We supply machines, so we see the aftermath of purchases made elsewhere as often as our own. The patterns repeat, and every one of them is avoidable at zero cost before payment.
1. Buying on the demo
A demonstration shows you a machine working, in ideal conditions, operated by someone who uses it every day. It tells you nothing about consumable cost, warranty scope, or who fixes it in month seven.
Watch the demo. Then ask for the paperwork. If the paperwork is thinner than the demo was impressive, that gap is what you would be buying.
2. Comparing quotations that are not comparable
Two machines, two prices, one obvious winner — except one includes five cartridges and the other two, and the cheaper one has no body cartridges at all. Price the missing items at the supplier's own written prices and the ranking often inverts. More on what drives price.
3. Treating the machine price as the cost
Consumables, service, freight, training, retraining and downtime are all real and all predictable in advance. The clinics that end up unhappy with a machine are usually not unhappy with the machine — they are unhappy with a total cost nobody laid out for them. The three-year method.
4. Letting one person be the whole service
If one staff member is the only person who can run the machine, you have bought a single point of failure. When they go on leave the service stops; when they leave, it stops until you have retrained someone.
Train two people from the start and write down your own protocol. It costs almost nothing at purchase time and is expensive to retrofit. More on training and readiness.
5. Planning a launch around an unconfirmed dispatch date
Advertising a new service, or taking bookings, before delivery is confirmed in writing. When the machine is a week late, the cost is not the week — it is the clients you disappointed in the first week of a new service.
Get the dispatch commitment in writing, confirm the item is actually in stock, and build in slack before you announce anything. If a machine is out of stock, ask for a lead time in writing rather than an estimate on a call.
The pattern underneath all five
Each one is the same error: doing the pleasant part of the purchase first. The demo, the brochure and the payback estimate are all pleasant. The cartridge price, the warranty exclusions and the repair logistics are not, which is exactly why they get deferred — and why they are what actually determines whether you are happy in a year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it wrong to buy the cheapest machine?
Not at all, once you know what the cheaper price is buying you less of. The mistake is not choosing cheap - it is not knowing which specification the discount came out of.
What is the single most useful thing to do before buying?
Get the cartridge replacement prices in writing. It is one question, and it changes the arithmetic of the entire purchase.