I’ve seen enough contracts from IT companies previously used by clients to know that people get ripped off all the time, so I simply want to give you the ability to ask some the important question…
Is my IT Guy ripping me off?
I often use car mechanic comparisons when trying to explain our industry to people who have a vague grasp of what exactly I mean when I refer to IT Consulting Services.
A computer, much like a car, requires maintenance, experienced hands and an understanding that some dodgy “professionals” can leverage your ignorance to their financial benefit.
How do I.T. people typically rip off their trusting clients (and how can I avoid this)?
It’s simple, they create huge markups on hardware/software and then grossly exaggerate labor costs and how much time it takes for them to do their work
LME Services is a small but high-level IT Services company based out of the suburbs of Chicago, so unless you’re located within 30 miles of me, we are likely not going to support your business.
I’ve been an IT professional for 15 years (I’m 36), and my father (the owner) was a manager at IBM and opened LME over 25 years ago.
Check out all of our blog posts, read our reviews and view our traffic statistics on our SEO page and you’ll see that our focus is on educating and informing, not self-promotion and thinly veiled sales pitches
So, how does Joe from LME, discern if my I.T. guy is ripping me off?
The Process is Simple:
- You tell me the situation (wants to sell me a new computer, says I have to get expensive software, recommends expensive services, etc.)
- You send me any relevant details about your scenario that your comfortable providing (computer model, which software, office size, quotes, invoices, workflow needs, etc.)
- Send any communication between the two parties that can better shed light on the process by which we got to this point
and then
I tell you that what they are proposing/saying seems valid
OR
I tell you that what they are proposing/saying seems fishy
Helping a small business while sticking it to some scummy IT guys seems like fun to me so go ahead and reach out and see if your IT guy is screwing you over.
If you don’t think this is of value, just check out this ‘Proposal’ that was sent to a company in Pennsylvania
- 1 Mid-Level Active Directory Server for some data and QuickBooks
- Copy of data from the old server to the new server
- 8 i5 computers with monitors
- Setup Office and new profiles and join to the new domain
- New firewall
See the below quote (with names removed) and the absolute madness that this ‘professional’ was quoting
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That’s right, 60 HOURS FOR A SERVER INSTALL and $250 JUST TO UNBOX A MACHINE along with 4 HOURS to install MICROSOFT OFFICE AND COPY OVER SOME FILES!!! It costs more to set up the machine than the machine costs… so awful.
This project should take a couple of days, as it would take a couple of hours per machine, 5-20 hours for the server setup and data move, and then some labor built-in to cover issues and the unforeseen.
I could see this being quoted (which the hardware and labor) anywhere from 25K-35K, 40K TOPS (in the case there are factors that I’m not aware of)…
- Server – 7-10K with 10-30 hours of labor
- Firewall – 1-3K with 1-5 hours of labor
- 8 Desktops – 500-1K with 1-3 hours per computer
He was going to charge over $55,000 for a server, firewall and a handful of computer setups.
Don’t let this happen to you
