Do you read the entirety of every contract you sign (or impliedly enter into)? What are your criteria for what to read in whole? Have you ever refused to enter a contract because of terms of the contract?
I’m especially interested in contract terms for things like the purchase of consumer goods, event tickets, website services, apartment leases, health insurance, and the like. Those contracts you encounter in your day-to-day living (as opposed to buying a house or a car).
Do you have any stories of a time you canceled an ordinary transaction because of the fine print?
I used to read through every word of every contract, but I found they are usually pretty standard, so now I just skim them all the way through. There are often details that are worth noting, especially about return/cancellation policies. We recently went on holiday, and wanted to hire a car at the other end. It took a little work to find conditions I was happy with. Lots of pitfalls around insurance, where we could take the car and how the mileage was charged.
Unfortunately, I have some experience in this at work, because reviewing contracts is my job, and at home, because I look them over much more carefully now that I see so many at work.
My general observations are these:
-Weedy is correct - most contracts are pretty standard…in that nearly all contracts will try to take away all rights from the person signing the contract if at all possible. And I’m only slightly exaggerating.
-The cost of the item doesn’t correlate with the complexity of the contract. Software is notorious for this: a $49 piece of software with a 40 page contract. And it’s usually a “clickthru” contract online that you can’t argue or change if you wanted.
-The bottomfeeder you’re dealing with at the signing of the contract doesn’t have any authority over the contract and wouldn’t know what the hell to do even if you did want to make a change.
As an example, the next time you sign a rental car contract, notice the clause that says something like “if your rental car explodes, killing you and your family instantly, through no fault of anyone except the negligent mechanic working for the Rental Car Company, your heirs will have no claim to anything other than the daily cost of the rental car, in other words, $79.99.” Go ahead and cross that section out, sign the contract and then hand it back to the counter person and see what they do.
On the other hand, home realtors, bless their hearts, have no problems with marking up a contract.
Ahhhh, there’s nothing like making a big, black cross-through on some line that a lawyer spent hours crafting.
For my part, I’ve pretty much stopped reading the day-to-day ones. Even if you find something egregious, chances are that every similar business has the same provision.
I wonder if standard contract terms might one day be seen as a form of collusion. For example, if every storage place in a certain region has a contract term waiving all liability for even willful and wanton destruction of your property, isn’t that basically the same thing as colluding on price? If there’s no alternative in the marketplace, you’re forced to waive all your rights if you want to use storage.
Like 3:20:59, I’ve also altered a lot of contracts. But I’ve never had to litigate one that I altered. I also wonder how enforceable the provisions in retail contracts are that say “employees do not have the right to alter this contract in any way.” If I cross out the ridiculous provision and initial it, what result? We never actually form a contract? I am bound by the crossed out language?
If a potential employee crosses out the ridiculous provision before they’re hired, gives the marked-up contract back to the employer, then is hired with no further discussion of the contract…the employer has basically agreed to the changes.
If you’re already hired, and make changes to the employment contract, it would be a little more murky. You’d probably need initials from both the employee and employer on any changes to make them valid.
I’m talking about contracts for services or goods in which the actual employee who gives you the contract to sign is not empowered to make any changes. For example, I got my car fixed in a shop last week and the contract said something along the lines of “changes made by employees are void.” The idea being that the management doesn’t want the employees agreeing to alterations.