After 25 years, Office Concepts exits amid concerns

After a quarter-century in business, copier and printer service provider Office Concepts of Missouri closed its doors in the Elfindale Center on Nov. 14.

Owner Steve Moore said a range of health issues over the past year, a September 2013 fire at the 1723 W. Sunshine St. office, as well as steadily shrinking sales and profit margins contributed to the closure.

“It’s as if there were 12 holes in the dyke, and we could only plug 10 of them at any given time,” Steve Moore said.

While a couple of its long-term customers said the company would be missed, two others say they were left holding 60-month lease agreements.

Moore said customers with equipment service contracts would have to find new providers, and if they had leased machines, they could contact the manufacturer for service. A phone message points customers to the Queen City’s other authorized Kyocera dealer, Corporate Business Systems, though no formal arrangements were made.
 
Client reactions
Days after the closure, Dawn Banks, owner of Mount Vernon-based Runway Pets Inc., described her experience as a scam.

Banks had been a disgruntled customer of Corporate Business Systems when she was approached by an Office Concepts salesman earlier this month. She said he offered to pay off the $1,575 she owed on her current copier contract if she agreed to a 60-month lease with Iowa-based Great American Finance Service Corp. – a third-party leasing company for Office Concepts.

She signed on the dotted line Nov. 6 and had the copier-printer the next day, despite being told she’d have to wait. But the check to pay off Corporate Business Systems never arrived. When she called the company to find out when her old contract would be cleared, she heard the recorded message that Office Concepts had closed.

“I’m so disgusted with it,” Banks said. “I have two printers in my office right now.”

Banks said she is negotiating with Corporate Business Systems to turn in her old printer and receive service on the new one. Banks said she talked with a lawyer, but if Office Concepts files for bankruptcy, she’ll be out of luck.

Crane Schools Superintendent Travis Shaw said the district is roughly halfway through a five-year lease on equipment. That lease, through an independent lender, included service on seven copiers.

“Once the lease is fulfilled, those copiers belong to us for a $1 buyout. The dilemma we are in is that part of the payment we make includes service,” Shaw said. “Our products are all Kyocera, and we have been instructed that that is who we need to call for service, parts and toner. However, I don’t think Kyocera is going to give us all of that free of charge.”

Moore said the vast majority of the company’s lease contracts didn’t include service, but Crane Schools would have to renegotiate a service arrangement with a Kyocera dealer. As for Runway Pets, Moore said on Nov. 20 the check was in the mail and they were honoring that buyout. A copy of the agreement faxed to Springfield Business Journal indicates Office Concepts agreed to pay her $1,575 balance with Corporate Business Systems.

Other clients said they had no complaints with Office Concepts’ service.

Missouri Sports Hall of Fame President and Executive Director Jerald Andrews said his company had been a customer for nearly two decades.

“We had a contract related to some (information technology) support, and then they provided us with some service and supplies for copy machines,” Andrews said, noting the organization’s copier lease-purchase agreements would continue with a third-party lender.

The hall will have to secure another service provider.

“We have not chosen anyone at this time. We had multiple calls,” Andrews said, adding he’s not seeking IT service help. “We’re very saddened by it. We had done work with them for 18 years.”

Moore said competition is fierce, with notable companies such as Pearson-Kelly Office Products, Corporate Business Systems and Layer 3 Technology dotting the landscape. Big contracts the company used to secure with school districts, for example, dried up in recent years.

Family Pharmacy Inc. Vice President Mandy Jones said the company had been an Office Concepts client for as long as she could remember. She said the company had leased up to 30 copiers, but those had all been paid off, so Family Pharmacy wasn’t left in a bind. Monthly service contracts were in effect when the company closed, however.

“They were always great to us. We hate to lose them,” Jones said. “Since we have our own IT staff, they are filling in the gaps and then we are talking to different people to see who we might want to use.”

After the close
The closure does mean a bump in business for competitor Corporate Business Systems, said President and CEO Tyson Johns.

“We have had several customers, formerly with Office Concepts, call us for immediate and long-term needs,” Johns said by email. “I hated to hear Steve was closing and I wish his entire family the very best, and I am very thankful for his recommendation to his longtime loyal customer base to move to CBS going forward.”

Steve Moore said he and his wife, Shanda, a longtime office manager, could pursue bankruptcy. They are currently going through bankruptcy classes with Springfield attorney David Schroeder.

In 2010, company revenues were around $3 million and Office Concepts had 19 employees. Moore said 2014 revenues were well under $2 million, and his wife said the business had been on life support ever since the front-office fire caused insurance premiums to climb to over $4,000 per month.

“We had a good 25-year run,” Shanda Moore said, sitting in the now empty office with bare walls.

The couple’s son, Joshua, who’s pictured on the company’s box truck as president, left three years ago to take a job with Prime Inc. Joshua Moore still owns a stake in the office building through Moore Holdings LLC. The Moores said they would discuss whether they wanted to lease or sell the building.

“There’s no road map to follow,” Steve Moore said. “He was our exit strategy.”