In the digital age, we’re asked to agree to the terms and conditions on a daily basis. Almost every website we click on nowadays asks us to confirm with their company’s privacy policy, but how many of us actually take the time to read the fine print? Research shows that only a minority does this.
However, people in this thread took their sweet time and read the terms and conditions they were presented with, and they’re glad they did, as they found some unexpected things written there. Scroll down to find their stories below, and don’t forget to share your own experiences so it motivates others to pay closer attention to what they’re agreeing to.
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#1
Thank you customer for actually reading our terms and conditions. Send us an E-mail with the following content and we will send you a free box of chocolates.
They did indeed send chocolate.
They did indeed send chocolate.
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90points
#2
In the hiring contract for the last company I worked for, there was a line buried on page like 22 that said if you email a certain email address on your first day saying you saw the line, you'd get a bonus day of PTO for the year.
69points
#3
Something that I wish I read was on Fabletics online store. Apparently if you make any purchase they automatically sign you up to their VIP program which is a $50 per month subscription for “VIP clothes”. I made one purchase on their site, checked out like any other online store, and got my clothes a week later. 8 months go by and I notice a -$50 taken out of my bank from Fabletics (I check my bank pretty often so idk how I missed this) and it turned out to be a recurring payment for 8 MONTHS. I called their support line and explained to the guy that I never signed up for their subscription and I never even received any sign up confirmation emails or payment statements to know what was happening. He said I most likely signed up when I purchased my clothes 8 months ago because it’s in their terms. It’s like once you “sign up” they ghost you and take your money every month. It took a lot of frustration and refusal to hang up the phone until they finally said I can get a refund of my $400+ that was just sitting in my VIP account. I was like “clearly I was unaware of this because from the past 8 months I haven’t made any more purchases on your stupid site, give me my money back.” They finally refunded it all back. F*****g scammers. Don’t buy s**t from Fabletics.
I still should leave an online review about it because after looking up “Fabletics scam” it seems to happen to a lot of people.
I still should leave an online review about it because after looking up “Fabletics scam” it seems to happen to a lot of people.
60points
Few people read the fine print when it is physically in print, and probably fewer do it when it’s in the digital environment. The Pew Research Center has found that just 9% of adults read a company’s privacy policy before agreeing to the terms and conditions, while more than a third (36%) say they never do it.
With a simple click of a button, people give websites the right to keep, analyze, and sell their data to third parties without realizing it. Often, people also click away their right to go to court if anything goes wrong.
#4
Apps that demand access to your call history, keyboard, internet and photos, when they're literally just a flashlight.
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55points
#5
Gamestation once made an "Immortal Soul Clause" on April Fool's day, to prove that no-one actually reads the terms and conditions. It read " By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. ".
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54points
#6
I’m a lawyer. Whenever undergrads tell me they want to go to law school, I tell them to read the entire iTunes terms and conditions, without skipping a single sentence. If they can’t get through it, they don’t have the discipline and attention to detail for law school.
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53points
The data that internet users agree to give away is especially useful to advertisers, who can then tailor their content to consumers' preferences. A part of such data can also end up in the hands of health insurers, life insurance companies, and even employers, all of which can make important decisions according to it and have quite an effect on our lives.
#7
Amazon's AWS Service Terms contain a clause pertaining to a **zombie apocalypse**.
No, really:
>However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.
No, really:
>However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.
45points
#8
Idk if this is super surprising, but I read the entire lease for my first apartment and apparently, I couldn’t get out of my lease even if I DIED.
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43points
#9
I don't know if they changed it but, when you chose the "fragile" obtion in a mail system like FedEx, that didn't ment they would take special care of it but that you admitted that it was fragile and therefore it could be broken without being their fault, leaving you unable to sue them for breaking your package or to ask any reimbursement.
43points
A solution to this problem is obvious - to read the terms and conditions we’re presented with. But realistically, if we read each one, we’d spend around eight hours a week doing that. That’s almost a whole day we lose in a week. Who has time for that?
To help with this issue, ToS;DR ("Terms of Service; Didn't Read"), a free browser extension, was created. It labels and rates agreements you’re presented with from very good to very bad. It aids in unearthing the worrisome things and prevents you from signing your life away.
#10
On amazon: anytime they want they can take away from me the books thats I’ve bought on kindle store.
41points
#11
At a gun range one time I saw that if I yelled out “I love dogs!” my time and anything I buy is half price. I immediately did so, startling my best friend. That was awesome.
The contract to a job I had working in the desert warned about the frequency of alien attacks. I was disappointed to go a year and a half without any, though.
The contract to a job I had working in the desert warned about the frequency of alien attacks. I was disappointed to go a year and a half without any, though.
40points
#12
Gym membership contract: one of the reasons that will **not** allow waving your resignation fee is "in case of a nuclear reactor core melting".
40points
#13
Back in the day when people [legally] acquired new music by buying CDs, one of the bands I listened to would hide nice little messages to fans in the copyright/legal fine print in the booklet that came with the CD. Sometimes there would be a small link to a hidden part of their website that had extra content.
38points
#14
A while ago (~2011) there was a scam "Work from Home" service widely advertised all over Facebook and other places, promising enormous paycheques and a free trial. (It was an opt-out subscription service as you might expect).
Curious as to how the scam worked, I looked at their T&Cs.
There was a clause in there requiring you to pay $10000 in compensation to the company if you filed a chargeback against their fees.
Whilst that would never stand up in court, dealing with debt collectors who might conveniently offer to settle for 'a mere three thousand' would be all sorts of hell.
Curious as to how the scam worked, I looked at their T&Cs.
There was a clause in there requiring you to pay $10000 in compensation to the company if you filed a chargeback against their fees.
Whilst that would never stand up in court, dealing with debt collectors who might conveniently offer to settle for 'a mere three thousand' would be all sorts of hell.
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36points
#15
I had a Victoria's Secret coupon that said Canadians are required to pass a math question or test in order to be eligible for the discount.
I think I still have it at my desk - my job in part is writing terms and conditions, agreements, and disclosures for the bank I work at so I actually do read a lot of T&Cs in homage to the amount of time my colleagues in the field put into writing 18 pages of s**t no one but examiners read. The Canadian math requirement is the strangest I've ever seen.
I think I still have it at my desk - my job in part is writing terms and conditions, agreements, and disclosures for the bank I work at so I actually do read a lot of T&Cs in homage to the amount of time my colleagues in the field put into writing 18 pages of s**t no one but examiners read. The Canadian math requirement is the strangest I've ever seen.
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34points
#16
A job schedule app my company uses requires you to login using the company email. To set this up on your phone, you have to give your company the rights to erase the contents of your phone remotely, probably in case you become a threat to the company. No thanks.
34points
#17
I showed up for a medical procedure once and the front desk nurse handed me a 3-page form to sign. I started reading it, and she got visibly annoyed, so I kept reading. Found on 2nd page a sentence like this: patient agrees to pay all billing amounts resulting from this procedure. I asked, what does this include? Can you provide me with an estimate of the charges. She said no. I said I am not signing it, because the doctor could throw in a 3-week vacation to Florida or whatever else he/she wants as a "result" of the procedure. That led to a standoff, me not signing, her not taking me back to the procedure room.
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34points
#18
WhatsApp, when it went full-Facebook 4 years after purchase, sent out an Android update.
The update said it was just adding the ability to give group chats a sub-heading.
What it was *actually* doing was giving Facebook permission to take information. This option was enabled by default (of course it was) and you had only 3 months to notice this had happened before the option to opt out was disabled.
I was late noticing this, but when I read the terms and conditions, the last line said something along the lines of, "Even if you opt out, Facebook and the Facebook family of companies will *still* take the data for.....training purposes."
Aaaaand deleted my account. They probably had my info by that point but f**k that s**t. Installed Signal.
The update said it was just adding the ability to give group chats a sub-heading.
What it was *actually* doing was giving Facebook permission to take information. This option was enabled by default (of course it was) and you had only 3 months to notice this had happened before the option to opt out was disabled.
I was late noticing this, but when I read the terms and conditions, the last line said something along the lines of, "Even if you opt out, Facebook and the Facebook family of companies will *still* take the data for.....training purposes."
Aaaaand deleted my account. They probably had my info by that point but f**k that s**t. Installed Signal.
33points
#19
Wanted to sign my kid up for cheerleading. Sat there and read the terms and agreement. Said something along the lines of "We are not responsible for any accidents that occur in the transportation of your child." My husband lost his brother in a school transportation accident and they initially tried to avoid the blame. So naturally that line gave us the heebie jeebies and we just left. Turns out they were just a shady company all around. She now does cheer through her school.
33points
#20
If you make money on TikTok, the owners can rightfully take the money.
loopsydoopsy:
They can also use your videos in their advertisements without your permission, even if the videos are private. Cody Ko had to deal with this.
_NITRISS_:
Hippity hoppity your Tik-Tok is my property
loopsydoopsy:
They can also use your videos in their advertisements without your permission, even if the videos are private. Cody Ko had to deal with this.
_NITRISS_:
Hippity hoppity your Tik-Tok is my property
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32points