Re: I don't like this contract that I agreed to
No... contract was unfair. Doesn't matter if you agreed to it or not, an unfair contract has no basis in law and to prove that you take it to court.
Would you like to see some of the things that standard print companies think are enforceable and making schools etc. sign up to?
**Clauses discovered in standard managed print contracts**
(Paraphrased so they aren't directly Google-able, but still accurate). Bear in mind that we're talking dozens of printers, millions of pages each year, and big-money on 3-year leases (or 5-year, in some cases, because if you actually read the smallprint, the last two are "optional" but "chargeable" even if the lease says three years - that should give you a taster of what's to come), from big-names in IT, print companies in general (I guarantee you've heard of several printer manufacturers which have this shit in their contract), and people who claim to offer "one-stop" service for IT:
- "If you decide to cancel at any time, you have to give three months notice, pay 100% of the remaining quarterly costs for the year, plus 49% of the average print use for all the remaining months of the contract".
- "If you do not use our reporting software, whether by our fault or not, we will charge £15 per toner delivery" (Hint: a school might have about 10-20 toners delivered every month, on average)
- "We reserve the right to increase these costs without notice by 10% per year, or by 7% plus inflation, whichever is higher" (with: "If we increase costs by more than this, we are only obliged to notify you 30 days beforehand").
- "We will charge you £75 per printer per quarter for each printer that doesn't meet our minimum print guidelines [unspecified anywhere] as a service charge".
- "If you do not want to pay the monthly service charge, we will bill you at £150 per hour for any service required" [WTF? It's a printer, not a space shuttle]
- "This service charge does not include toners or consumable parts" [WTF?]
- "The charge for scans is equivalent to the charge for one A4 colour print" [WTFing-F? Never heard of someone charging for scans before!]
- "Nothing mentioned elsewhere [e.g. the quotes, the written promises, or even another contract] affects or overrides these contract terms."
A lot of that is unenforceable but a lot of it is not. It's based on a standard lease contract from a major firm that everyone has copied after realising a) people sign up, b) people then think they can't get out of it, c) people sometimes CAN'T get out of it without it costing them more than they have.
But because it's unfair, you can take it to a court, get it proven wrong, and stop them EVER using those terms in their contracts ever again. Until the next con is discovered.
Just because you signed it, knowingly, being of sane mind, and agreed at the time, it does NOT make it a legal contract.
That's the primary reason that EULA's are generally not considered binding contracts either in many cases. Nobody can sit and read 48 pages of terms and conditions on a mobile device every time iOS updates, so they could slip ANYTHING in, even a clause that only appears on YOUR copy of the contract (and not some other guy on the Internet who posts his analysis of the contract, for example). So a lot of that stuff just isn't enforceable.
But to prove it, you have to take it to court, which is expensive and not without risk.