{"id":1692,"date":"2023-07-18T18:09:30","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T18:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1692"},"modified":"2023-07-18T18:09:35","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T18:09:35","slug":"always-read-the-small-print","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/always-read-the-small-print\/1692\/","title":{"rendered":"Always Read the Small Print"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019m sorry to have to tell you this, but there isn\u2019t any way out of this contract.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meg crumpled onto the settee and wept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Thanks for taking a look, Andy, I owe you one,\u2019 said Doug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What we going to do Doug, we\u2019ve no more money to pay them.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Come on love, whenever have I let you down, something will turn up.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018But even if we default on the payment, that stupid clause states we are still liable.  I couldn\u2019t bear it if they take our lovely home.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u2018This would never have happened if that slimy salesman Ben had told us the truth, we would never have signed it, he\u2019s the one who should be going to court, not us. I wish there was a way to make him pay!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018<\/strong>That\u2019s a very good idea, Doug\u2019 Andy said, \u2018I\u2019ll get back to you\u2019 and left their house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Whatever did Andy mean?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019m not sure luv, and I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s going to be entirely legal, best not to know probably.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Are you sure this is going to work?\u2019 asked Doug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018My legal friends reckon, he won\u2019t be able to resist, and the small print is so contradictory that he\u2018ll never see it coming.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It is all above board, isn\u2019t it?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Shall we say as much as the one you signed was, and leave it at that?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben could hardly believe that he had been acknowledged as the \u201cSalesman of the Year.\u201d He had worked hard and managed to get loads of suckers on board.   He was looking forward to the beach holiday. He\u2019d read the contract, it was the normal small print gobbledegook. Everything seemed straightforward enough. With his ego riding high, he signed the contract with a flamboyant flourish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything was as promised. The only annoying part was that there was no Wi-Fi, and his phone had packed up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After seven days, he was ready to return to civilisation.  He had had enough of his own company.  A storm brewed up the morning of his departure, there was no way off the island.  It raged for a week, by which time he was out of food. He was picked up at the end of three weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A letter from a solicitor arrived a few days after his return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Sir,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has come to our attention that you overstayed your visit on the island and are, therefore, in breach of the contract.  The rules are quite clear and as per paragraph 3, subsection 2 of the aforementioned contract, you are now liable for the upkeep of the habitat for the next ten years.  No mitigating circumstances can change this ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a311,000 per annum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please complete the Direct Debit slip below and return to the above address.\u00a0 Failure to do this will result in court action and further costs\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doug and Meg were overjoyed when Andy handed over Ben\u2019s payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now they could keep their home and get the courts off their backs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018This would never have happened if that slimy salesman Ben had told us the truth, we would never have signed it, he\u2019s the one who should be going to court, not us. I wish there was a way to make him pay!\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[695,836],"tags":[619,869,867,427,95,8,20,38,868,871,331,870,191,74,11],"class_list":["post-1692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-no-way-out","tag-andy","tag-contract","tag-doug","tag-going","tag-had","tag-he","tag-his","tag-never","tag-print","tag-read","tag-small","tag-sure","tag-there","tag-up","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-ri","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1694,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692\/revisions\/1694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}