Signing a contract is a delicate business.

It’s hard to think of every possible loophole and risk, but you can’t thinking of everything.

See how this homeowner used this company’s own terms to get out of a contract.

Won’t cancel my contract? Pay 8x what it’s worth

We moved into a new house in February 2019 and I had twins in April 2019.

I was on maternity leave for 3 months and pretty sleep deprived, as you can imagine.

One afternoon, a pest control company came and knocked on my door asking if we had pest control, and offering a discount for signing up.

In my altered mental state, I didn’t research/think enough about it and signed up for a one year contract, with service every 3 months, which they advised I could cancel at any time with 30 days notice (unfortunately I did not get this in writing).

It was a disaster from the start.

Also, they indicated that my children, pets, and I would not have to leave the house when they sprayed.

The first service comes around.

They tell me right before that children under 2 have to be out of the house for two hours after spraying.

I am unprepared for this and tell them to just spray outside and they agree and say they will come back another day to do the inside.

They never do.

The bugs get worse instead of better.

I call them and they say its because they didn’t spray inside and all the bugs are getting in.

They offer to come out again.

I find somewhere to take the babies for the afternoon and they spray inside.

Bugs are worse yet.

I call and ask to cancel and they tell me I can, but they will charge me the remainder of the contract.

I ask for a manager to call me back.

I forget about it because I’m going back to work and dealing with my kids.

The second service comes around and I decide to let them try one more time.

Bugs get worse again… I think they may have been spraying sugar water.

I call to cancel again and get the same answer.

I do get escalated this time, and they tell me there is no one in the entire company that has the power to cancel my contract without further payment.

So she looks for a solution and voila!

It’s at this point that I realize that I don’t have a copy of my contract and I feel dumb.

I ask them to email me the contract, which they do (which was also dumb because the contract itself says that to be binding they had to provide me a copy upon signing with a 3 day rescission period, so it basically was already unenforceable).

I read it and notice it has an arbitration clause which says I can’t sue them (not that I was planning on it) until we undergo 4 hours of arbitration, with them providing the arbitrator.

Where I live, arbitrators cost about $400/hr, and the remainder on the contract was $240. I immediately email and demand arbitration.

I get a call within an hour that they’ve cancelled the remainder of my contract and there will be no charges, plus they’re refunding my last service.

Then, I posted how I got out of it on their Facebook Page to help all the other people complaining of the same issues.

Here is what people are talking about.

Makes sense, but they should explain that.

Imagine if it was your employer, though. LOL.

Maybe? That sounds annoying.

I can handle ants, too. I can’t stand flies!

Clever consumer!

As long as you don’t get bed bugs.

These stories are far too common.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.