While I can understand the practicalities of enforcing a relatively low-dollar value contract, I would point out that there are two very important reasons to consider having term contracts in place:
1) Banks and other lending institutions like to see proof of future cash flows (receivables) as a basis upon which to lend. Having a few hundred contracts that state that the customer has agreed to continue service with you for the next 12 to 24 months goes a long ways towards establishing your credit worthiness. 2) If you were to consider selling your ISP, the purchasing party would likely place a higher value on your customers if those customers were under a term contract versus being month-to-month with no recourse. Regards, Larry E. Yunker II, Esq. & (Former WISP) -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jason Hensley Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 3:57 PM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: Re: [WISPA] Service contracts Well, personally we just did away with contracts. They became cumbersome and almost impossible to enforce and the customers were just skipping town without paying anyway. We tout this as a positive to our customers - that even though they have to pay a setup / install fee, we don't lock them into a long-term agreement. Works GREAT for our college customers. Our agreement is one piece of paper, info on both sides. It lays out just the basics of what we're providing, as well as the penalties if they don't return their equipment when they're done with the service, and then references our TOS for more info. Our installer fills it out with their info onsite, shows them the speedtest results, includes that on the sheet, gets customers signature and check (or cash) and they are done. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Don Grossman Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 2:45 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] Service contracts How do you work that with outside collection agencies when they skip? Our collection agency wants something stating the customer in fact agreed to the terms. Don On Nov 11, 2010, at 12:06 PM, Cameron Crum wrote: > Yes...everything electronically. > > Cameron > > On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 1:02 PM, jp <[email protected]> wrote: > All the other service providers such as DSL and cable are looking to > lock people into 2 year contracts as well. add to that cellular, but I > don't really consider that a competitor, customers understand the > similarities that there is a common need to get into a term agreement to > have service. The advantage is that customers aren't hopping around > playing musical chairs with service providers for a buck savings when > the service providers spend a lot of money on their install. The > customers can safely ignore all the misleading flyers they get from the > cable company or phone company talking about introductory prices or > prices without the fees added, at least till their contract period is > winding down. > > We keep our contract 1 page. I'm sure a lawyer would laugh at it, but > the idea is that neither party wants it to end up in lawyer's hands. > Referencing the TOS on your website would be a good thing in saving > paper. > > We do 2 year contracts for one price and 1 year for a slightly higher > setup price. We track who we give them to, who gave it to them and when. > We need that to be able to follow up as sometimes customers don't follow > through or expect the service but lose the paperwork. We can email the > customer a pdf, the installers have them printed out in the van for > customers. We track when we receive them back too; if we receive a > contract back and there is a big delay in the install, that is a problem > we have to investigate and address. If the customer needs a contract for > reference we give them an extra blank one, or offer to mail them a > photocopy of the one they signed. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
