It is common for companies to tell prospective clients pleasant things to get their to sign a contract. However, once you read the actual contract it might be a lot less pleasant than what the salesperson talked about.
I had one company tell me that I could purchase as many hours of programming as I liked in a month providing I prepayed. I thought this was reasonable. When I received the contract, they were asking for a 40 hour per month contract which turned out to be their minimum order. The hourly price was right, but the minimum was crazy. My project is a small one that needs about 5-12 hours per month on an ongoing basis.
I told the provider that if they did a good job on the “test” project, that I had other projects in the pipeline that I would give them. However, they wanted to do the test only if I would upgrade to 40 hours per month soon after that.
I wish they would have told me about the minimum up front so I could have spent my time talking to the other companies on my list.
In any case, the process of choosing an outsourcing service provider is hard. The deeper you dig, and more people at the company you talk to — you will find that the story keeps changing. You need to know what you are getting at an outsourcing company BEFORE you sign anything. Additionally, for smaller projects, I am not sure that signing a contract is in your favor. It binds you to a legal relationship with a company that you might not even like.