I really liked tech.coop's model of being "the IT department" for a number of local organizations who couldn't have afforded to do it right themselves. They didn't last and as far as I know no one has tried to replicate it, so it probably has problems that aren't immediately apparent, but it's still as close to a good solution as I know of for that problem.
Well there are and have always been "Managed IT Support Services" for many decades now, the only difference I see for tech.coop is that it is democratically controlled and not a separate business. Some examples: (CRU Solutions)[http://crusolutions.com/] which covers Ohio areas, (InCare Technologies)[http://incaretechnologies.com/] which covers Alabama/Mississippi areas, and you can probably find one for any region. I know someone who works for one in our local area and that company does business with the local community college, most restaurants in our downtown area, most of the car maintenance services in town, etc. There are actually quite a few in our town alone.
Being a business doesn't imply that you are exclusively trying to bleed your consumers dry of money. Some businesses do that, true, but not all do that. Most businesses that work with the local one I was discussing definitely don't feel ripped off in any way. That being said, I agree that a coop would be a better organizational structure and less likely to bleed you dry.
Dude that would be so dope. Because here's where we're at: "Well, we need seven extensions, so I guess we need a business phone system. Better call a referral to get a quote." "Huh. The quote came in at $5800 for seven phones and they never even visited the site. Maybe I should talk to them." "Huh. After an hour and a half of glad-handing I'm almost willing to pay $2200 for two phones. Except they won't even walk in until we've got CAT5 strung everywhere. I guess I better get a quote." "Huh. They want to charge me $700 for a fucking WAP and $5800 to pull 14 runs of CAT5." "Huh. I'm talking a contractor who doesn't know the difference between CAT5 and CAT3 into pulling my wire, then terminating it myself, then reading the most boring book in the world in order to ask intelligent questions when buying a cloud PBX." "Huh. this is why people pay ITN 43 cents a foot for fucking CAT5E."
Not to second guess people who know what you're looking for better than I do, but I don't think any of Cisco's IP phones are more than $200 and I'd be skeptical of anything an order of magnitude more expensive than Cisco kit. And also a $700 WAP for less than a dozen users.