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BOUNTIFUL — Getting out of a contract can be a lot tougher than getting into one.
That's what Grenn Clark of Bountiful discovered when he tried to cancel his garbage pick up service. He ended up trapped for another year in a contract he didn't want.
Automatically renewing or self-renewing contracts have become a mainstay of the service and many other industries. They are very useful to consumers, generally speaking.
However, if you don't need the service anymore, getting out of them can be tricky and you might get stuck paying for something you simply don't need and can't use anymore.
In Clark's case, a verbal cancellation to the salesperson didn't work out.
"I made an assumption I shouldn't have," Clark said.
He feels he's been put out on the curb by the waste company he hired to collect the garbage at the Bountiful apartment building he owns.
"I should have investigated them more," he said.
Clark said he first hired the firm, Waste Management, 12 years ago. He got a call from a company representative last year asking if he wanted to renew his contract. Clark said he told them no and asked the rep if he could go month-to-month until he was ready to cancel service.
The law would say look at what does the underlying contract say.
–Jon Parry, Attorney
"There was no question, no questions. He said they could do that. They didn't have to have a contract," Clark said.
Then Clark was ready to cancel in September but was told he couldn't.
"They told me they just couldn't cancel it without proper documentation," he explained.
The sales rep who Clark said told him he could cancel quit his job, leaving behind only a note indicating a potential cancellation. Clark then was told he can only cancel by sending a registered letter sometime before his contract automatically renews.
So, the entire time he thought he was on a month-to-month basis, Clark was on a contract that renewed twice.
"He, in effect, fractured the contract at that point. I thought it was OK," Clark said.
Attorney Jonathon Parry of Kruse Landa Maycock and Ricks specializes in business law. He has no role in this situation: He's never talked to Clark or Waste Management or seen any documents.
He said in general a company may be legally bound to what a salesperson tells you, but you'll have to prove what was agreed on.
So, if you don't cancel the way the contract says you should — despite what a salesperson tells you — you could be stuck in a contract you don't want for another year.
"Inevitably it's human nature that one person is going to remember those terms a bit differently than the other," he explained.
If a salesperson promises you something over the phone, that's not good enough, he said.
"One should request an email or letter confirmation, something in writing to confirm in terms what that modification was, because it could be something very important later," he said.
Clark said in the future, if he doesn't understand exactly what he reads in a contract he'll get help or avoid it altogether.
"Or just with one you wrote up yourself," he said. "You're responsible to do the work. I'm responsible to pay you."
