multi-functional photocopiers at £50 per month each
charges 4p per colour and 0.4p per b/w
Services and all ink catridiges are included in above costs.

This was a reasonable deal and comes with a 2000 colour per month minimum charge, which is fine for my company. This deal was very similar to 5 other companies that we benchmarked against.

And now the scam.

On this contract it used the term Development rather than Copy.

i.e. 4p per Colour Development and 0.4p per B/W Development.

The term development was not defined anywhere in the contract and was never explained to us and we had no reason to be suspicious about this terminology.

After 6 months of trying to get to the bottom of why our copy charges had nearly trebled, we established that the term Development (according to the Copy company) means use of each toner cartridge. i.e. If we print a full colour page we are charged 12.4 pence. (4p for each of the 3 colour toners plus 0.4p for the use of the black toner).

They state that they explained this at the time, which is a fabrication and clearly we would not have chosen such a contract against the other similar deals we had quotes for (which incidentally used the term 'Copy' not Development)

I am not sure where to take this tissue to without paying for a solicitor, so would be interested to hear if anyone else has had the same or similar experience.

Many thanks

maninthestreet

Refuse to pay their bills, and let them take you to court to 'prove' their case.

Sasahara2

That's not a scam I'm sorry to say.

Pricing per colour toner is industry standard and 4p per colour is pretty reasonable, and I suspect it clear in the contract.

I'd be interested to see the other quotes that get close to that price for "all" colours.

The name Colour or Colour Development is prety much irrelevant.

simplemaths

Sasahara2 wrote: »

That's not a scam I'm sorry to say.

Pricing per colour toner is industry standard and 4p per colour is pretty reasonable, and I suspect it clear in the contract.

I'd be interested to see the other quotes that get close to that price for "all" colours.

The name Colour or Colour Development is prety much irrelevant.

Hi, I am certain that 12.4p to print 1 page of A4 in colour is not industry standard. My previous contract was for 5p for 1 page of A4 in colour and that quoted the price per Copy not per colour, as did all of the other quotes I had recently. The only difference on the quote I was mislead on was that it used the word development rather than copy.
I have not found a single other quote as high as 12.4p to print 1 A4 page.

Moglex

Sasahara2 wrote: »

That's not a scam I'm sorry to say.

Pricing per colour toner is industry standard and 4p per colour is pretty reasonable, and I suspect it clear in the contract.

I'd be interested to see the other quotes that get close to that price for "all" colours.

The name Colour or Colour Development is prety much irrelevant.

I don't know, but I strongly suspect, that you are talking utter rubbish.

System

We pay a fraction of a penny for colour printing/photocopying. It's a bit company though.

12p per sheet is very expensive.

bod1467

12p per sheet is nearer inkjet / home printing territory!

Truepat

A while ago we looked at photocopier usage and came to the conclusion that most copies were taken for the sake of taking copies and often ended up in the bin. So, over the last few years we have been phasing copiers out.

We retain scanners to scan paper based items onto the computer but have otherwise cut down on photocopying costs by about 80%. Just ask the question "Do you really need that copy?"

It suits our business model but it may not suit others.

peter_the_piper

Truepat wrote: »

We retain scanners to scan paper based items onto the computer but have otherwise cut down on photocopying costs by about 80%. Just ask the question "Do you really need that copy?"

It suits our business model but it may not suit others.

Unfortunately, this ""
comes with a 2000 colour per month minimum charge"" is the problem with cutting usage, until they can get out of this ""contract""
however by the copier companies own logic that's only 500 copies.

emsywoo123

I used to work for a copier company in the admin and billing dept, and it sounds like a complete con!

I think at the end of the day it will all come down to your contract though...........

Azari

This is a clear scam.

The term 'development' is ambiguous* and it is an accepted part of English contract law that when a term is ambiguous it will be interpreted by the court in favour of the party that did not draw up the contract.

The reasoning being that if you draft a contract you have every opportunity to make it clear and unambiguous and if you fail in that endeavour there is no reason why the other party should suffer.

*'Development' is meaningless in the context of an ink jet printer and even where the term had meaning - in developing film and prints - individual colours were never developed separately.

Pay them the amount that you believe is correct and tell them that if they think they are entitled to more they will need to get a court to agree with them.