Transitioning away from an MSP. Tips?
What tips do you have when transitioning away from an MSP? I have been with the company for 6 years and at first it was kind of nice to have them to assist me, they have lost all of their good techs and their service has dropped drastically.
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Long story below, doesn't necessarily need to be read.
One of the things they "manage" is our Cisco wireless equipment. They won't give me access to the controller due to it being part of their Managed Services. But on Tuesday November 15th, our wifi in the main office dropped. We only have one AP in this office as most employees are in different buildings on campus. Since this is part of their managed equipment I am supposed to have them do any service calls for it so I placed a ticket at 10:31 AM. I got a prompt reply stating that they needed to "install a TFTP server to update the controller software" and said Friday was the soonest they could be out. I told them that would be fine and waited for Friday. Friday morning rolls around and a tech shows up, spends about 5 minutes plugged into the controller, and tells me "alright man, you're good to go. I just rebooted the AP from the controller and it is back online. I need to update the software still but I will do that from my office. You might notice it drop for a minute or two during the flash but then it will be fine." I was in the middle of some stuff, but about 45 minutes later I realize I still don't see our SSID. I sit down at my desk and check Outlook and have an email stating that "after onsite evaluation, TECH has determined the Cisco AP needs to be replaced. We happen to have a brand new one in stock. The price would be $569.38. Please let me know if you would like to move forward with us installing this replacement device for you." I told them "sounds good! Let's do it." at 11:38 AM. A couple of hours later I get an email saying they can have TECH on site Monday to install the replacement. Around 4:45 PM I get a call that the wifi in our warehouse is gone. OOPS. 30 dead APs. Our whole inventory management system runs on hand held Zebra scanners. Try to call MSP, no answer. At this point it is after 5 PM and I assume they are gone for the day. YAY. Angry warehouse employees for the whole night shift and all of Saturday. Great weekend. I email them Friday evening and tell them that I believe the update might have caused a problem with the controller and that we were completely down. Monday Morning after 10 AM they reply telling me "TECH is looking into this and will be onsite this afternoon to install the replacement." 'THIS AFTERNOON' begins to get real close to 'THIS EVENING' and I email at 4:05 PM to ask if there is an update on the ticket. Reply at 4:43 PM explaining that the firmware on all of our APs was too old for the update so he had to manually push the firmware to each AP. Still no wifi in office. Tuesday TECH arrives around 9 AM and says he will put the new AP in and be out of here. Around noon he says that he is almost done but just needs to change it from "AP MODE TO LITE MODE" and it will begin broadcasting. Around 2 PM I notice we have no wifi and his van is gone. I assumed he might have had to run back to their office so I leave it alone, plus we were having an office Thanksgiving party so I wasn't concerned with productivity. Wednesday I have no email, no call, nothing. I wait until around noon and reply to the ticket asking for an update. No reply. Wednesday nobody was really in the office but I came in to work on a few things. Reply to ticket asking for an update and get no reply. I leave and eat turkey. Waited around all week because at this point I want to see how long before they call me, and I put a spare Unifi AP in that I had at home. Friday the 2nd I decided to stop being the child and asked for an update. They tell me that the owner has been reviewing the console readings and that TECH will be onsite Tuesday to evaluate further. Shall see how tomorrow goes.
It is constantly stuff like this, they "manage" our firewall, they "manage" our email (but claim it is impossible to use our domain name with Office 365, that we HAVE to each have a separate onmicrosoft account if we want 365. I believe we are their only client even trying to test 365, they have fought me on it for years). They "manage" our Windows updates but they let connectwise automate push everything through day of.
I am to the point I am going to tell my boss it is me or them. A lot of it has to do with pride, everybody here is starting to think I am the lazy IT guy, or the dumb IT guy. I could hire a second person to help me if we cut this MSP, and things would actually get done. They have ownership convinced that they save us tons of money because they let connectwise automatically send an invoice with a discounted to zero balance for every task they do. Most of which fail to even actually run successfully. We got over 2,000 invoices that have discounted balances between $150-$500. So ownership and accounting thing they are saving tons of money by paying this MSP.
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Anyways, hopefully my boss chooses me. What tips do you have for transitioning away.