Why is this this leasing company trying to bend me over a barrel?

[vi edit]

Okay, my company "leased" a workgroup printer back in May. The total cost of the printer was ~$15,000. We did a 48 month lease on the machine with a dollar buyout at the end for total possesion of the machine at the end of the lease. My monthly lease payments are $378 a month. The total cost of the machine over the span of the 48 months is ~$18144.

Here is the problem. The machine sucks. It's slow. It's unreliable, and it doesn't work as advertised. Some of it is due to the machine being a lemon, but a majority of it is just a terrible design on behalf of the machine itself. I want to be completely rid of the machine.

The manufacturer of the machine will give me a new one, which really doesn't solve anything since the printer itself has problems that will not be corrected. My reseller agrees on me with this. Soooooo, my only other option is to try and get out of my lease and sell off/relocate the printer to a place that is a better fit for it.

Too bad the leasing company are being complete dicks.

According to them, for me to get out of the lease, I need to pay a buyout fee of $16,000 and THEY get to keep the printer. WTF??? I've already paid out $2300 on the machine, and my total cost is $18,144. If I want to pay off the lease, and I get to keep the machine, it will cost me $24,000....$6,000 MORE than what it would be if I had stretched the total payments out over the span of the 48 months.

Can somebody please explain to me what the problem is with just making one lump payment of ((42 * $378) + $1) . They aren't loosing any money at all. That $378 is constant. It does not change. In my mind, they are actually getting a better deal. They get their full payment, in one shot, plus interest, minus the financial risk involved with stretching a lease over 48 months. The machine would have been mine in the end anyway, where's the holdup?

Is there something besides the fact that that leases are COMPLETELY in favor of the leasor instead of the leasee that I am missing? I don't see how they would be loosing any money by paying off the full amount + interest early.

*sigh*

 

[Jzero]

They are trying to bend you over the barrel b/c they can!
Go over the lease with a fine-toothed comb and see if there are any escape clauses for you. Even if there do not appear to be, you may want to take them to court. If even the manufacturer admits that the printer is poorly designed and does not work as advertised, you might be able to get them on breach of contract--you have leased the printer under the pretense that it would accomplish a specified task in a specified way. If it cannot do this, THEY have broken the contract.

 

[kranky]

Doesn't make sense, but they are in the driver's seat. Perhaps they are hoping you'll cave in and give them the payoff they are asking for.

Do you lease anything else from them? That gives you some leverage on this particular lease. I'd have someone higher up at your company contact someone higher up at the leasing company and they can probably work something out. Of course, you can refuse the extortionary payoff amount they want and just continue to pay the lease every month.

Who found the leasing company? Was it the guy who sold you the printer? If so, I'd lean VERY heavily on them to intervene and get you some better buyout terms. Because that leasing company probably does plenty of business through the reseller and won't want to lose it, and the reseller won't want to lose you guys as a customer.

OT for a second, I was LOL earlier at your "Asset Boy" comment. If you pick one of those FA packages I suggested, send me some KK coupons, they just opened one near me.

 

[TheBullGod]

<< Why is this this leasing company trying to bend me over a barrel >>



Because you like that hot prison sex. :Q

 

[vi edit]

Hey Kranky, it's sort of an awkward position. The printer maufacturer...who we will call company "X" worked for a very, very, brief time with the company we are leasing through. For reasons unstated, Company "X" stopped doing business with the leasing company. We were oh so lucky as to get in when they were doing business with this leasing company for a short period of time. As it stands, the leasing company has pretty much blown off the reseller, which IMHO is due to some bitterness because of the manufacturer dropping them as a leasing parter.

The reseller has told me that it would probably be better if we (as in my company) dealt with them directly.

As for leverage, I learned of some very interesting news after originally posting this thread.

I found out from my boss that we are financing SEVERAL million dollars through the financing department of the company we are leasing the printer from. I also found out that we may be doing a deal in the future that would be somewhere between 15 and 50 million (I honestly know no more than that) that would involve financing through them as well.

I really don't know what sort of leverage I can pull with that, but I'm sure that it could amount to something I am definitely going to be getting someone higher up the food chain involved though

 

[SnowPunk98]

<< bend me over a barrel >>



lol

 

[kranky]

<< I found out from my boss that we are financing SEVERAL million dollars through the financing department of the company we are leasing the printer from. I also found out that we may be doing a deal in the future that would be somewhere between 15 and 50 million (I honestly know no more than that) that would involve financing through them as well. >>



I think it's safe to say your problem is soon to be solved.

 

[d33pt]

what kind of printer costs 18g's?