Fifteen years. Four hundred deployments. And the same preventable problems keep showing up because businesses skip the hard questions during the sales process.
Every provider demo looks great. The sales rep is polished. The slide deck has all the right logos. Then you sign, deploy, and discover the things nobody mentioned.
Here are the 7 questions I now force every client to ask before they sign anything.
1. "What is your measured uptime over the past 12 months — not your SLA target?"
Every provider advertises 99.999% uptime. That is the SLA, not reality.
I track actual uptime for the providers my clients use. Here is what I have seen:
| Provider Category | SLA Promise | Actual Measured Uptime |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (large, established) | 99.999% | 99.97% - 99.999% |
| Tier 2 (mid-size) | 99.99% | 99.90% - 99.99% |
| Tier 3 (small, newer) | 99.99% | 99.5% - 99.95% |
| Resellers | 99.99% | 98% - 99.9% |
The gap between SLA and reality is where outages live. A provider claiming 99.999% but delivering 99.9% gives you 8.7 hours of downtime per year instead of 5 minutes.
Ask for their status page history. If they do not have a public status page, that tells you something.
2. "If I want to leave, how do I get my data out?"
This is the question providers hate. Ask it anyway.
Specifically ask:
- Can I export all call recordings? In what format?
- Can I export call detail records (CDRs)?
- Can I port my numbers out? What is the timeline?
- Is there an early termination fee?
- Will you provide a Letter of Authorization for number porting within 24 hours?
I have seen providers hold numbers hostage during porting. I have seen providers charge $5 per call recording to export. I have seen 90-day termination notice requirements buried in page 47 of the contract.
Read the exit clause before you sign the entry clause.
3. "Who owns the call recordings — us or you?"
This sounds like a simple question. It is not.
| Scenario | Who Owns Recordings | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Stored on provider's infrastructure | Usually provider | Provider goes bankrupt = recordings gone |
| Stored on your infrastructure | You | Your responsibility to secure them |
| Provider claims ownership in ToS | Provider | They can technically access your recordings |
For regulated industries (healthcare, financial, legal), you need recordings stored in YOUR cloud storage (S3, Azure Blob, GCS) with YOUR encryption keys. Not the provider's.
4. "What happens to calls in progress when you do maintenance?"
Planned maintenance is necessary. The question is how they handle it.
| Maintenance Approach | Impact on Calls |
|---|---|
| Active-active failover | Zero impact. Calls continue on second DC. |
| Active-passive failover | 5-30 second interruption. Calls may drop. |
| Maintenance window | All calls drop during window. |
If the answer is "we do maintenance between 2-4 AM Sunday," ask: "What about my team in Singapore that is working at 2 PM their time when it is 2 AM here?"
Global businesses need active-active architecture. There is no acceptable maintenance window when you have employees in multiple time zones.
5. "Can I talk to three current customers in my industry and size?"
Not case studies. Not testimonials on the website. Actual customers I can call.
Any provider confident in their service will connect you with references. If they hesitate, they are hiding something.
When you talk to references, ask:
- What is the biggest problem you have had with them?
- How long did it take to resolve?
- Would you choose them again?
- What do you wish you had known before signing?
The third and fourth questions are where the real answers come.
6. "What is your average support ticket resolution time — not first response time?"
First response time is a vanity metric. "We responded within 15 minutes" means nothing if the ticket stays open for 3 days.
| Metric | Good | Concerning | Run Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| First response | < 15 minutes | < 1 hour | > 4 hours |
| Resolution (P1 - service down) | < 1 hour | < 4 hours | > 24 hours |
| Resolution (P2 - degraded) | < 4 hours | < 24 hours | > 72 hours |
| Resolution (P3 - question) | < 24 hours | < 72 hours | > 1 week |
Ask for their actual resolution time metrics, not their targets. And ask if you will have a dedicated account manager or if every call goes to a general queue.
7. "What changed in your last price increase, and when was it?"
VoIP providers raise prices. The question is how they do it.
| Approach | Acceptability |
|---|---|
| Annual CPI adjustment (2-3%) | Normal and fair |
| Feature-based increase (new features, same price) | Acceptable |
| Surprise 15% increase mid-contract | Red flag |
| "Introductory pricing" that doubles after year 1 | Manipulative |
Ask explicitly: "Has the per-user price changed in the last 3 years? By how much?"
check providers like VestaCall at https://vestacall.com for transparent pricing publishes all pricing publicly with no introductory gimmicks. The price you see is the price you pay, month-to-month, with no annual surprises.
The One Piece of Advice
If a sales rep cannot answer these questions directly — without "let me check with my team" — the provider does not prioritize the things that matter after the sale. Move on.
