Ikon sucks

[Anonymous]

If you can't get into Xerox than IKON, CANON, KONICA, ect are your second best bets....get Xerox and get into Medical sales....go from there!

Peace and love!

[Anonymous]

IKON doesn't suck!

Why would you say this? Have you had a bad experience?

The Xerox presence is almost non-existent in my area and even in my state (i.e. IKON has the majority of the market share).
I would never go to Canon and Konica is at best, fourth-rate.
Canon reps sell off their brand (just like Xerox)- that's a crap job.

[Anonymous]

Um IKON does suck but does have some advantages like being a fertile recruiting ground to further your sales career. After Ricoh bought out IKON they said as much saying that the leadership at IKON was terrible but that their contacts, sales force, and software available was the reason for the purchase.

[Anonymous]

IKON doesn't suck!

Why would you say this? Have you had a bad experience?

The Xerox presence is almost non-existent in my area and even in my state (i.e. IKON has the majority of the market share).
I would never go to Canon and Konica is at best, fourth-rate.
Canon reps sell off their brand (just like Xerox)- that's a crap job.

********

Well the IKON tech support most certainly does suck. We have been trying to get what would seem to be a simple copier problem fixed for over 4 months now!! Ikon has been out 5 times in the past week, sending out 4 different technicians, one technician fixed one half of the problem, but didn't share the solution with the other ikon techs, nor with our IT department, so now only 1 computer out of 15 can actually scan or print to the copier! I have personally called Ikon 7 times today, have not received a single return phone call, I can assure you, the customer service / tech support SUCKS!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

This company does suck!!! This bullshit mentality by management that they don't have an impact on my income I do is wrong. Meetings, conference calls, required being in the office every day is wasted time. It's no wonder that good reps are constantly "cherry picked" form this company let alone from this industry. If reps were treated with a modicum of respect, they would probably stay longer.

[I knew one name]

This company does suck!!! This bullshit mentality by management that they don't have an impact on my income I do is wrong. Meetings, conference calls, required being in the office every day is wasted time. It's no wonder that good reps are constantly "cherry picked" form this company let alone from this industry. If reps were treated with a modicum of respect, they would probably stay longer.

I was recruited out of Ikon into Stryker...and there were many others in our office that did the same. If you can earn Presidents club at Ikon...you can do anything.

[Anonymous]

I work at an IKON office in the South East and my story is as such...

Management is more concerned with meetings and statistics than getting a real sales plan together. I have been in HR meetings where my contemporaries have refered to IKON as "corrupt, systemically broken, and a joke". I have a hostile, non user, recently lost, and indiscretely anti-IKON account list and my managment is individually named by former customers as the cause. I have 10-20% MIF and I am an MAE selling to 1-3 unit accounts. My base salary was factored as a MIF/non user commission plan that was a OUT RIGHT LIE. I should have at least 3K in MIF commissions and have 0 to date. My territory is in fragments being worked by anyone who swindled accounts out of it and I have basically stopped going to work, I dont care anymore!

IKON is focused on getting customers but has no ability to keep them happy. In my assignment there are a plethora or users that refuse to speak with me. Former employees are in competitive positions and have let the cat out of the bag with clients. It is a real mess. They cannot take care of their existing customers and thought I would introduce them to mine. Laughable...

There is no hope for IKON; they will be absorbed into Ricoh soon. Ricoh is just as bad. Get out of this business if you can. I am going to do my own thing with supplies as soon as I can. There are good people there but the culture is morally bankrupt and any business book will tell you that this model is already dated and failed. Meeting and report intensive businesses are booby traps for the ambitious person like me. Stay too long and you become a booby.

[Anonymous]

I worked at an office in the Northeast. All was good until the so called Comdoc Initiative started. We treat he reps like 10 year old children and the hiring process was backwards. You must give a professional sales rep trust to do their jobs or they will not perform. Ikon has a cadence that is strict and does not allow for reps to succeed. They are focused on activity instead of results.

[Anonymous]

IKON will always suck until they get this bs management turned around. Xerox (not agency) is the way to go. They pay.

[Anonymous]

Ikon is like a harmonica player; sometimes it sucks and sometimes it blows.

Its like some whiz kid decided that IKON could be managed with a dashboard. So they set out to gather all the information. The sales folks are always in the office filling out forms or sitting on conference calls. They talk the talk but when push comes to shove the management will do anything to make a sale. There management team in the southeast is corrupt. At the end of the sales quarter if they havent made thier numbers they take thier share out of the pockets of the employees. Its doomed unless Ricoh can turn it around. But it looks like Ricoh has the same problems.

[Ikon Blow]

I agree, most of the good employees in Ikon leave for other companies. Ikon overworks them and pays them shit money, so they get fed up and leave for better paying jobs. Most of the employees in Ikon, are: Students (who don't plan on staying with the company) old folks who have never used a computer before, and people who can't even speak english. Try explaining instructions to someone who has no idea what you're saying. Welcome to Ikon, How can I help you?

[RICOH + IKON =SHIT]

Ikon is doomed, that is no big surprise. Ricoh took them over, but guess what? Ricoh can't make a photocopier worth a damn. Such crummy equipment. I would rather work on a copier that had the name, "Fisher Price" on it than a Ricoh copier. Ikon has shitty employees and mix that in with shitty Ricoh equipment and what you get is a beautiful train wreck, which I am more than happy to watch. The bigger morons bought the smaller morons but it the end you still get the same result. Do the math: RICOH + IKON will always =SHIT

[businessguy94]

LOL!!! You are so right, right on the money!

[Anonymous]

My story, from a recently ex-Ikon slave...

A) Yes, they pay their employees shit money. There was an 'across the board' pay freeze from 2007-2010. Finally got wage increases this fall... 2%. Yeah, how's the upper management doing? Bastards.

B) They don't want to bill any overtime. While this may be a financially sound idea short term, long term it has an effect on the employees and the work they do for their customers.

C) We are literally driven like slaves on just above minimum wage pay. Management is over promising and under delivering. It should be the opposite.

D) I have insider information about at least two Ikon managed sites that would get their contracts cancelled if their clients knew about them. Upper management / sales is crooked, messes with billing numbers and tells their employees different versions of the same information. If you're not a brown nose fake ass there's no way to rise in the company AT ALL.

I am SO HAPPY to be freed of that them, in this job market you take what you can get, but good lord. What a bullshit company.

[Anonymous]

My story, from a recently ex-Ikon slave...

A) Yes, they pay their employees shit money. There was an 'across the board' pay freeze from 2007-2010. Finally got wage increases this fall... 2%. Yeah, how's the upper management doing? Bastards.

B) They don't want to bill any overtime. While this may be a financially sound idea short term, long term it has an effect on the employees and the work they do for their customers.

C) We are literally driven like slaves on just above minimum wage pay. Management is over promising and under delivering. It should be the opposite.

D) I have insider information about at least two Ikon managed sites that would get their contracts cancelled if their clients knew about them. Upper management / sales is crooked, messes with billing numbers and tells their employees different versions of the same information. If you're not a brown nose fake ass there's no way to rise in the company AT ALL.

I am SO HAPPY to be freed of that them, in this job market you take what you can get, but good lord. What a bullshit company.

A) False, there was an a couple of short freezes, one 18 mo the other 6mo. Not 4 years.
B) Like any company wanting to make money the will do OT if someone is paying for the service, can't just give it away.
C) Min wage is $8 where I am which works out to $16,640 per year. I dont know anyone making under 30k. You must have few job skills to be lower.
D) No use commenting on this garbage.

Overall, I am sure IKON is glad to be rid of you, another person unwilling to work hard and EARN advancement opportunities, Have a nice life.

[IN/KY/WV Sales]

After reading many of the very realistic reviews on here I think many will find all these bullet points very interesting about this company.
#1. IKON could easily be compared to Chuck Norris: they don't take bullshit from nobody, they give it.

#2. IKON is much like the federal government. Ton's of bureaucracy, ineffeciencies, and talking heads.

#3. If you make it to the third yearly kickoff meeting, literally less then 10% of the people you saw 2 years ago are still there.

#4. Day one will consist of working with some disgruntled AE who is tired of working there, they will tell you that you probably won't be around very long, and in the next month to year he/she will be gone along with everyone else.

#5. Training will consist of going to Houston, learning all of these great wonderful things about this company. Some big exciting motivational speeches from the very successful sales people. You will also have to go through Fastrac which is several training phone calls that nothing is retained in. There are no situational scenarios that make you learn the job. You virtually still start this sales job knowing very little about the product, how to create the paperwork, how to do anything. Your manager will say you should have learned that in training and the team will be annoyed by you asking for help since they see you as well as themselves being gone in a relatively short period of time.

#6. Your first Monday morning meeting you will be saying to yourself, "Holy SHit, is this the manager I interviewed with?" He/She has tons of attitude about how easy this job is, how much activity needs to be done, and how none of it is in his reports from a system 'OnTarget' that many still don't completely understand it's high complexity in comparision to other CSR systems. Over the duration of your tenure and overturn of managers, you will hear these same demoralizing meeting statements while feeling less motivated about doing your job for the rest of the week after this freaking sermon is over.

#7. Now you have either been given a territory that is either the shittiest at some distance away that the other tenured reps will tell you has had the most rotation with very few current accounts or you will be a net new rep. Now you are out banging doors trying to sell something you know very little about since all you have really had are motivational speeches for training. Maybe you will get lucky and find someone who needs a copier.

#8. You will be using your own car, cell phone, gas, and insurance partially subsidized by a monthly expense of $200 dollars which is taxed. So in reality you have $125 give or take for you gas, cell phone, most of the wear and tear on your vehicle, and insurance to cover for. Hmmm, I recall my manager really wanting me to have that smartphone ($100 a month or so) so could be getting all those wonderful distracting e-mails during the day as well as those from our Area Director of Sales and all of the other e-mails from the whole company. So go figure, you are already now digging into your own salary to work for them and hope that your commission will make up for that and then some more. That is if you get a sale anytime soon.

#9. Now you are out basically cold calling all day trying to find some business. In two weeks your manager and area director of sales are calling you wanting to know what the hell you are doing since they are not seeing your activity #'s on a system you have virtually been famaliarized with but never really trained on. You are running into companies who hate IKON and will never deal with IKON again. You are the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th copier salesmen they have seen in the door this week. The pressure is on to identify that copier they have so you can add that as a future opportunity in IKON's complex system.

#10. Oh after a month or two, you are gonna go on this nice survivors retreat at the Indianapolis office. They literally keep this room decorated for the incoming people that they seem to be hiring all the time. It's this cheapy looking jungle theme. In this room they will have this old decreped Area Vice President with a table of all the other people who are well on their way to his accelerated decrepedness sitting to speak with you about your wonderful choice of career all day with a nice box lunch from Panera. They will take you out to a nice dinner at the Weber Grill. They will also give you that nice genuine leather IKON leather binder. They are gonna sweep you off your freaking feet let me tell you!!!!

#11. Oh my gosh, now you have made your first sale after beating down hundreds of doors. You now realize that you are not gonna get paid shit for it since you screwed up on pricing or your manager priced it so rediculously cheap for you to get the deal. Now your a little bit excited since your manager made a big team wide e-mail congratulating you on your first deal, your Area Directore of Sales is replying with a big complementing statement, and the AVP is writing you an e-mail too and the next meeting you get this really nice clear polymer award etched with your name congratulating you.

#12. Now it has been six months that you have been here if you are still here and you have already had thoughts of leaving. You may now possibly be on your second manager and 25-50% of your team has left. Now their replacements are coming out of training knowing just as much as you did and are now aggravating your for your help since your superiors won't give or don't know how. Now there are even more frustations creeping up and you are starting to feel like you may know a little bit about what your doing.
#13. Note that at this time there are still people working in your office that you have not met yet. This is due mainly to the high rate of rotation that the Indy/KY region experiences. These people are still living the good ole IKON days from when it was a better place to work and they were promoted to the higher strategic roles. Don't be offended they just don't really feel that compelled to meet you unless they have seen you in the office for around one year or more.

#14. Now we have past the first six months and it seems that since you have been here at least once every 2 weeks to a month there is some stupid reason you have to come back into the office for training on some software or product training that rarely ever gets sold. It almost seems like it kills your whole day being in the field trying to sell. Then your manager or his boss hops in with some big speech about how this is the only way they would be selling their deals if it were them and all the money you could make off of this. Yet no one wants this stuff, it does not sell, know one really understands its purpose, and history then repeats itself. Then almost immediately afterwards your manager wants to have another meeting for another hour about how we are not doing something that his boss or boss's boss chewed him out for earlier today. Although usually not directly said you can read it right through them.

#15. Now your holy upper management team has decided as a region there is not enough activity in the system. Now we need to have team blitz's on a certain day, and another day or half day dedicated to phone calling in the office while they watch over your shoulder and even shout "I don't see you on the phone" According to how long you last this will phase in and out. Your manager or his boss might get whiny and decide to reduce this to daily and/or weekly team phone calls where everyone gets humiliated in the presence of their peers on the call. Either way there will always be some form of constant harassment or embarrassment by upper management or formed by upper management.

#16. It is now nearing close to a year since you started working at IKON and you are now wondering what in the hell is wrong with me. You now have made it to the point that you actually have a territory or some more accounts or management has decided to divide the territories up that have never made sense into new territories that still make no sense. They are probably at the same time taking other accounts away from you too which is making you feel a bit WTF???? Now the real fun is kicking in. Some of these clients now know you as the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th rep and maybe even beyond that since signing the original contract. They are having major billing issues and no one at IKON can seem to get that taken care of over the phone. You want to be the hero since their contract is coming up and you want to get that next deal. You go to your manager and everyone else to put that "sense of urgency' in. Another 2 months pass and you learn nothing has been done to take care of this so you have to fight again. Now the client has decided to open their next contract up to other bids. Now you really have to fight to get the deal and now you have to give it away to get the deal while barely get paid for all of your previous efforts.

#17. It Gets even better. You have been here for a year or more and its a new Fiscal Year. Wow, that new comp plan has gone down but wow do they really try to hype it up like you can make even more money and all the opportunities are out there for it. This happens every year and I experience three in a row.

[IN/KY/WV Sales]

After reading many of the very realistic reviews on here I think many will find all these bullet points very interesting about this company.
#18. Now its time for the Kick Off. Now this I will admit can usually be good. One year was a bit weak. Once year in the Colt's Stadium main suite. Another year at the Bellaterra Casino with lots of alcohol and in my case sex!!!! I banged this one hot broad from Evansville (that manager hired the hottest women) and was totally bummed not to see her around the next year. Sorry I know this has no relevenace but the Kick Off might have really been the only fun I had at IKON. However the speeches do get old as they are the same damn thing every time: More Sales, Better Retention (which I think progressively got worse), and the same old fart old school AVP who is probably ten years younger then he looks and just had a heart attack handing out all the awards.

#20. OK if you have not figured it by now. Your boss's mood will be according to how hard he got it on this morning's call from his boss or his boss. This was consistent amongst all five managers that I worked under during my tenure.

#21. I really don't care if they figure out who I am writing this. I would never use them as a reference and all my references are now gone from this company.

#22. Now you are beyond that year mark. You and those reps well who have been working with you for a while very well and those who have been around a while and just left for another industry. You now have an anti-IKON group with a very tight bond. You are now either wanting to make it there a little bit longer because you know a rep will soon quit and you are going to get their business until your boss screws you too or you are learning what industry they went in. You know one thing for sure, everyone is much happier once they leave IKON immediately and for as long out as I know so far that this is in fact the worst job they have ever had. This is your best networking group for exiting this hell hole.

#23. I decided that after over two years of ups and downs, new bosses all the time, constant turnover, territories being messed with non-stop, and getting chewed out by two-three levels of bosses(even right after huge recognitions and big deals were signed) when I was in at 7:30 or earlier and out twelve or more hours later, working on my computer on Sundays to bullshit the system to satisfactory levels it was time to go,

#24. I myself decided that I would not jump ship on the first offer and chose to interview for a while. It is a wow factor of why employers like to hire people from IKON. I just sold the minimum to get by and totally quit caring.

#25. I even developed my own policy that for everyday a boss was negative to me in front of peers that I would secretly take that day off because in all honesty I wouldn't be in the mood to sale afterwards.

#26 At this point (two and a half years) I am only working with 2 of the original people I started working here with. I counted how many people have quite, came, and gone since being here and still think of more after I count.

#27 There for a while it seemed like I had to do a ride day with a potential new rep like everyweek giving whatever manager I was working with at that time my true honest opinion. I figured if they could talk, hire em!!!!

#28. Some of the Upper Management would send e-mails at the weirdest times. 3 in the morning on Sunday or 11 PM Friday night. Come on now, this is preposterous!

#29. I found it very odd that all of the executives above the AVP exept for some of Ricoh Japanese all had Italian last names. Is that a requirement for that level?

#30. Never and I repeat never trust HR in this region. They are about as scum of the earth as the upper management.

#31. The old school upper management does expect you to wear a freaking suit and tie everywhere you go. Get with the times please!!!! I broke this rule about 99% of the time and never had a problem. I wore it to meetings and on ride days when I had my boss with me. I would also be courteous to my clients and fore warn them in advance if my manager would be with me. Seemed to be a good move as some could be overly arrogant with my clients.

#32 Even after hitting qouta many times I never made as much as management told my I would make on that initial interview. Watch your commissions hard as you will have to fight to get paid.

#33. After almost three years that I can never get back, a new career with better pay and benefits, no more micro management, and splendid people I am working for, I am the happiest person alive!!!! Life after IKON is always better!!!! Ask anyone who has left there. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was the day I left and how grateful I am to no longer be a part of this region that needs a very good overhaul.

#34. Now some time has past and you wonder why do I still check this blog. To tell you the truth I find it amazing that IKON continues to be the same train wreck. I am in another sales career with a way better work environment, extremely better pay, a realistic qouta system, a territory that does actually make sense, a boss that is not a micro manager, my expenses are actually covered, I don't hear the same bullshit every weekly meeting, I am tremendously more motivated to go to work, and my whole network from there still gets together for a drink or dinner occasionally while laughing at these past experiences.

#35. I still have previous clients calling me needing help and now I don't know what to tell them except call the corporate number since there is none of my original party left. This only tells me that the newer predecessors could probably care even less then I did.

#36. Now is the big question that has never been answered. Why does IKON/Ricoh continue to let this happen? Why do they let themselves become even more of a bigger joke in the minds of their competitors and clients?

I do believe this experience is very accurate and of the same opinion of many that I have worked with. If you are looking to escape, I promise there is tons of light at the end of the tunnel. If you are thinking of working here, take advantage of the training and B@B, try to make it at least one year and get out. Many companies value former IKON employees here for various reasons and in my case I do believe it was for sure a character building experience.

[Anonymous]

C) Min wage is $8 where I am which works out to $16,640 per year. I dont know anyone making under 30k. You must have few job skills to be lower.


Actually I make well under 30k and I have a Bachelors degree. I left a better paying job for the promise of opportunity within IKON, and so far it has not presented itself... if you don't count the "lateral move" that should have been considered a promotion, but who am I - just the person that does the job. I give 100% every day, but that is becoming harder and harder. I work with people that I wonder how they graduated from high school - and IKON seems perfectly content to keep hiring people like that.

In summary, I am overworked and severely underpaid and will drink myself silly in celebration when I leave IKON.

[Anonymous]

I am at a site that has had five site managers in as many years. Was sold this was a move up. What a joke, I make around,less than 30k with a BA from college. No support from management and feel like a floor mat. I found out the hard way why there is high turnover.