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The time I compared a flat-rate IT support retainer vs hourly billing for a 50-person firm in Cleveland
After 6 months of hourly billing they handed me a $12,000 invoice for printer jam troubleshooting alone, so I switched to a $3k monthly flat rate and suddenly they stopped calling about every little thing - has anyone else seen customers change their behavior with a different pricing model?
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nguyen.morgan1mo ago
Holy crap, twelve grand for printer jams? That's a whole new level of billing insanity. It sounds like they were treating you like a free on-call janitor for every paper misfeed. That flat rate swap really does flip the whole dynamic, huh.
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bennett.harper1mo ago
12,000 bucks for printer jams is insane, I feel for you. That flat rate move is genius because it makes the client actually think about whether the problem is worth a call. It's funny how the same people suddenly learn to reboot their own computer when they know they're paying for the time either way.
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the_terry1mo ago
The thing nobody mentions is how that 12k number actually means slow bleed. A hundred here, two hundred there, spread over months or a year. It's death by a thousand cuts, not one big invoice. That flat rate forces them to decide if ten minutes of their time is worth more than the call-out fee. They usually decide it's not.
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