I was referred to Thomas Farrell of Independent Office Equipment by the landlord of the building I lease (and someone I respect a lot). I needed a good, used copier with color/black & white and finishing/sorting/stapling capabilities for a business I opened September. We met on June 4 and I left him a deposit for a Canon IRC-2050 copier with staple, finish, print, scan, duplex & auto feed capabilities. Per his invoice/bill of sale and our agreement, it included storage, delivery, set-up, install & network set-up. After my office opened for business on 09/01/07 (as planned), I called Thomas Farrell to have him to finally deliver the unit as agreed upon. He stated that he was going to have some difficulty because he didnt have the finisher.
I asked him why he would have a problem since the unit I left a deposit on was supposed to be held intact and in storage for me until I opened for business. It seemed he resold the unit I originally purchased and then found a comparable replacement. Eventually he found another copier and finisher and delivered the complete unit on 09/13/07. On the day of delivery Thomas and his brother Graco arrived with the Canon-IRC 2058, but a different person arrived a bit later with the finisher/stapler/sorter.
This delivery person stated that the unit was not tied-down correctly and shifted during transport, slamming against the back of cabin. Thomas and his brother didn't know that I had heard that statement so they proceeded to unload the finisher from the delivery truck and try to complete the install. After they could not get the unit working and left the finisher unconnected, I brought it to Thomas' attention that the sorter trays were out of place, jarred and cracked. He mentioned that it was not a problem and would have a technician out the next day to repair it. He stated that this tech would fix the finisher sorter, get the stapler working, fix the feeder, clean/tune the copier, network the copier and set-up the user codes. At that point Thomas asked for full payment of $1488 $340 for toner (that I didn request, but you took the initiative to install) for a total balance of $1828. His excuse was that he had to pay the delivery guy and the unit supplier. Stupid as it may be on my part — I paid him the full balance.
He literally ran to the bank to cash this check within 1 hour. His tech never showed-up to repair the problem and he never decided to call me to update me as to the status. After placing over a dozen calls to him and his company, he referred me to his network tech who said they would have to charge me to come out and frankly stated that trying to fix the sorter would be a bad idea. It would cost more to try to fix it than to replace it, would never work the same and recommend that I speak to Thomas Farrell. Thomas then had me call his other repair tech David who Thomas said he had talked to about fixing the copier, setting-it up, cleaning it and setting-up the user codes. This was the same person who showed-up with him during our initial meeting. I called David and he said Thomas had not called him, but I set-up an appointment with him anyways. On 09/25 he was only able to clean the unit and charged me $95.00 for this service.
He said that he wasnt working with Thomas Farrell and Independent Office Equipment anymore because he was not being paid as promised. He also informed me that Thomas had paid him to go with him on the initial appointment to make his company seem larger than it was (techs on staff/trying to sell me a servicing agreement) — because he had the impression I was a large account. David looked at the sorter and said that there was no way to repair the damage to the unit. On 09/16 I had to get another network tech to correctly network the copier and he charged me $262.50 because no one else from Thomas' company would respond.
Since then, I have placed over 50 calls to Thomas Farrell — he has initiated only 2 calls to me — to see when it is that he was going to replace the finisher/sorter/stapler (item #4517A001AA). He has given me a variety of excuses such as:
1.) I will take care of it I promise
2.) I found one in San Diego and just have to pick-it up
3.) Im low on money right now and will take care of it I promise
4.) Im having trouble getting just the sorter without the copier
5.) Most companies do not want to just sell a finisher by itself
6.) These sorters are very hard to come-by
7.) Give me another week, we are working on purchasing a few
None of these excuses ever seem to pan out and the only reason Ive waited this long is due to my referral to him by a trusted business associate. I have to run a business and am now convinced that he has no respect for me, my time or my business. Thomas Farrell and Independent Office Equipment is not a man of his word and this experience has been hell for me. Well... He is going to have to be a man of his writing because Im going to take all the legal avenues to resolve this. I think Ive been more than fair with him and have given him more time that he deserves to resolve this. I think he believed he had an easy target to scam me and make a quick buck (feeling that I was going to sit back and take it without consequences). He was wrong!
Do NOT use Thomas Farrell, Graco Farrell or Ofelia Farrell of Independent Office Equipment in Whittier, California for any copy machine or office equipment needs!!!
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