Your agency keeps selling you new services while the old site is still broken

What is actually happening

Your agency built your site one, two, maybe five years ago. Since then they have invoiced you every month for hosting or a retainer. In that time you have probably had three or four sales calls pitching extras: paid ads, a blog package, an SEO retainer, a redesign, a new booking system.

Meanwhile the site itself is quietly rotting. A link in the footer goes to a 404 page. The PDF menu you uploaded in 2023 no longer opens. The phone number on the contact page is the old one. The Google review widget shows an error.

You assumed someone was checking these things. Nobody is. The retainer pays for the server the site sits on and not much else. Anything that looks like work - a fix, an update, a check - is being saved up to quote as a separate job, or simply ignored until you mention it.

Why upsells pay better than fixes

An agency makes money by selling new work. A broken link takes ten minutes to fix and there is no good way to charge you for it without looking petty. A new social media package is £400 a month for as long as you will pay it.

So the people inside the agency with sales targets - account managers, client directors, whatever they are called this quarter - are not incentivised to look at your existing site. They are incentivised to book a call and pitch the next thing.

The internal logic looks like this:

• Fixing a broken link: 10 minutes of a developer's time, unbillable, nobody gets a bonus.
• Selling you a £300/month SEO retainer: commission, recurring revenue, looks good on the quarterly report.

Guess which one gets attention. The account manager who emails you twice a year to pitch a new package has never opened your website on their phone.

How to audit your own site in 20 minutes

Before the next sales call, do this. You do not need any technical knowledge. Open your site on your phone, not your laptop, because that is what your customers use.

• Click every link in the menu and footer. Note any that go to a 404 or a blank page.
• Open every PDF or downloadable file. Check they still work.
• Submit your own contact form using a personal email. See if the enquiry actually arrives.
• Check the phone number, address and opening hours on every page they appear.
• Look at every image. Note any that are broken, blurry or showing a placeholder.
• Search your business name on Google and click the result. Make sure it loads.

Write down what you find. That list is your leverage.

How to push back on the next sales call

When the agency books the next pitch call, do not let them open with the new package. Open with your list.

Send the list by email a day before the call. Write something like: "Before we discuss anything new, I would like these issues on the existing site fixed first. Please confirm when this will be done and whether it falls within my current retainer."

One of three things happens:

• They fix everything quickly and quietly. The retainer was always supposed to cover this and they know it.
• They quote you separately for the fixes. Now you know exactly what your retainer is actually paying for, which is the server and nothing else.
• They go quiet for two weeks and then come back with the original sales pitch as if your email never existed.

Whichever response you get, you now have data. You know whether your retainer is real maintenance or a hosting bill with a fancy name.

What a working arrangement looks like

A proper maintenance arrangement is not complicated. Someone looks at your site at least once a month. They fix small things without being asked. They tell you when something is broken before you find out from a customer. They do not pitch you a new service every quarter because their job is to look after the site you already have.

That is what SkipTheAgency's Maintained plan is for. It is £65/month and it covers up to 10 content changes a month, same-day response, and someone actually checking that the site works. Most local agencies charge between £100 and £200/month for what is, in practice, hosting plus a quarterly sales call.

You do not need a new package. You need someone to fix the link in the footer.