Question:
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Ken,
Hello. I purchased the contracts thru you and Eileen about 6 weeks ago. We have them printed and ready to go. We are going to be sending these out (via snailmail) to our current customers to be signed. We are sending it with a cover letter stating that these "new" contracts must be signed, replacing the old ones, in order to continue our relationship because our old contracts have the auto-renew part in them.
Basically, my question is this.... Sending the contracts to the customer to sign via mail. They sign and return. A year later, we file small claims or worst yet are being sued by the customer for some reason or the other. The customer says "he never signed that....thats not his signature...never saw it before...".
Are these contracts that are sent out in the mail, sign "supposedly by the client" and returned to us, good? Are we protected? we are going on good faith that if I send something to Tom Jones, at 13 Easy St, and it is returned to us with a signature, we are good?
Thanks
Kelly W
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Answer:
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You need to be a bit more creative with your letter to the subscribers. Telling them that the new contract has to be signed for the relationship to continue may result in loss of accounts. Subscribers may also believe that their existing contracts are no longer valid or enforceable, permitting them to select another security provider. Of course if all of your existing subscriber do have expired or invalid contracts then perhaps you will need to be more aggressive getting new contracts signed.
Sending contracts through the mail does leave open the issue of genuineness of signatures. However, you can't be expected to visit every subscriber and there is nothing wrong with sending contracts through the mail. Saving the correspondence and envelops may help prove that the signed contracts came from the subscriber. Saving a copy of a signed check that has the same signature on it is also helpful proof. So using the mail is practical and for large companies unavoidable. You can of course call to confirm the signature when you get the contract back and record your call.
Feedback I get is that you should get at least 50% of the contracts back, signed on the first letter. You may have to work a little harder to get the others back.
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comment on electronic contracts
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Ken
Jim Wooster’s comments are right on point. Electronic signatures, Xerox copies and carbon copies are usually binding on both parties in an alarm contract especially when they include the exculpatory paragraphs which make your contracts so tough to contest. From a Buyer’s perspective copies are less and often much less valued than the original when you consider that copies may be sold out the back door while originals are sold out the front. In addition changes can be made to copies which may or may not be on the original creating contract issues that could result in the loss of that customer. An original contract always trumps a copy and as Jim suggests your originals should always be treated like currency and stored offsite in a fire-safe environment.
I look forward to any other questions and thanks to Ken for maintaining this forum.
R. Anthony Smith
Security Finance Associates, Inc.