Savvy Consumer: Read Your Contract's Fine Print

I once ordered a teal-colored leather chair. The contract stated that if I wanted to return it, I'd owe a 50 percent restocking fee. I didn't think that was fair. I was concerned that the color wouldn't be true to the tiny swatch I'd seen in the store. Teal was risky enough, but what if I ended up with turquoise? So I asked the manager to cross out the restocking clause. She said she couldn't do that because of company policy, but she gave me a great alternative. She added an approval clause.

The furniture factory set aside the actual leather for my chair and sent the store a large piece of it. Once I approved the color, the purchase went forward. Reasonable contract, fabulous chair!

You should know that, normally, contracts cannot be canceled. The buyer and the seller are the two parties to the contract and each is bound to uphold the terms of the deal. Neither one can break the contract without the permission of the other. This means if you change your mind, the seller can legally refuse to let you out of the contract. Your signature on a contract indicates that you have read and understood it -- even if you haven't.

Here's an offbeat tip: Make your signature big when you sign a contract. I've seen crooks cut nice neat signatures off the bottom of paperwork and paste them onto less favorable contracts. Scrawl your name large enough that it overlaps the lines above it, so it's hard for the company to cut and paste. And never, ever leave the business without a signed copy of your contract in hand.