Let’s talk about money. Very often as a consultant, customers approach me who want to take the least expensive route to purchase a product or a service. Very often it’s a good idea, but often the savings you realize on the front end are going to come back to haunt you on the back end. Perfect example, I have a customer who was sold long distance (switched) at .039 per minute in a .06 world. Sounds great doesn’t it? When they hired Turner to review their bills we discovered they were, in fact, being charged .039 per minute for every one minute call but they were actually charged in three minute increments. So, their incredibly great rate of .039 was actually .117 in a .06 world. The hidden billing was so deep in the invoice it was difficult to find if you didn’t know what to look for. Additionally, their PICC fees that should have been maybe .32 per line kept increasing each month until it was $7.95 per line.

In their defense they were sold a bill of goods and trusted their vendor’s great pricing. Then when they checked their bill, it looked right. When we first audited their bill it ran about $12,000 a month. Once we fixed it, their bill was lowered to about $3,500 a month. So, the moral of the story,

‘SOMETIMES THE MONEY YOU SAVE IS NOT WORTH THE PAIN, AGGRAVATION AND MONEY IT COSTS YOU IN THE LONG RUN.’

Advise:

1. Don’t automatically believe an incredible rate. Make sure you have an out in your contract should you discover you are being over billed.

2. Always check their rate for all those extra fees and charges and ‘get it in writing.’ Find out if they are going to bill you extra for administration costs recovery or to recover their cost of doing business in any way! I struggle constantly with companies that are promised one rate by a sales person and then never see that wonderful rate on their bill.

3. Don’t be afraid to add (to the contract your own requirements. Remember, your strength is before they actually have your business not after. If they won’t allow it, ask them for a signed addendum by an authorized representative of the company. If they won’t give you that, there are a lot of good vendors out there that want your business, shop around.

4. Often they will show you in their contract that if you don’t like their service you can leave ‘if they don’t try to fix the problem.’ Note the wording, almost everyone will try to fix the problem. That doesn’t mean they actually will fix it or can fix it. But the word ‘try’ will keep you in that contract. Often there is a 100% penalty for early termination…so read it carefully!

5. Sometimes you’ll find out that you only have one vendor to choose from and shopping around is not an option and they won’t allow you to alter your contract, then advise them your going to record the conversation and record their promises with their name and some verifying information like a birth date.

When in doubt, have a professional look over your contract and make sure you aren’t digging yourself a pit to fall in later.