SNIP FROM LARRY MEDINA:

On Aug 3, 2005, at 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> This is why it would be important for anyone, especially a
> municipality, to perform
> a site inspection and consider having a fire engineer or risk manager
> review
> the facility before entering into an agreement. Naturally, the contract
> should also be reviewed by an attorney, or someone who is responsible
> for
> the financial obligations of the organization.

We keep having this discussion, and the value added of using a offsite
storage company will always be there and justifying it is not hard to
do.  But for those who stay on the Listserv long enough, we see the
companion post a few years later, where we hear about poor service,
onerous contracts, mergers that sent you from a reliable vendor to one
that continually abuses you and, of course, the hostage fees that lock
your feet in cement.

A records manager's time is better spent reading contracts and
modifying vendor contracts. Next step visit the records storage center
with digital camera in hand. Create a photo file of what the records
center looks like at this moment in time and document problem areas
that need resolution.  When you visit for your annual audit, you can
show the problem areas that were promised to be corrected. Add a
paragraph that states that any change of facility may be grounds for
termination of the contract.

Add another paragraph about performance benchmarks that set the
acceptable level of service.  Any repeated failures in service level
are grounds for termination of the contract.

Add a paragraph that states the pricing levels and type and include a
sample invoice with all potential billing categories.   When "fuel
surcharges", and "administrative fees" and "wanding fees" and "slotting
fees" show up unannounced, and with no merit under the contract, you
have the right to change vendors.  If the invoice of this year looks
different from last year, then odds are you are being charged for
things that were not allowed under the contract.

If you sign a three year contract, then at the end of the contract,
removing boxes shouldn't cost anymore than a day to day delivery.  Your
contract is at an end and staying is a perogative of continued good
service.  Each of you has fulfilled your agreements.  Why should anyone
hit you with a removal penalty?

You need to point all this out to a purchasing agent or the lawyer
reviewing the contract and make sure you have protection in the
contract.  This is really the only guarantee of quality service in the
long run.  Giving up your ability to change vendors, in the event of
massive price increases or drastically reduced service will erode the
quality of your records management program.

Here is an example of how spending time on the contract now will
benefit you in the future.

Company A provide years of personal, high quality offsite storage. When
the RM needed records, the vendor A always treated them like a first
class customer.  But as happens, company A sold out to company B.
Immediately the monthly fees skyrocket.  In the contract of A, it
states that a normal delivery is: call in the morning and the delivery
will be there by close of business.  Company B has their normal
delivery as 48 hours from order, a delivery the next day is a rush
order and the fee doubles, a delivery the same day is an emergency rush
and is 4 times the standard delivery.  So the RM's delivery fees
increased by a factor of four times for the same level of service.  Had
they benchmarked service and pricing this would not have happened.

Like the shell game, quit watching the box price and define the total
cost.  Which would you rather have:
1) 25¢ per box, $12.00 normal delivery fee within 24 hours, or;
2) 15¢ per box, $10.00 delivery fee for 48 hours, $25.00 within 24
hours, admin fee of 10¢ per box, wanding fee 5¢ per box, fuel surcharge
$2.00 per delivery, monthly inventory fee 5¢ per box.

If the choice is so simple, why are so many people ending up with the
second option.  If you start reading the total contract, you will
benefit greatly in the long run and keep your dignity.



Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM

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