#$@%!! Postage meter company. They should all be boiled in their own urine. I am making that my 2004 Christmas wish.
And now that I have cleared my head through venting, here’s the situation I find myself in: We have a postage meter. We also have a contract which I inherited. In the fine print it says that we have to notify them, by certified mail, between 120 and 180 days before the contact runs out that we want to return the machine. Otherwise, we’re obligated to keep the meter for another year. For months we have been slowly negotiating with them (slowly because their sales people are all obviously the sons and daughters of used car salesmen so I find dealing with them painful) for a new meter. Recently I found another company offering a competitive rate for a machine my original company could have offerred me before but chose not to because there apparently isn’t enough money in it. I decied to go with the new company and that’s just when my old meter company decides to remind me that I’m legally obligated to use my old machine for at least another year. Or am I? It seems to me that, because they were making sales calls to me and were negotiating with me and offering me new machings AFTER the 120-day limit, they had in effect notified themselves, no? I am but a poor mope in these matters and, frankly, going to a lawyer would easily wipe out any potential savings, so I’m putting it to you guys: Do I have some wiggle room here or should I just sigh and pony up the money while fantacizing about effects of advance tooth decay on my enemies?
No response, eh? I suppose it’s not exactly Kosher for me to do this — and I absoultely promise not to try it again on this thread — but I just thought I’d respond to my own post to push it back to the top of the pile to see if anything useful comes of it. I have great faith in the intellectual gifts of you people. Surely there must be someone around here with the right legal background to help me with this extremely trivial yet abundently irksome matter.
And, besides, people who lease postage meters really are a loathsome bunch — imagine the average stock broker, only on a much meaner and pettier scale. I would think frustrating people like that is motive enough for anyone.
That’s a tricky problem. The contract seems kinda unfair, but I could see a lot of judges just enforcing the contract as you described it. (Obviously you should have an attorney who is licensed to practice in your jurisdiction review the actual contract to get an idea of what your rights are.)
What I would do is call the vendor up and try to work out a deal to let you break the contract. If you get the right person, and you politely explain that you think it’s really unfair; that you’re thinking about hiring an attorney, they might let you out of the deal by paying a couple months’ fees.
I would also research the situation a little on the internet. I’m sure this isn’t the first time this company has gotten into a dispute over this aspect of its contract. If you’re lucky, you’ll get information about people who’ve had the same problem. This will inform your approach.
They also might let you break the contract if you agree to sign up for a more deluxe machine. Perhaps you can insist on a 30-day trial period. Of course, you shouldn’t do this for the sole purpose of getting out of the contract. Be sure to read any contract carefully, document everything, etc.
Here is your first mistake: Which is a better motivator: the threat of being boiled in your own urine, or the threat of being boiled in someone else’s?
But if not their own urine then whose? Do you really think I want to lose whatever symbolic value I have going for me now? Oh, sure, it’d be easy to suggest that I use my own but, frankly, I’m not about to court diabetes just to make you happy.