I sent this email to my DSM, Region Manager, VP & President. Lets see what type of repsonse I get, may you all can change a few things and send them to your DSMs and Region Manager along with Alan Nielsen and Tom Salierno"
Gary, Art & Alan:
RBS just taken two more of our larger accounts, one pricing at DMAP Level 6, customer (customer stated that they were 20K less than us on price) will not give me pricing, Eatontown, NJ based Health Management Firm (lost 7 machines) crushed us @ DMAP level 6, the other Design Ideas Group (lost 6 machines). Why are they doing this to Ricoh Dealers???? We will be out of business if this trend continues, somebody has to step up to the plate and tell them the business they should be getting is from Kyocera Accounts, Konica Minolta, Xerox, Sharp, Toshiba not from Ricoh Dealers!. RBS must stop giving them incentives and special pricing for upgrading Ricoh machines that are considered new accounts because they are from a Ricoh Dealer Account!!!!!
This type of selling where Ricoh Business Solutions is entering our account and stating, and I quote word for word, "why are you doing business with Century, We are the manufacturer, We will provide better service and the lowest pricing for Ricoh equipment". This is maddening and has to stop! I have never ever seen this in my 27 years of selling copiers!
Will Ricoh and Ricoh Business Solutions not be happy until of the dealers in the State of New Jersey are out of business? We are not alone in this, a recent poll from 40 dealers across the country, 85% voted that Ricoh is Unfair to Dealers, by letting this type of selling occur. How can we compete when RBS is telling existing customers that you should being doing business with the manufacturer because we offer lower pricing and better service. Lets be real, what would happen if General Motors decided to open up direct branches, and offered cars at wholesale and promised better service? Most of the GM dealerships would evaporate over time.
We as Dealers know we have the better service, however potential customers along with the incumbent customers believing they will get even better support, by the time customer figures they should have stayed where they are it is too late for us, ONCE THE BUSINESS IS GONE WE WILL NOT GET IT BACK!
Plus where does this make sense for Ricoh Americas Corp? Ricoh will sell more boxes to Ricoh Business Solutions at a lower price and lose the profit on the boxes that they move to Ricoh Dealers.
After 27 years in the business, I'll have to admit maybe its time to move on, this type of selling will eventually be the downfall of Ricoh Americas Corp, Ricoh Dealers will be either driven out of business or forced to take on other lines, from there once the customer finds out about the poor support, poor knowledge from the reps and the layers of red tape, then they will not buy another product with the brand name of Ricoh.
Ricoh Management Philosophy:
Goal
To be a good global corporate citizen with reliability and appeal.
Principles
To think as an entrepreneur
To put ourselves in the other person's place (try putting yourself in our place and see what Ricoh Business Solutions has created) To find personal value in our work
Art Post
Docusultant
Century Office Product
Original Post
