Contract Confessions
Costly, surprising and entirely recognisable contract mistakes — and what would have caught them in time.
Category
Forgotten subscriptions
“We paid for it for 17 months. Nobody was using it.”
The subscription owner had left the company. The agreement renewed automatically, and the invoices kept getting approved.
Read this confessionMissed notice periods
“We cancelled on the renewal date. The notice period was 60 days.”
The cancellation arrived too late to stop a full further term, so the service was paid for another year and used for two months.
Read this confessionPrice increases
“The price went up every year and nobody ever queried it.”
An indexation clause allowed an annual uplift. Four years of compounding later, the line item no longer resembled the deal that was signed.
Read this confessionMissing agreements
“When the dispute started, we could not find the signed version.”
There were three drafts, one unsigned PDF and an email chain. The negotiating position rested on a document nobody could produce.
Read this confessionUnexpected obligations
“One of our entities signed a group-wide commitment. Nobody at group level knew.”
A local manager committed the whole group to a minimum volume. The obligation surfaced during a finance review, two quarters later.
Read this confessionSmart contract decisions
“We renewed early, on purpose, and it was the right call.”
Knowing the decision deadline three months out turned a rushed renewal into a negotiation with time on our side.
Read this confession
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