The 60-second answer
Ask what a user means, what a change costs, where voicemail lives, who owns the handsets, and what it costs to leave. Normalise every quote to 36 months including expected hires and exit cost. Vague answers at quoting time become invoices later.
Why the questions matter more than the quote
Phone-system quotes are built to compare well on one number and to be silent on the rest. That is not dishonesty, it is how the category is sold. The counter is to ask the same twelve questions of every provider and compare the answers rather than the headline rate.
Ask them of us too. A provider unwilling to answer any of these in writing has told you something more useful than their price.
Pricing structure
1. What exactly counts as a user or extension?
Is a person with a desk phone, a laptop softphone and a mobile app one or three? Do shared handsets in a warehouse count? Does the fax adapter, the elevator phone, the alarm dialler? Per-device counting is where a competitive per-seat rate becomes an uncompetitive bill, and the difference between headcount and true extension count is routinely 20 to 40 per cent.
2. What happens to my bill when I hire someone?
Under per-seat pricing, permanently more. Under banded pricing, nothing until you cross a ceiling. Ask for the specific figure and ask when it takes effect — next invoice or next renewal.
3. Is the phone system priced separately from the lines?
If it is bundled, ask for a transport-only quote so you can subtract. A provider who will not separate them is asking you to buy two things at one price and compare that against nothing. Note this is also the question that reveals whether you can change one side later without the other.
4. What are your change fees, in writing?
Editing a greeting, adding an extension, changing after-hours routing. Ten changes a year at $60 is $1,800 over three years for administering your own system. Ask how much administration time is included, and get the hourly rate for anything beyond it.
Ownership and exit
5. Who owns the handsets?
If they are supplied as part of the deal, are they yours at the end, and are they locked to this provider's platform? Handsets you buy outright are Class 8 depreciable property [5] that re-register anywhere, because the signalling protocol is standard [3]. Handsets that go back at the end of term are a deterrent to leaving, dressed as a saving.
6. Do my numbers move?
The best answer is no — you keep your carrier, your numbers, and your billing relationship, and only call delivery changes [4]. A provider requiring you to port has made leaving them a project rather than a decision.
7. Can I get my configuration in a form I can take away?
Extension list, call flows, business hours, voicemail settings, documented in plain language. If the only record of how your phone system behaves lives in someone else's admin panel, rebuilding it elsewhere is a discovery exercise you will pay for twice.
8. What is the notice period and what is the total cost of leaving?
Add it up explicitly: notice, any remaining term, handset replacement, rebuild. Then compare that number across providers, because it is the one that determines whether year four is a choice.
Data and security
9. Where is voicemail stored, and for how long?
Voicemail is customers describing their circumstances aloud, which makes it personal information requiring safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity, and requiring a retention period you have actually decided [1]. Ask where it is physically stored, who at the provider can access it, what the default retention is, and whether you can change it.
10. What happens if you have a breach?
Ask for the notification commitment in writing — who tells you, how quickly, and with what detail. You cannot assess or report an incident you were not told about, and breach-response guidance assumes you know [2].
11. Who patches the platform, and how do you handle credentials?
Supported software, applied updates, controlled administrative access and an inventory are the federal baseline expectations for any organisation running systems [6], and they apply to a provider operating one on your behalf. Ask specifically whether international dialling is restricted by default and whether extension secrets are generated rather than chosen.
Fit
12. What do you do if a hosted system is not right for me?
A site with unreliable internet, a location needing analogue fallback, or a business with a genuine reason to keep equipment on premises are all real situations. A provider whose answer is that hosted is always correct is selling their inventory rather than solving your problem. Hybrid arrangements — on-premise where it is needed, hosted elsewhere — are normal, and the architecture should be decided at a site visit, not assumed in a quote.
The answers that should end the conversation
Most poor answers are not refusals. They are soft, and softness is the tell. A few worth recognising:
"It depends on your usage." For a question about what an extension costs, this is not an answer. Usage-based variation is legitimate for calling minutes and entirely illegitimate for the platform itself. Ask again, more narrowly.
"We'll take care of that for you." Offered in response to question seven, this means your configuration is not documented anywhere you can reach. It sounds like service and functions as a lock.
"Everyone's data is in the cloud." A non-answer to a question about physical storage location and access. You asked where; the response described a category.
"Changes are usually free." Usually is not a rate. Get the included allowance and the overage rate as numbers, or expect to discover them on an invoice.
"You'd never want to leave." Perhaps not, but the cost of doing so is a fact about the contract, not a prediction about your feelings, and it exists whether or not anyone will state it.
Get it in writing, then re-read it
Ask for the answers by email rather than on a call, for two reasons. A written answer is one someone has checked, which improves accuracy considerably. And a written answer is one you can compare side by side three weeks later, when four providers have blurred together and the only thing you clearly remember is who was friendliest.
When the contract arrives, check it against the email. The gap between what was said and what was drafted is normal and usually accidental, but it is your job to find it. Pay particular attention to renewal terms, price-increase clauses, and whether anything described as included in the email appears as included in the agreement.
How to compare the answers
- Convert every quote to a 36-month total.
- Add the hires you realistically expect, priced under each provider's structure.
- Add ten configuration changes a year at their stated rate.
- Add the exit cost from question eight.
- Note which questions each provider answered vaguely, and treat that as a cost too.
For reference, our own answers: flat bands of $99, $219, $399 and $699 CAD per month at 10, 25, 50 and 100 extensions plus HST, with a person counting once regardless of device count. Setup $350 at the entry band, $250 with a 12-month commitment, then $750, $1,200 and $1,900. Handsets are yours. Numbers stay with your carrier. Voicemail is Canadian-hosted. Roughly 30 to 60 minutes of changes a month are included rather than billed.
Bottom line
Twelve questions, asked of everyone including us, answered in writing. The expensive parts of a phone contract are never the monthly rate — they are what a user means, what a change costs, and what it takes to leave [3][5]. Ask now, when the answers are still free.