How it works

Step 1: you tell us what you're paying now

The widget on the homepage asks five things, and you can answer most of them from memory:

• Your lease payment. The regular amount on your finance invoice, before VAT. Usually quarterly, sometimes monthly.
• Your cost per copy. Two numbers — one for black and white, one for colour. Optional, because plenty of people genuinely don't know them, and that's a finding in itself.
• Roughly how much you print. A band is fine. If you want to be precise, the meter reading is on your last service invoice.
• When your contract ends. "Not sure" is an allowed answer.

None of that leaves your browser at this stage. The sum happens on your own device, and you see the result before you decide whether to tell us anything about yourself.

Step 2: you see your real annual number

This is usually the moment the penny drops. Copier costs are split across two invoices that arrive at different times from what can feel like two different companies — the finance house that owns the machine, and the dealer that services it. Individually, neither looks like much. Annualised and added together, they often look like a lot.

Step 3: we check it against the market

Give us your contact details and we'll look at what the same machine, the same volume and a comparable service level would cost on a contract signed today. If print management software is part of the picture, we quote for PaperCut too, and there's more on what we supply across London and the South East.

We'll come back to you with one of two answers:

• "You're on a fair deal." It happens more often than you'd think, especially if you negotiated hard last time. We'll tell you straight, and you'll have it in writing for your next renewal.
• "Here's what the same setup costs now." A like-for-like comparison, with the assumptions written down so you can check our working.

Step 4: you decide — and you have three options, not one

People assume a review means switching supplier. It doesn't. There are three reasonable outcomes:

1. Sit tight until renewal. You now know your number and your end date, which is more than most businesses can say when the letter lands.
2. Renegotiate where you are. Take the comparison to your current supplier and ask them to match it. Lots of people do this and stay put on better terms. We're not offended.
3. Move. If you'd rather change, we'll quote you ourselves where we're a good fit for what you need. Where we're not, we'll tell you that and introduce you to a supplier who is.

When's the right time to review this?

There's no wrong time to talk to us. People come to us mid-term for all sorts of reasons — costs have crept up, the equipment isn't keeping pace, service from the current supplier has tailed off, or the business has changed shape and the fleet no longer fits it. Any one of those is reason enough to get a review done.

Being mid-term doesn't block a move, either. The balance left on your existing agreement can be settled and factored into the new one rather than paid up front, and a properly structured deal can offset some or all of it. We'll show you the numbers either way, so you can see exactly where you stand before you decide anything.

What we don't do

• We don't sell your details to a list of suppliers who then all ring you.
• We don't need a copy of your contract to give you an indication.
• We don't run a call centre. If you ask us not to phone, we won't.
• We don't rubbish the manufacturer you're with. Ricoh, Canon, Konica Minolta, Sharp, Xerox — they all make good machines. The money is almost never about the box.

What it costs you, and how we make money

The review costs you nothing, and there's no fee for it whatever you decide to do afterwards.

We make our money by supplying print — equipment, leasing and managed print contracts. So if the review shows you'd be better off moving, we may well quote for that work ourselves. We'd rather you knew that up front than worked it out halfway through a conversation.

It cuts the other way too. Where we're not the right fit, we'll say so, and if you'd like an introduction to a supplier who is, we may be paid a fee by them. And if the honest answer is that your current deal is fine, that's what you'll get told — a review that only ever concludes “switch to us” isn't worth having.

Worth reading first

• Printer contract renewal — notice periods, the upgrade offer that resets your term, and a timeline that works.
• How photocopier leases actually work — where the money in a copier contract actually goes, and why it arrives on two invoices.
• 5 signs you're overpaying on your printer contract — the clauses worth checking before you speak to anyone.
• Buying vs leasing an office copier — how the two compare over a realistic term.