The Logic of Customer Contracts


For many years in the rental industry, in the meat industry and in the waste disposal industry, we have noticed suppliers attempting to bind customers to use their service on a continuing basis, by means of a “contract”. We have operated now for 52 years - most of it in these industries.

Our security of tenure is simply this:

“If our response, our service, our product, our price and the value we offer is not good enough, we know our customers will desert us - and we will learn from that.”

We are never any better than our last performance! - We accept that and have never ever had a rental agreement signed in 52 years. Given this type of logic, we wonder what confidence those who seek to enforce customers to deal with them by contract, have in their response, service, product, price and value. We all know the answer I’m sure! And the logic behind it!

Very few, if any of those “contracts”, and particularly those in the waste industry, are enforceable. They are tools of bluff and in this busy world people never stop to think, or challenge them. Whether signed or not those “contracts” must still stand the tests of the essential elements, of the Law of Contract (which they cannot, on the grounds of equity alone).

In now 52 years in business I have never seen one successfully challenged by a supplier. Many customers I have known of, have simply walked away. Bluff never works commercially.

We just love the way our competitors treat their customers! Our customers just love the freedom of choice we give them!

In your business do you demand, that your customers commit to a 12 month contract? If not, why not?

I would suggest that you don’t because most trustworthy businesses work on trust with their customers.

What a joke, in 2018 such contracts are still in existence. A very unsophisticated business tool to say the least.



DAMIEN COLE

Damien Cole Group