Has anyone else had as much difficulty with Ricoh in regards to an end of lease "balloon payment?"
That's the company line I received from the local sales rep... we can't just return the (currently leased) MFPs back to Ricoh; there will be a substantial payment to do so. Even with the contract concluded, and no interest in keeping the machines.
The Fair Market Value purchase of those same (currently leased) MFPs is a few thousand more.
I can understand if I wanted to purchase the printers... but to return them, after the end of the lease, and have a payment for ... what? Exit a lease that I'm at the end of anyway? There's no balloon payment stipulated in the contract we have. It's like they made it up to penalize us for leaving Ricoh.
Other printer vendors I've spoken with locally are mystified at Ricoh's business practice.
This is after they brought us a potential new lease contract that was changed at the last minute without notifying us. Whether that was accidental or intentional is of debate, but it was an indication of a failure to work with us in good faith, so we've decided not to renew their contract.
We've been pleased with the machines themselves, as well as the support... but the sales portion of Ricoh has completely chased us off from any future interest.
Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? It's just that I have not seen or heard this from other printer vendors.
RLR
(My opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my company.)