In 1990, a man named Tom Stuker paid $510,000 for a lifetime first-class pass on United Airlines. No blackout dates. No fare hikes. No waiting on hold. Just reliable access, anytime he needed it, with people who already knew the deal.
Now, most of us aren't dropping half a million dollars on a plane ticket. But Stuker's logic wasn't crazy. He's flown more than 23 million miles on that single investment and used the rewards to support causes that matter to him. He hasn't owned a car in decades, renting one with his points whenever he needs it. When asked if he got his money's worth, his answer was simple: "There's no argument about that."
That's the part worth sitting with. Stuker didn't just buy convenience. He bought certainty. He knew exactly what he was getting, he knew someone would be there when he showed up, and he never had to wonder if the deal still applied years later.
How many of your business relationships can you say that about?
The real question isn't cost. It's value.
Most of us don't think much about whether we're actually getting our money's worth from the vendors we pay every month. We set up a service, we get used to it, and we stop asking whether it's still working for us.
That's true for IT support as much as anything else. Plenty of businesses pay for technology support and have no real sense of what they're getting in return. Is someone actually watching for problems, or just reacting when something breaks? Does a real person answer the phone, or does every issue disappear into a ticket queue? Do you know the name of the person who'll show up to help, or is it whoever's available that day?
Those are reasonable things to expect answers to. Most people just never ask.
What a good return on investment actually looks like
Stuker's pass worked because it delivered three things: speed, access and consistency. Those same three things are a fair bar to set for any provider you depend on, technology or otherwise.
Speed means a real response time, not a vague promise. If something breaks, how long before someone is actually working on it? An hour? A day? Whatever "we'll get to it" means at your current provider, it should be a number you know, not a guess.
Access means reaching an actual person who knows your situation. Not a call center. Not a bot. Not three transfers before you explain your problem for the third time. If you have a question, you should be able to get a straight answer from someone who already understands your setup.
Consistency means the relationship holds up over time. Stuker bought his pass in 1990 and he's still using it today, decades later, with no change in what it delivers. Good vendor relationships should feel the same way. You shouldn't have to wonder if the service is still as good as it was when you signed up.
If a provider can't deliver on those three things, speed, access and consistency, the sticker price almost doesn't matter. You're not getting what you paid for.
It applies to more than technology
This isn't really a pitch for any one kind of service. It's a filter you can run across anything you pay for regularly. Your software, your bank, your insurance, your IT support. Ask the same three questions. If the answers are weak, that's worth paying attention to.
For what it's worth, we built our own IT support around exactly this standard. We guarantee a 15-minute response on emergencies, a real person answers when you call, and you're working with a local Mid-South team that knows your business by name, not a rotating cast of strangers. We think that's what a provider owes you, full stop.
The real takeaway
Stuker didn't just get years of flights out of his investment. He got the freedom to stop thinking about travel logistics altogether. That's the part people miss. The investment wasn't really about flying. It was about what that reliability freed him up to do.
The right vendor relationships should do the same thing for you. Less time managing problems. More time doing the work that actually matters to your business.
If you want to see what that standard looks like applied to your IT, we're happy to talk. No pressure, just a conversation.
Call us at 901-550-2142 or schedule a discovery call at goodwinpc.com.
Sources:
ABC7, NewsNation
