Switching office coffee suppliers

Switching office coffee suppliers is mostly paperwork. The coffee is the easy part. The contract you signed for the last machine decides when you can move, what you pay to leave, and who carries the old unit out the door.

Read that first. Then compare.

Find the end date

Hire, rental, and lease agreements usually run for a term. Find it. Then find whether it renews by itself if nobody gives notice, and how much notice it wants. A machine that has sat on the bench for years may be well into a second term nobody remembers agreeing to.

We cannot read a contract we did not write. We can tell you what to look for in it.

The lines that cost money to leave

An early exit fee, or the rest of the rental paid out. A collection or removal charge for the old machine. A minimum bean or capsule order you are committed to until the term ends.

Some hire contracts also carry a valet charge. That is a scheduled clean or service visit, billed per visit or folded into the rent. Check how often it has been happening and whether it has been billed when nobody asked for it.

Put those lines on one page, with dates. That is the real cost of switching this year versus at the end of the term. Sometimes waiting a few months is the cheaper answer. Say so on the call if it is.

What happens to the old machine

A hired machine belongs to the old supplier, so it leaves with them. Book the collection before the new machine arrives, or agree where it sits for a week. Two machines on one bench is an awkward fortnight.

If you bought the old machine, it is yours to keep, sell, or retire. Do not assume a new supplier will take it away.

What changes with Arico

The Saeco Royal Plus goes in. There is no rental line. The machine, servicing, and tech support are $0 while you order beans each month, and you pay for the coffee, from as little as 40 cents a cup. Hire versus a free machine is the side-by-side.

The exclusivity is plain: the machine continues while the beans do. Stop ordering and the arrangement stops. You do not own the machine, and you do not own the repair. Read how the free machine works before you give notice to anyone.

Moving from pods

A pod machine you bought outright has no term. The switch is a bench and a drawer of capsules to finish. If the pods came on a supply agreement, read it the way you would read a hire contract. Nespresso versus bean-to-cup covers the drink side of that move.

The order to do it in

Find the end date and the exit lines. Decide whether to leave now or at the term. Book the old collection. Then book the new install, with power, water, and a bench ready. Installation in Sydney is the checklist for that last step.

Keep the old contract handy when you compare. It answers most of the questions before anyone has to guess.