3 Questions to Expose Hidden Costs in Your IT Contract

As a managed service provider ourselves, we know how an “all-inclusive fee” sounds as a marketing tool. You pay one fixed price per month, and the provider promises to handle your entire technology infrastructure. No surprises, no hidden spikes, just total peace of mind. Unfortunately, some providers use this “flat-fee” pricing as a Trojan horse, ushering you into a mess of a contract that includes exclusions and on-site upcharges that give you the exact opposite of a predictable budget.

If you’re in the market for an MSP, you want to make the most educated decision possible. Here’s how you can look at any potential provider’s incentive infrastructure to see if they are actually invested in your uptime or if they are more focused on nickel-and-diming you to oblivion.

The “Business Hours Only” Trap

One of the most common ways a cheap flat-fee contract will try to cut corners is by strictly defining when “all-inclusive” actually applies.

Sure, the contract might cover your support—but only between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. If your server crashes over the weekend or you suffer a cyberattack, you’ll get slapped by after-hours emergency rates that can range anywhere from $250 to $400 per hour.

When you speak to your potential provider, ask if your monthly flat fee includes 24/7/365 emergency response and remediation, and make sure nights and weekends are not billed as an out-of-scope surcharge.

The Hidden “On-Site” Upcharge

Many low-cost providers build their entire business model on remote-only support. They count on the fact that 80 percent of issues can be fixed over the phone or by a remote login.

When a physical switch dies, or a firewall needs to be re-cabled, or a laptop won’t turn on, a technician has to visit the office in person to address it. Under a predatory contract, on-site support might be explicitly excluded from the flat fee. The provider might try to upcharge you for travel time, mileage, and an hourly rate from the moment the technician steps out of their vehicle.

When going over the particulars of your contract, ask if on-site support is baked into that flat fee to prevent a surprise later on.

The “Project Fee” Pivot

You want your MSP to be a strategic partner that helps your business scale, but some providers treat basic lifecycle maintenance as an expensive project.

For example, you want to add a new user, replace a laptop, or migrate a standard file to a shared cloud-based drive. These should be part of normal operations, but a shady provider might try to declare these routine adjustments as major projects that require separate scoping fees and thousands of dollars in unbudgeted labor costs. One way to vet against this practice is asking what exactly constitutes a project under a contract.

Simple tasks like onboarding a new employee or setting up a standard workstation should be included in your flat rate.

Ultimately, the best way to evaluate any IT provider is asking, “How does this provider make more money?” If the provider profits off your misery and they make money when your technology breaks or an emergency triggers an out-of-scope clause, then you’re dealing with a predatory provider.

In a true managed service model, the provider profits off your stability. Since the fee is flat and genuinely all-inclusive, every minute they spend fixing an emergency or driving to your office costs them money. Their highest profit margin occurs when your network is running perfectly. That’s the sign of a provider that has your best interests at heart.

Want to see what working with the ideal MSP looks like? Give Eclipse IT, Inc. a call today at (619) 331-4008 to find out more.