UPDATE: Bosses are about to learn the hard way what some MSPs are really like.

Original post here: [Bosses are about to learn the hard way what some MSPs are really like](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1i7ndbl/bosses_are_about_to_learn_the_hard_way_what_some/) TLDR for original post: SMB nonprofit, bosses hired an MSP that overpromised what they could deliver on. From what they could support, to discounts we could get through them, to level of knowledge, it was clear to me that they were exaggerating or overselling. The salesmen was a smooth talker though and my bosses emphatically signed up. Update: To the surprise of no one on r/sysadmin, what the MSP promised they could do and what they actually could/would do was different. Some of the things we ran into just in the last few months: * They replaced our Cisco firewalls with Sonicwalls; the CEO okayed this without consulting me. Despite having since February to figure out the configuration, the MSP employees still haven't figured out how to copy the OSPF routing on the S2S VPN from the Cisco firewall to the Sonicwall. As a result, we're still running off the Ciscos, despite installing the Sonicwalls over a month ago. * They refuse to support any equipment that isn't Unifi or Sonicwall. Part of the contract was they would support our existing equipment; however, if we purchase/replace equipment, they refuse to support it unless its one of the aforementioned brands. This led to an uncomfortable situation where my leadership wanted a conference call where the MSP and I debated our points. They want to eventually replace all of our networking equipment with Unifi products; I'm mostly fine with this (we are an SMB after all), but insisted our core switch be Cisco. Reading the room that the C Suite only cared about price, I acquiesced. * MSP convinced the execs to cancel our Veeam subscription (\~$800/year) and instead sign up for a multi-year Datto subscription that is $1400/month. * Their helpdesk only handles 1/3rd of the tickets they receive, kicking the rest to internal IT. I understand that they won't support our LoB software (which I've said since day one), but even simple tickets that involve M365 or Active Directory changes get kicked to us. * Their helpdesk will occasionally not see or respond to tickets for hours or even days. * We had an issue with a server running very sluggishly and taking over an hour to restart. This server wasn't critical and it was the eve of a holiday weekend for our business, so I filed a ticket asking them to troubleshoot the server over the weekend and giving permission to restore from backup if needed. We would be closed so they didn't need to worry about causing business interruptions. Instead, I returned Monday morning to see they had responded to my initial email hours later, asking if I wanted them to monitor the server over the weekend /facepalm I'm well aware that the business model of most MSPs is to make their clients dependent on them and increase the difficulty in moving away. I warned our executives of this and that we are not getting $10k worth of value from them every month. I made the point that the only thing the MSP has done well is convince us to spend more money; that the company pays the MSP more than me and the internal helpdesk guy combined. I'm not an emotional person so I laid this out as factually as I could; I didn't want them to think this was coming from a place of professional jealously. We had terminated our agreement with another MSP that was a much better fit for us on several levels to partner with these guys who have done barely anything and cost a fortune. I may as well have said nothing at all for all that my advice was heeded. Not much has changed in my role, except that the execs always ask me if I've consulted with the MSP (if they agree) if I need to buy something. Every other employee is suffering through slower ticket responses and more budgetary constraints so we can afford this MSP. The MSP is there in case something happens to me, the business is (theoretically) covered when it comes to IT. Which is good because I got a job offer this week. I plan to turn in my resignation on Monday. I'm not sure what the company will do. I managed the entire infrastructure and the helpdesk guy has told me repeatedly that he isn't looking to learn more or take over for me. The MSP doesn't manage Linux servers, which is where our logging systems and SIEM are setup. But none of that's my problem now. Thanks to everyone for the advice on the first post and for reading. I'm really excited for this new chapter in my life.