Does anyone have a clue as to how the CPC billing model started in the first place?

Wow!  These are some awesome stories, I'm sure there are many more out there from some of our veterans, would love to read more.

I remember a plan that didn't really take hold but it was a plan like the one John talked about and all accessories were proposed in the form of copies...you want a finisher, just commit to 10,000 additional copies per month. The CPC rate had an equipment portion attached to it so more clicks funded more equipment. If the CPC was normal plus .003, 10,000 clicks added $30/month which would fund $1,500 additional. Some customers that weren't willing to pay $1,500 would agree to 10,000 more clicks. Now looking back I realize we were doing MPS on copiers two decades before it became popular.

I remember it well and at ComDoc, in the early 80's we sometimes put the offer out there without it being a formal price plan. I think the customer realized that a lot of the toner they purchased and stocked was useless at end of the machines life.  It was like a primer with a customer who had that and TCO on their mind, it was a way to close them.

Equally, I remember taking it one step further in the early 90's with copy management - the first all inclusive (hardware, service, supplies)  program where the customer only pays for "Copies", no more equipment  purchases or leases. Those plans had a straight base CPC where rising volume swelled service revenues and made way for simple upgrades.  The higher commitment, usually lower service rates, and increased involvement with the customer kept competition out. 

Fax management, print management -- it all followed. 

Its interesting now with color CPC's getting squeezed to nothing, you wonder if buying color toner plans might return in return of getting a parts and service color cpc equal to black?? 

Its all interesting and keeps us arriving at the Branch early each day.  We all have toner in our blood, regardless of how it was obtained. 

Love the Hotel.

I've only been around 9 years, but when I first started, we were selling the old Ricoh AP3800CMF (A3 color printer w/ a scanner kit attached to make it an MFP) since the 1224c/1232c was such a bust.  In our Service Agreements, black toner was included in the CPP, but color toner was billable. When trying to get those customers to upgrade to the 2238c, I would create a cost per page analysis (since toner was included in our CPP for the 2238c) and had several furious customers who thought we had been price gouging them for years on toner for the 3800. 

Wallingford

Thanx for this!  From your thread I can tell we all have most of the same issues.

Anyone else care to help with their first experience with CPC?

What came next with some dealers in the Oz market, was a guarantee that the client's copy costs would not rise annually, above a maximum of 10% which most clients would agree to. Or that it would only rise by the CPI, which these days is a joke of a deal, as it is only around 2%. But some now guarantee to hold the pricing for the term of the rental agreement, which at 5 years is just down right stupid.This has now become a lot more prevalent, as weak salesmen sell (if you can call it selling) at the lowest possible price, in order to get the biz. So what do we do, after having put in a lot of hard work trying to get the deal. More often than not, we try to match it, and then get paid accordingly, well below what is commensurate, with the amount of effort we put in to obtain the biz in the first place......sheesh. And by the look of things, it is certainly going to get a lot worse, in this mature market of ours.