Has anyone else noticed that customers are looking for more and more ways out of a contract?  They all want a 3 year price with a month to month contract.  This is how Wikipedia defines contract:

A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do, or refrain from doing, an act, which resulting contract is enforceable in a court of law. It is a binding legal agreement. [1] That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises for the breach of which the law will provide a remedy.

I recently had a customer that wanted to buy an Internet T1.  He liked my price of $299.00 with a router but said that he was concerned about the contract.  So, I gave him a one year price.  He thought that was too high.  So, I went back to the vendor and got him a business downturn clause, another addendum with an out for poor service, and a 90 day trial period.  He still balked at everything.  This is a three hundred dollar a month deal with as many outs as I could give him and he still was not happy.  He wanted a clause that basically said he could take his ball and leave at any time.  I finally told the gentleman to quit wasting my time and hung up on him.

This is not the first time this has happened to me recently.  If you sign a 3 year lease on a car can you take it back halfway through the lease?  I don’t think so.  So, why should you be able to get out of your telecommunications contracts?  I deal with a lot of traders who only do one year deals and spend the extra money so that they have this flexiblity.  Why don’t others see it this way?

I do however have a solution.  SBC/Ameritech used to do it this way.  You sign a 3 year deal and if you leave after one year you pay the difference in what the one year vs the three year contract was.  If anyone knows of a vendor that handles things this way, I would love to work with them, and would appreciate you letting me know about them…..Thoughts?