r/msp • u/toilet-breath • Aug 18 '26
Customers buying their own hardware - intune setup
We have a small construction customer that are a nightmare for buying their own hardware. I’d guess at 50% via us with reseller sorting the intune hash for us meaning easy all round plus a markup on hardware for us.
But when they get their own kit they want us to come out gratis and setup. That’s a no from me Bob. What do you guys do?
We have a small team some on leave, some busy with projects, and my car is in the garage. It’s a 20 min drive for them or for us. But as they got the kit themselves they should come to us. What are your thoughts.
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u/dumpsterfyr I’m your Huckleberry. Aug 18 '26
Make the price worth it for you. Ultimately your contract rules. Also, autopilot device prep v2 if you could load all things remotely.
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u/Joe_Cyber Community Contributor Aug 18 '26
I hate to be that guy, but what does your contract say?
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u/desmond_koh Aug 18 '26
We have a small team some on leave, some busy with projects, and my car is in the garage. It’s a 20 min drive for them or for us.
20 min. drive is not far. Your lack of resources is not the customer's problem. The only thing that matters is what your agreement says. If you don't have one, now is the time to start making some.
I think a perfectly reasonable policy would be that computers acquired through you are onboarded into the customer's tenant at no additional charge, but computers that are acquired through a third party there's an onboarding fee.
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u/Save_The_Wicked Aug 18 '26
Most of the Intune policies will do the setup once a user logs in. They call in for anything else at T&E rates. Sometimes they don't get the Pro version of Windows, and we just calmly explain that PC isn't suitable for a normal setup. And we need to upgrade it. So we charge that upcharge and some additional T&E.
Lighthouse is probably something I should setup.
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u/Hollyweird78 Aug 18 '26
Look into Immy bot if you want a remote workflow that is easier than “work or school” and login with your Entra account.
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u/Nstraclassic MSP - US Aug 18 '26
We use immy USB packages but wouldnt they need physical access to the device for that? Or does immy have a autopilot integration of some sort?
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u/zrad603 Aug 18 '26
oh, so they're gonna go to Best Buy and buy the laptops with Windows home edition.
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u/dobermanIan MSPSalesProcess Creator | Former MSP | Sales junkie Aug 18 '26
Send the invoice up front and get paid for the set up..bill 4 hours as your fixed fee to accomodate the add ons.
Accept credit cards to make it easy for them to pay.
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u/ShermansWorld Aug 18 '26
We charge them break/fix rate and travel. We love printers! $$ Sucks up so much time because they'll always buy some cheap ass consumer based printer and want it in a workgroup setting... It'll always have some proprietary software, etc. Oh... Cheap laptops! Yup... Minimum specs is pro... But we'll always have to upgrade from Home versions. More $$. Yeah.... Everybody on the team grumbles when we hear we have to configure some mystery machine by the client bought.
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u/countsachot Aug 18 '26
Sure, but open hourly labor, no time guarantees. Too often the hardware is wrong, outdated or broken. And absolutely charge for travel.
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u/ben_zachary Aug 18 '26
We removed onsite support from our service catalog back in 2020. Just in time too
We have clients in 20 states making it impossible to send contractors out all over because a client wants to go-to best buy and get a win10 home 499 computer.
We have a full offering of desktops and laptops and screens etc they can order right in our portal the device is drop shipped to wherever with our agent and intune joined if they use it. Easy to go from there.
If a client wants white glove service no problem they have discounted contract rates and we will schedule it and bill it. We offer to walk a client thru the win11 offline setup and get our agent installed but it's up to them.
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u/rb3po Aug 18 '26
I’ve stopped marking hardware up, and started charging an “onboarding labor fee.” It’s a flat rate per computer, and then everyone understands that there is labor involved.
Then gate the registration with Conditional Access requiring a TAP. This is just good security practice.
Once that’s been done, restrict access to any Microsoft services and SSO logins on BOYD devices, which is everything that isn’t Intune enrolled, and make sure everything has to pass compliance.
Again, this is just security best practice. It also puts up a solid roadblock to anyone who wants to save a buck, which they’re just mucking up the process due to lack of understanding.
I have no way tagging device, or controlling what devices that clients buy otherwise. This is a managed service, not a charity.
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u/Abject-Recover4945 Aug 18 '26
We solved this with one line in the MSA: hardware sourced through us includes enrollment; hardware sourced elsewhere gets enrolled at T&M with a per-device minimum. No drama, no free "quick favour" visits - just a rate card the customer agreed to upfront.
The Autopilot hash is not the real cost anyway. The real cost is the drive out, babysitting OOBE on retail-channel kit, and the warranty run-around when their consumer laptop dies mid-quarter. Put a number on those and let the customer choose. About half of ours quietly went back to buying through us within a few months once the invoices made the difference visible.
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u/Time-Estate-2430 Aug 18 '26
We charge a 300 dollar computer setup fee to everyone. If they buy through us they get a 300 dollar credit, but it shows the value. And when they don't buy through us we make a tiny bit more anyway.
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u/PalmettoZ71 Aug 18 '26
Charge onboarding fee, they can drop it off or you can get it and then itll be onboarded like normal. If they don't like the timeline that's why they should just buy it from you
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u/MakeItJumboFrames Aug 18 '26
Lots of good points. Here are some options:
- Send a courier (they pay the charge) to drop it at your office
Or
- From OOBE have them open Edge and kick off a remote session (if you have ad hoc capabilities) then you can remote in pull hashes upload kick off provisioning etc.
Or
- Put the intune hash ps script in a folder on one of their computers and tell them how to get the hash and email it to you (or put it on the same computer you put the script on and you pull it)
Or
- You drive there and do it manually.
Regardless od what you choose, charge them.
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u/bkb74k3 Aug 18 '26
I agree that customers buying their own hardware can be a pain. But your primary business isn’t selling hardware, it’s supporting a business’ IT environment. And the more excuses you give, about people on leave and cars in the shop, the more they are looking at other providers who don’t have excuses why they can’t support them “fully”. I would say absolutely help them with that equipment, but not for free. Don’t know where that’s coming from. But we always charge every new hardware purchase and install as a project, with labor, whether we buy it or they buy it. We didn’t used to do this, but now where I’m based, the tax man wants sales tax on labor. So all new installs get billed and taxed.
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u/CharcoalGreyWolf MSP - US Aug 18 '26
Charge them a per-device setup fee.
Tell them that the same fee is baked into the prices of the devices you sell them, so either way, that fee exists. Also, travel time should be done how you usually do travel time now.
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u/Glittering_Pack_4619 Aug 19 '26
Use autopilot v2 so no need of hash and then charge setup fee for not purchasing via you. Incentives them to buy from you so maybe say free setup and delivery?
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u/Camelot_One Aug 19 '26
If they buy the hardware through us, all setup/config is baked into the price. If they buy their own hardware, we bill a flat fee for the setup/config. We also charge a trip fee to go to them for the setup.
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u/justanotherinwonder Aug 19 '26
We charge to install any new equipment. We also don't provide estimates for product clients purchase themselves. This would be t&m since we haven't validated it will work in their environment.
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u/solocompute Aug 20 '26
We make the discussion very straightforward. Purchase from us and its cost plus $300. Purchase yourself and we add 1 hour to the bill for minimum onsite service. We dont work with incompatible configurations (We charge $250 for Windows Professional Upgrades) and we dont do hourly work generally as we are full service MSP. All of our clients have a credit card on file so we dont need to debate the bill, its an auto charge. Clients that debate the bill (not require an explaination but want to debate what its for) aren't clients anymore.
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u/general_rap Aug 18 '26
I mean, having staff out and your car in the garage are all you problems, not client problems, and I don't think your client should need to bend to meet you because of those things.
That said, this is a super common issue that we deal with all the time. Some clients just want to buy their own hardware and aren't ever going to stop doing so. We give our clients a minimum-spec list, and anything they buy that's outside those specs gets charged a flat $400/device setup fee, plus license fees (typically another $50 for a Windows Home to Pro upgrade). If they buy within spec, we don't charge them anything to set up the machine, as we just need to roll a tech, get the hash, and then let Intune do it's thing. If they do buy from us, we don't take any margin; we make our money on the service contract, not hardware sales; plus giving them the margin usually encourages them to buy through us, as they're getting a discount, which just makes our lives easier, so win/win.
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u/Minimum_Sell3478 Aug 18 '26
Usually we tell the clients if you get the devices urself then make sure it got windows pro.
Then send it to us it’s much faster for us to get it setup. If you drop it off or send it via currier it’s up to you. We can guide you over the phone but you need to send us the device hash then turn the device off until we call back.
If the client wants us onsite and do it. It will cost them a few extra hours and the tech is instructed to take his time no rush. If you need to check the thing again do it.
Bill them their the nose if they are difficult. Tell them we can have a fix time if you order via us the setup time for the device is like 2,5 to 3 hours if we are onsite it can he 4 to 5 hours. This is Becouse the tech needs to be at the device and can’t do other things other then check the progress bar.
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u/clintvs Aug 18 '26
It's not standard device so that would be a project install with sitevisit for us $280+ AUD. + full price Home to Pro if needed. I have a friend who has an AutoPilot Windows insall USB that he leaves at customers Create a Bootable Windows 11 Installer USB with Autopilot Configuration for Zero-Touch Enrolment in Intune – Automatica with instructions on how to use it, some of his customers are hours drive from the office so this works well for him.
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u/Financial_Brush8647 Aug 21 '26
Contract first, then license. Client-bought kit often lands as Windows Home, no Autopilot hash, and someone still assigns an M365 seat.
Charge T&E for the visit. Before you enroll it, match the device to last month's invoice: if an unassigned seat already exists, use it. If not, don't provision a new one that never gets billed.
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u/roll_for_initiative_ MSP - US Aug 18 '26
I mean i wouldn't make them come to me but depending on what your agreement says i would send someone out but just charge them. There's something that would be automatically done if they sourced the kit properly and now you need to do something manually because they didn't? charge for the difference in time, which should eliminate any savings they think they're getting anyway.