Advanced Exchange Maintenance Plan

Why Advanced Exchange Programs may be better than forking up Onsite Maintenance Costs.

Written By: Samantha Noble, Marketing Manager In a perfect world, point of sale hardware would never be problematic. The components would always work swimmingly, and maintenance would not result in a blow to your budget. Equipment would last well beyond its life span, and “system down” would not be a necessity in an operator’s vocabulary. Unfortunately, we live in a harsh reality.

While most equipment is built durably for harsh retail and hospitality environments, equipment still breaks. In fact, I am sure many of you are guilty of substituting “S” in the acronym POS for another choice word. I can imagine the frustration operators incur when peripherals such as printers, keyboards, and touch screens lose their sole capabilities in the middle of retail season. So, what is your plan when disaster strikes? Do you fork over the costs for on-site maintenance?

Waiting in a long line is my biggest pet peeve when shopping. Regardless of whether the store has 3 or 20 registers, I find it hard to believe the urgency of repairs when they are rarely operating 100% of the lanes at a time. I think it is safe to say most of you agree? So my question to operators when your systems are inactive, why are you paying outrageous costs for on-site maintenance?

While you may be extremely satisfied with your current on-site maintenance plan, great! However, if you could afford to wait 24 hours to receive a replacement part on your point of sale, an Advance Exchange program might be a little more enticing for your budget. Point of sale companies providing Advance Exchange POS repair leverage either a vast inventory, or low labor costs. Why does this matter, you ask? By leveraging inventory, the maintenance company does not have to purchase equipment to support your systems; most likely they already have the components in stock.

Instead, finished goods are stocked and waiting to be shipped to you upon notification that a system is down. Without a vast inventory, maintenance companies are forced to purchase equipment from other vendors and as you would imagine, this leads to increased costs for you as their customer.

Vendor selection is important when choosing a POS maintenance contractor. Do you select a labor intensive company or an inventory rich company? It may seem like a horse a piece. Yet it is important to remember, as equipment ages, the value decreases. Therefore, when you choose any inventory rich company, the overall maintenance cost likely decreases over time. On the contrary, labor costs increase through the years resulting in less of a cost decrease to your established maintenance plan.

At Retail Tech, the IBM POS Consignment Vendor Contract allows us to store over 120,000 square ft. of IBM systems and parts, with the resources to support almost any exchange request. Upon receiving notification that one of our maintenance customers has a broken peripheral, we have other finished goods with your specifications in our inventory to ship that same day. Retail Tech is even able to borrow equipment to customers for short periods of time! I would argue very few companies have the resources to do that. Retail Tech also offers a Depot Repair and Return program for less urgent requests.

Well, now you know the facts. On-site Maintenance is not your only option. If you liked anything you read about Advance Exchange maintenance, it may be worth a phone call at least? How much could you save? I am sure you have better things to spend your money on? I’m just saying…