Why pay a monthly retainer when nothing is broken?

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

1. 1
   Scheduling regular quarterly or monthly review meetings
2. 2
   Sending automated monthly reports detailing background maintenance, patches, and security tasks
3. 3
   Using analogies like car insurance or janitorial services to explain preventive work
4. 4
   Sending an invoice without documentation
5. 5
   Relying on before and after photos and itemized descriptions
6. 6
   Having meetings with the team in China and reporting items the manager needs to answer
7. 7
   Building out a 30/60/90-day onboarding plan with clear direction and milestones
8. 8
   Starting to look for something else

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.