Terms & Conditions

Just out of curiosity...does anybody ever read (and understand) all of the Terms & Conditions you accept on the web? I've thought about this before, but today I observed several people at work scrutinizing the Terms & Conditions that were associated with a purchase order we received. These were executives who had to scrutinize the documents independently as well as with legal counsel...a timely and thereby costly task. It wasn't a large order that was going to generate significant revenue, but in these economic times you tend to fight for every order you can to keep the workforce busy and employed.

While there were multiple terms and conditions that were troublesome, the biggest point of contention stated (in layman's terms) that even if the customer was at fault in using or installing the piece of equipment we sold them, we would have to indemnify the customer...or essentially pay for any losses or lawsuits that was a result of THEIR negligence.

Applying this principle in a real world situation...let's say I manufacture steak knives which are intended for the purpose of cutting a juicy prime rib. If you had as a condition of sale this same type of legal condition, I could be sued and required to pay any damages if you who used this knife to destroy somebody's house, or worse, if you went postal and stabbed and murdered a bunch of people. How crazy is that? Would you agree to that?

What makes matters worse, is that all of this legal nonsense escalates the cost of doing business. This increases the cost of everything the U.S. consumer has to purchase. You have manufacturers who spend way too much money consulting with attorneys to create their Terms & Conditions, and then you have the distributor and ultimately the end customer such as a Wal-Mart that do the same thing in generating their own legal Terms & Conditions...none of which are the same....and each of which protect only the entity that created them. In this day and age, where everybody is sue-happy (not so happy), all of these businesses have to spend all of this money to TRY to protect them from the current legal environment. Common sense is out the window. Consumers (you and I) aren't capable of assessing the risk associated with hot coffee...you will get burned if you spill the hot coffee in your lap.

Next time you come across a Terms & Conditions you have to accept to say...update your iTunes, take a few minutes (okay maybe a few hours) to read and try to understand what you are actually agreeing to. Thank goodness there were a few people that read the Terms & Conditions that Facebook recently tried to put in place which changed user's rights associated with the content they post.

Now imagine, if you will, trying to operate a business (and make a profit) where every item you purchase and most services you purchase come with a different set of Terms & Conditions that you have to evaluate and sign off on, or negotiate, or you must find another vendor or service provider. Then for every different customer you want to sell to, you get a different set of Terms & Conditions you have to evaluate and sign off on, or negotiate, or decide not to accept any orders from the specific customer. And while you've spent all that time and money trying to cover your ass, you are still going to spend out the whazoo defending in court if you do get sued.