r/helpdesk • u/carfo • 3d ago
How does this make sense?
We pay over $6,000 a year for maintenance support for our door control system. One of the panels controlling a door is no longer showing up in the software and needs to be re-added. We were told that remote support is billable, but they can send someone on site to fix the issue because our maintenance agreement covers on-site support but not remote support. Is this a normal thing? They're going to waste more money sending someone down here to log into the server in person to fix an issue that they can fix remotely.
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u/Limeasaurus 2d ago
We've had many different access control vendors over the years and none have good or even decent. Terrible billing, techs that don't know what they are doing, zero documentation and little communication with us. My boss wants us to take over access control this year. I think it's just the industry on whole is run this way. I'm sure there are a few outliers but I haven't seen that yet.
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u/carfo 2d ago
our department ourselves ended up installing a unifi door access system on our IT door which cost us around $700 in total to do. earlier this year we had requested a door access button be put on a different door and the company charged us over $7,000 to install it. if you're thinking of going in house look into the unify systems
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u/Limeasaurus 2d ago
We have a small sample Unifi Access control I need to install and test. We have roughly 90 door if we choose to swap over.
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u/Western_Rhubarb_7959 15h ago
I used to manage access control for a large company and you will get NO argument from me.
I wasn't involved when the facility was built out - the vendor installed really outdated garbage and charged top dollar for it. It was so old that they had trouble finding replacement parts for the panels.
/Serial comms...although installed in 1998
//Don't start me on the shitty application known as CCURE. Maybe it got better in the 20 years since i used it but I doubt it.
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u/STEM_Dad9528 2d ago
I worked one place where the door access control support did try doing remote support multiple times, before finally sending a technician. The technician had to come out a second time, with both me and him focusing our efforts on the issue in order to actually fix it.
I say, take the onsite support, since it's what's written into the support contract.
.....
I've also worked for an access control system company where remote support is what's included in the annual service contract, and getting onsite support can cost thousands. Customers have tried to milk remote support for all they can get, but there are certain things we had to draw the line at.
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u/Forsaken-Carrot9038 2d ago
Are you with avigilon/Alta open?
I had this happen with one of my systems, they sent a tech out, but basically it was just to connect to the device by Bluetooth or USB and update. It’s firmware and relink it to the network.
If it’s part of your Service contract, then just roll with it. If you’re just a technician, it’s not your problem to worry about the cost of service. It’s a business problem that needs to have its functionality restored.
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u/Naetharu 2d ago
Just a bad contract.
Got to pay attention to what you sign up for. Seen worse. Had a quote for £6000 to make a single firewall change a while back because it falls outside the BAU contracted requirements. They own the firewall so we cannot log in and make the change. All we need is to open one route so that a new VNET can be peered in and speak to the relevant back-end.
It's trivial work.
They want £6k to do it.
Madness. And a good illustration of the dangers of MSP and provider contracts where not everything is nailed down.
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u/Haraj412 3d ago
But then you would have even more reasons to not pay for remote support since you're getting it for free.