Technical Support Credits

We are a pre-paid service. The time and cost savings gained by not having to manage accounts payable and chase payments is extremely significant. (Besides, we'd way rather be managing tech than dealing with billing all the time!) As such, we are able to offer a big discount for pre-pay, and an additional 20% discount for automatic recurring top-ups.

How it works:

1. When you add pre-paid time, either by a one-time top-up or recurring, that time is immediately banked in your account in our system.
2. Any time a technician does work on your systems or provides support, they track their time as actions on a support ticket for that specific issue or request.
3. If there is sufficient time in your account, then it is deducted automatically when the ticket is closed.
4. (Members) If, there is not sufficient time in your account then we will automatically use all the time in your account towards the ticket, then send you an invoice for the rest.
5. (Non-Members) If, there is not sufficient time in your account then we will stop work until more pre-paid time is purchased.
6. The price for invoiced-for (or post-pay) time is much higher so we highly recommend making sure you have enough time in your account at all times.
7. We can set up low balance notifications and are even able to help you set up auto top-up so that our system can automatically charge you for top-ups when your balance gets low.

Benefits

• Credits never expire!
• Credits protect you from price increases
• Credits make a great gift
• No surprise bills
• No late fees

Technical Support Credit Prices

Prices below are for non-members. Sound IT Managed Services members get free credits each month and huge discounts on additional support time.

Members should call us to purchase credits at their discount rate.

You can learn more about our memberships here: Memberships

Support/Labor Purchase Options

Type	Description	Non-Member Rate	Member Rate
Pre-Pay (Top-Up)	Purchased pre-paid time ad-hoc or "topping up". This is the only option available to non-members. (Blocks of pre-paid hours are sometimes available at a discount.)	$300/hr	$150/hr
Post-pay	Any time spent beyond accumulated pre-paid time on the account conveniently rolled up and invoiced at the end of the month.	N/A	$150/hr
Recurring Pre-Pay	Committing to purchasing an additional amount of pre-paid time to be billed automatically for the duration of the agreement term	N/A	$120/hr

Order Support Credits

Work Types

Work Type	Multiplier	Details
Phone/Lab Support	1	Phone and in-shop Technician labor / support consumes credits at the rate of 1 credit per half-hour. (Lab or bench repair is only available to members at this time)
Onsite Support	1	Travel time is counted as technician time for credit consumption purposes. This is sometimes called "door-to-door" travel policy because time is consumed based on the time the technician leaves our offices until the time they return. We do this because it is the most in line with the time that the technician is not able to assist other clients or work on other issues.
After-Hours Support	2	Work required to be done after hours consumes credits at 2x the normal rate. This is in addition to the emergency ticket upgrade (if applicable)
Emergency Ticket Upgrade	2	If you require a Service Request to be escalated and remediated as a Critical Priority – then You can request an “Emergency Upgrade”. We will re-classify the ticket as Critical and respond accordingly, including responding after hours. All time tracked on an emergency upgrade ticket will have a 2x multiplier. If it is also after hours then the multipliers for after-hours and emergency will be cumulative. (4x) If an issue is no longer an emergency, you can let us know and we will switch it back to low priority. Time that was tracked while the ticket was classified as an emergency will carry the multiplier but time tracked after the ticket was switched back to low priority will not have the multiplier.

For Example

The below totals are for time consumed. The dollar amounts for that time will vary depending on the amount of pre-paid credits you purchase at the particular time or the type of membership you have (see the tables above).

Example 1

Let’s say you are on a membership plan and require an engineer on site in a few days’ time (i.e. not urgent) to help install a new application you have just purchased for your server. It takes 30 min for the technician to get there, an hour to install the application and 30 minutes for the technician to get back to the office.

• + 30 min Travel
• + 1 hr Onsite Support
• + 30 min Travel
• Total time consumed: 2 hours
• If you are a non-member there is a 4 hour minimum for onsite support so this would be 4 hours consumed.

Example 2

You require urgent assistance as your server is offline, however you are a non-member or on our LITE plan, so you ask us to add an “Emergency Ticket Upgrade”. The issue takes 1.5 hours to fix remotely. With the “Emergency Ticket Upgrade” we give this issue our highest priority (we treat it as a “Critical” issue) and move everything around to work on it for you ASAP.

• 1.5 hrs Remote Support
• x 2 (Emergency Multiplier)
• Total time consumed: 3 hours

Example 3

You require assistance with a website popup that is preventing you from using your computer. The issue is not urgent so you lodge a low-priority ticket. The issue takes 15 minutes to fix so we only use the minimum 30 minutes.

• 15 min Remote Support
• Round up to 30 min
• Total time consumed: 0.5 hours

Frequently Asked Questions

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Q: Are credits required to get technical support services from Sound IT?

A: Yes. In order to access technical services you must have a positive credit balance. If the balance hits zero then we stop work until you purchase more credits. Our Managed IT Members are an exception to this as they are able to continue work and be billed afterwards for the additional time.

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Q: What are the Top-up Threshold and Top-up Amount and how do they work?

A: The auto-top-up program is an opt-in convenience service that can automatically send you an invoice to purchase more credits as soon as your account dips below a certain threshold amount

Top-up Threshold

This is the lowest amount of credits that you want to have in your account. Basically, as soon as your credit balance drops below this amount, our system will send you an invoice to refill your credits. A minimum of 1 hour credit is required in order to provide service so we highly recommend setting a higher threshold to make sure your access to services isn’t interrupted.

Top-up Amount

This is the amount of credit that the automatic top-up invoice will have on it.

Our general recommendation is a Top-up Threshold of 1 hour and Top-up Amount of 2 hours.

Example: You have 1 hour credit on your account, a top-up threshold of 1 hour and a top-up amount of 2 hours. You call in for support and use 30 minutes. As soon as our system sees your account drop below 1 hour it will generate and email you an invoice for 2 hours. As soon as you pay that invoice, your credit balance will go up to 2.5 hours.

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Q: How do I purchase credits?

A: If opting in to the auto top-up program, when your balance drops below your top-up threshold, our system will automatically send you an invoice to refill. Just like our current invoices, you can pay it online, by phone, in person, or by mailing a check. You can also purchase credits by contacting us during business hours or using the order form at the bottom of this page.

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Q: Will you charge my credit card automatically?

A: Not currently, but we will be requiring this in the future. Currently, the process is semi-automated to the point of sending you an invoice when it is time to top up but that’s it. You still need to deliberately pay that invoice for the credits to be available in your account. The exception to this is members who opt to purchase credits on a schedule to get an additional discount and choose to save a credit card or ACH information to that billing profile.