I'll say it plainly: A lot of facility buyers treat elevators like office wallpaper. They're always there, they hum along, and the only time we notice them is when they stop working. I was one of them. In May 2023, one of our KONE elevators stopped between the third and fourth floor. An employee was stuck inside for 40 minutes before the service vendor showed up. No one was hurt, but that wait changed how I think about vertical transportation.
I'm the office administrator for a 240-person company. I manage all facility service purchasing—roughly $350,000 annually across 15 vendors. I report to both operations and finance, so I get grilled from both sides: operations wants quick fixes, finance wants low costs. (Note to self: I still haven't written up that incident report. Ugh.)
An Elevator Is Not a Consumer Product
Here's the core misconception. An elevator is a regulated, load-bearing machine that moves people for decades. It's not a highball glass, and it's not a glass bottle. If a highball glass arrives chipped, you throw it away and order another case. If a glass bottle is empty, you recycle it. Those are trivial procurement decisions. An elevator contract is not.
People will happily look up the Roccat Kone Pro price before buying a gaming mouse—I've done that. But when it comes to a machine that transports employees all day, many offices just call whichever service provider's sticker is on the control panel. That's backwards. Per ASME A17.1, the elevator safety code used across the U.S. and Canada, elevators must be inspected and maintained according to strict requirements. As of January 2025, those requirements are still tightening, especially around connected safety systems. Don't rely on a salesperson's summary—verify code requirements at ASME's official site.
Comparing Quotes: What the "Savings" Actually Hides
In 2024, I ran a full vendor comparison for our two elevators and one escalator. The low bid came in 32% below KONE's quote. On the surface, that's a no-brainer. But when I read the scope line by line, the low bid excluded after-hours callouts, remote monitoring, and had no documented response-time guarantee. It also didn't commit to OEM parts. That's like buying a case of glass bottles where every bottle is thinner than the last—they may fit on the shelf, but you don't know where the failure point is until one breaks at the worst moment.
We signed with KONE elevators and escalators—the same brand as our existing equipment. (Should mention: we looked at one independent local provider too. They had a good reputation, but their parts lead time for the escalator was a full week longer.) The KONE quote included remote monitoring, a 24/7 call center, and a clear escalation path. According to the KONE website (kone.com, accessed January 2025), their maintenance contracts pair sensor data with predictive analytics. That's the kind of documentation and service design I can bring to a finance meeting and actually defend.
A quick note on modernization: In 2022, before I started this project, I didn't know what elevator modernization meant. I thought an old elevator was simply "old" until it broke. But with KONE's modernization offerings, you can upgrade controls, doors, and drives without replacing the entire elevator. According to the National Elevator Industry Inc. (NEII), elevators in office buildings can make 13,000 to 30,000 trips per year, depending on building size and occupancy (Source: NEII educational materials, 2024). That means wear and tear is not a question, it's a timeline. Budgeting for modernization ahead of time beats an emergency replacement—and it's far easier to swallow than a capital expense after a breakdown.
Preventive Maintenance Is Not a Guarantee—But It's Not a Paperweight
I know no honest company promises zero breakdowns. And the previous vendor wasn't dishonest—they were just lazy. In Q3 2024, before we switched, our elevator logged 14 fault calls in a single month. The old provider wrote most of them off as "operator error." After we switched, the fault rate dropped dramatically. I don't have the exact new number because our finance team is still approving the latest dashboard (I say that with love; they're equally slow with the recurring leaky pipe under the breakroom sink).
There's also a hidden cost to elevator downtime that most financial models miss. When an elevator is down during working hours, it's not just a repair bill; it's lost productivity, stressed employees, and a small but real hit to office morale. I can't put a precise number on it, but I can tell you the difference between a building where things run smoothly and one where people complain to the front desk twice a week. That's the kind of soft cost that never appears in a PO, but it shows up in how your internal clients treat you.
That leaky pipe is actually a good analogy for the mental shift I made. Someone can search "how to repair leaky pipe" and learn—depending on local plumbing codes—how to fix it themselves or call a pro. It's understandable and approachable. An elevator is the opposite. There is no "DIY elevator repair" chapter. You can't learn it from a tutorial, and the consequences of a mistake are catastrophic. When you manage a building, you don't need to become an elevator engineer, but you need to understand enough to ask the right questions.
Customer Education Changes Everything
That's where my opinion lands: I am unapologetically pro customer education. I'd rather spend 10 minutes explaining the difference between preventive maintenance and pay-per-call than spend 10 hours untangling a contract dispute later. An informed customer asks better questions and makes faster decisions.
That mindset paid off when I presented the switch to finance. I used a comparison nobody expected: the $70 Roccat Kone Pro price vs. the $400,000+ elevator contract. You can research a gaming mouse in two minutes and buy it with almost no risk. But a vertical transportation system requires you to evaluate building specifications, code compliance, door reversals, operating panels, and service response commitments. Suddenly, "who is cheaper" became "who can actually deliver a serviceable plan."
Now I keep a checklist for any major elevator purchase. I don't want to bury you in a list, but these are the items that would have saved me years of headaches:
- Manufacturer or OEM certification for the technicians
- Response-time guarantees in writing—not "ASAP"
- Clear escalation path with named contacts
- Parts sourcing policy (OEM vs. refurbished)
- Reporting cadence and what data is included
- References from buildings with the same equipment and similar usage profile
- Itemized scope, including what's not covered
What About the "Cheaper Option"?
If you're skeptical, I get it. You can find quality local elevator maintenance providers, and I don't want to dismiss them. But the burden of verifying credentials is on you. In 2022, we used a small contractor who couldn't produce a valid elevator mechanic license when finance audited the invoice. The expense was rejected, I had to rebid the contract, and the office manager lost trust in me for a month. That's a price that never shows up in the bid summary.
So by all means, compare. But compare apples to apples. If a provider can't state their response-time commitment in writing or show you their technician certification process, that's a red flag, no matter how friendly the sales rep is. I once told a vendor "emergency service." They heard "we'll be there after lunch." That communication failure cost us the 40-minute stuck elevator in May 2023—or rather, the failed response had started months earlier, when the contract lacked a clear definition of "emergency." I'm not conflating the two; one was the symptom, the other was the cause.
Final Verdict
I started with an opinion, and I'll finish with it: elevators and escalators are infrastructure, not commodities. You can make a low-stakes purchase decision about highball glasses in five minutes. You can recycle a glass bottle without any risk. You can even learn how to repair a leaky pipe and decide if it's above your skill level. But vertical transportation is different. It deserves the same strategic attention you give to HVAC, security, or any other system that keeps your building habitable.
I'm not saying KONE is the only brand that can do this well. But in my experience, the company's combination of OEM support, remote diagnostics, and transparent documentation is exactly what an informed buyer should be looking for. If you're a fellow administrator, start your homework before the elevator stops. That's the lesson I learned—hopefully it saves you the 40-minute wait I didn't deserve.
