Payments stopped without notice

[Colin Castle]

Hi, i have had an agreement with a company for several years, they paid me a monhtly fee to manage and market their website which we did until i received a phone call last month saying they had been approached by another company and they were telling me they were ending their agreement.

The problem is, there was never a contract signed, silly me. In my terms and conditions of business it clearley states that any yearly or monthly payment plan has to be cancelled in writing 30 days before the annual renewal date, also, every email i send out to our clients has a link saying that by using any of our services you agree to all our term and conditions with a link to that page on our website, they have said until i can show them an actual signed contract they cannot look into this further, they of course know there was never anything signed.

Can anyone offer any advice as they never gave any notice and they had every opportunity to view my terms and conditions of business.

I stopped working on their site and they have actually lost some first page positions already as their new website doesn't even have the most basic in optimized pages.

Thank you for any advice

 

[Newchodge]

Wave them goodbye and let them get on with it.

In future check that your TCS are watertight and that you have signed contracts.

 

[Charlie B ACS]

Let it go, and if the new incumbent is as poor as you think, they might be back to you sooner rather than later. Then get them to sign a contract!

If you push it now, it won't happen.

 

[Lisa Thomas]

If those terms are on your invoice and they paid your invoice my limited understanding is that payment of your previous invoice is acceptance of these terms but in the circumstances might be best to chalk up to a bad experience and move on.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I realise you never want to lose a customer but why do you want anyone to be forced to stay with you for another year or up to renewal date, its far to long on both sides

Change your terms to either 30 days notice required or three months and you may well find you get more customers in the long run

 

[Nochexman]

...In my terms and conditions of business it clearley states that any yearly or monthly payment plan has to be cancelled in writing 30 days before the annual renewal date...

What a horrible condition of service; how do you justify that?

 

[obscure]

I realise you never want to lose a customer but why do you want anyone to be forced to stay with you for another year or up to renewal date, its far to long on both sides

+1 to this. You should keep your clients by providing an excellent service that is better than the competition. If I was forced to stay because of frankly outrageous terms and conditions you can be sure I would be telling everyone I knew never to deal with the company in question. An initial one/two year contract would be acceptable but after that I expect a sensible notice period and none of this "the only way to give notice is by guessing my secret name and carving it into the magic oak that only appears during the full moon" nonsense.

 

[BEB_Kerry]

Hi,
It is a quite a standard term to implement rolling contracts in B2B contracts. However it is always discretionary whether to enforce that term.

Technically they have breached, you also do not need a signature for it to be a legally binding contract. No one would expect to not give ANY notice at all, not even consumers.

Happy to advise further if you would like.

Kerry

 

[STDFR33]

What a horrible condition of service; how do you justify that?

It's pretty standard nowadays.

A lot of big accounts / tax software providers insist on 90 days notice otherwise you automatically enter into another 12 months contract.

 

[AllUpHere]

They obviously weren't happy with the service you provide, otherwise they wouldn't have jumped ship. The worst thing you can do is to try to keep them by using restrictive terms and conditions. You'd be better off using your energy to find out why they decided to go elsewhere.

 

[Paul Norman]

Any time you spend on this is a waste of time.

Archive the site (in case they come back with humble pie), send them a polite thank you note for their business, acknowledging they have now brought to a conclusion the contract.

I promise you that enforcing a 30 day notice period is not worth the effort here.

 

[Colin Castle]

Hi all and thank you for your feedback and advice, i believe that they were offered this and offered that but we will see, maybe i will leave it and move on, like they say, one door closes and another opened

All the best

 

[Xtm_Mike]

They obviously weren't happy with the service you provide, otherwise they wouldn't have jumped ship. The worst thing you can do is to try to keep them by using restrictive terms and conditions. You'd be better off using your energy to find out why they decided to go elsewhere.

Not nessessarily, people can be easily drawn in by sales patter, the promise of better results for less cash. I offer similar services and have lost clients in the past for the very same reason. I don't really have any strict contracts though. After 12 months it technically becomes a rolling contract. As above, I woudn't want to force anyone to work with me if they didn't want to.. If they get drawn in by sales calls then thats their loss.

 

[Rafael Mediator]

Definitely let it go. If you try to force the issue they will resent it, and likely find a way out anyway, and certainly never come back to you. Maybe you could politely remind them of the condition, but let them know that you will not enforce it as a gesture of goodwill, and they are welcome to return anytime. That way you get a bit of goodwill out of it.

 

[CW Legal Services]

You could always invoice against the issued terms then collect it as a debt. It is always easy for others to advise letting something go when they are not the one's not getting paid.

 

[Xtm_Mike]

You could always invoice against the issued terms then collect it as a debt. It is always easy for others to advise letting something go when they are not the one's not getting paid.

Where does it say he hasn't been getting paid? They told him they're terminating their none contractual agreement with him, he's stopped working on their site, and they don't owe him any other monies.

The OP could push the issue, but without a contract, and taking into account other things like damaging relationships, is it worth the hassle? No. Learn from this problem, make sure contracts are signed and end the relationship professionally.. if they are already losing position in Google then they could be back when they realise they made a mistake.

 

[simon field]

... then collect it as a debt...

Without a court order?

I think not!

 

[Mr D]

You could always invoice against the issued terms then collect it as a debt. It is always easy for others to advise letting something go when they are not the one's not getting paid.

Someone may come back to you as a customer in the future unless you burn all the bridges first.
Can be hard ass about the terms and conditions or can be gracious. Which one is more likely to get them maybe as a customer in the future?

Enforcing the non contract will at the very least be a distraction.

 

[CW Legal Services]

Xtm Mike needs to learn to read what was stated verbatim. It is very English not to ask for what is righfully yours. If you have a contract that entitkles you to payment seek the monies. Try applying the same logic of letting it go to HMRC.

 

[Xtm_Mike]

Xtm Mike needs to learn to read what was stated verbatim. It is very English not to ask for what is righfully yours. If you have a contract that entitkles you to payment seek the monies. Try applying the same logic of letting it go to HMRC.

You mean the contract that was never signed and can only be assumed it was read from the footer of an email?

From what I understand, the client has paid up until they notified of cancellation. Payments stopped, the work stopped... the OP could fight for some extra cash for his services that are no longer required, but why bother? move on, learn from mistakes, put effort into getting new client.

We're arguing over one more months payment, to cover enough time to put it the 30 days notice.

Let it go - the chances are the company that approached them will be useless and they could come back.

 

[simon field]

Xtm Mike needs to learn to read what was stated verbatim. It is very English not to ask for what is righfully yours. If you have a contract that entitkles you to payment seek the monies. Try applying the same logic of letting it go to HMRC.

Please get real!