Contracts serve them, not you.

I’m writing this right after another one of our potential customers discovered that they were just trapped in an auto-renewing contract. We see it all the time. A software vendor has a solution that doesn’t return results so they force the veterinarian to sign a 1-year contract. And then they make that contract auto-renew if the vet doesn’t send in written notice 30 days before year end. This is the old way of doing business and only serves the large corporations. It’s time for these shady business practices to end. It’s time to do what’s best for the customer.

Contracts deconstructed:

They know they can show results in the first 60 days during a free trial.
They also know on day 61 the results disappear and problems arise.
They know their support is horrible and they have no plans to make it better.
They would rather spend money on lawyers than improve their product.
They make more money and get away with it.
They know there are better solutions available.
They know a contract is the only way to get you to stay.

Think about these motivations the next time a software vendor tells you they have a contract to sign. And then ask them why they also have a setup fee.

What would you do?

Would you ever ask your clients to sign a contract for a year and then not let them out of it if they were unhappy? Would you tell a client that they have to pay for another year because they didn’t know they had to bring in written notice they were going somewhere else?

It’s a tough, competitive market out there but there are some things that are just plain wrong.

We still care about our customers and we couldn’t sleep at night if we had customers trapped in our service. That’s why we don’t have contracts, we let customers leave whenever they want, and we work insanely hard to keep them happy. Doing what’s best for the customer is what’s best for us. We’re going to continue to call for others in this industry to do the same.

Anything else is criminal.