What's actually going on
Most service agreements include an annual escalator, commonly 5 to 10 percent, applied to the base and sometimes to the click rates.
Volume above the committed minimum bills at an overage rate that is often several times the base rate.
Color pages get counted as color even when a page is 98 percent black with one colored logo.
What to do in the next 48 hours
- 1Pull three consecutive invoices and separate base payment, click charges and anything billed separately.
- 2Divide total spend by total pages to get your real cost per page. That single number ends most arguments.
- 3Check whether your committed volume matches reality. Overcommitted and undercommitted both cost money.
- 4Set default printing to mono and duplex before you renegotiate anything. It is the fastest reduction available.
The honest tradeoffs
- Lowering your monthly commitment lowers the base but raises exposure to overage rates. Only do it with real volume data.
- A cheaper base payment with higher click rates looks better on day one and worse every month after.
Your next step
Questions people ask next
- What is a click charge on a copier?
- A per-page charge that covers toner, parts and service. Mono and color are billed at different rates, and pages above your committed volume typically bill at a higher overage rate.
- Is a copier escalator negotiable?
- Often yes, especially at signing. Ask for the escalator to be capped or removed and get the answer in the agreement rather than in an email.
More on costs that don't add up
- I think I'm overpaying but I can't prove it
- Why are we printing so much?
- How much should a copy actually cost?
- What are copier overage charges and why did mine spike?
- How do we actually reduce paper usage?
- How do I track print costs by department?
- Is colour printing worth what we're paying for it?
- My copier lease is ending and I don't know what to do
- My lease auto-renewed and I never agreed to it
- I have to return a copier and I don't know the rules