Nobody reads terms and conditions: it's official

Devil became very happy when computers were invented and first terms started to go in soft/sites/etc. It was never easy like this before to get human soul contracts.:devil:
 
TheRyanator said:
The problem is that most TOS agreements are umteen million pages long. No one wants to read all that legalese. My personal recommendation is to put a condensed TOS on the page as well that highlights the important points.
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I was going to reply the exact same thing to this post. The reason why people do not read TOS is firstly its too long, secondly the font is normally very small and difficult to read and lastly the language used is often very technical and difficult to comprehend. As mentioned above, keep is simple, concise, to the point and easy to read with important points marked. :agree:
 
serveion said:
I was bored. and I Google terms and conditions I found this

Not one customer of online computer game seller Gamestation read the terms and conditions of sale on 1st April, the company has said. In an April Fools' Day prank, it has claimed the legal right to the souls of all those customers.

Gamestation changed its terms and conditions to say that anyone buying goods from it online on 1st April this year and not clicking on a link contained within them would forfeit their soul.

The prank, which was designed to highlight that terms and conditions are almost never read, fooled all 7,500 customers who made a purchase that day, a company spokesman said.

The new conditions said: "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".

"Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions. We reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act," said the terms. "If you a) do not believe you have an immortal soul, b) have already given it to another party, or c) do not wish to grant Us such a license, please click the link below to nullify this sub-clause and proceed with your transaction."

That link led the user to a page saying that the clause was an April Fool, congratulating the user of being "so vigilant" and offering them a £5 voucher.

Gamestation said that 7,500 people made online purchases on 1 April and that none of them clicked on the link, meaning that all the customers failed to check the terms and conditions closely.

The retailer carried out the experiment because it had previously conducted research which indicated that as few as 12% of customers read terms and conditions when buying online. In fact its experiment showed that the situation is even worse than it had thought.

Gamestation said that the prank was designed to remind customers that when it came to buying online "the devil is in the detail and ... always read the terms and conditions", according to a company statement.

The results of the experiment chime with others' findings. Computer optimisation software maker PC Pitstop tried a similar experiment. It buried a clause in its end user licence agreement (EULA) offering money to anybody who read the clause and sent an email to the address within it.

It said that it was only after four months and 3,000 downloads of its software that somebody finally emailed the address and claimed a $1,000 reward.


Am one of them
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Unfortunately, that's true! I, as a user sometimes I don;t read ToS either and I admit it is wrong. As a service provider, when your customers don;t read your ToS is a huge problem as well. We should set a time limit, let's say 5 minutes until the customer can get to the next step because there is no way one can "read" ToS in 1 second. maybe if they are forced to stay on that page for 5 minutes anyway, maybe they will actually read it.
 
Even though we encourage customers to read the T&Cs and they even tick to confirm they have, it is true that most do not and 'I have read the terms and conditions' is usually the biggest lie ever ...
 
BoonexHosting said:
Even though we encourage customers to read the T&Cs and they even tick to confirm they have, it is true that most do not and 'I have read the terms and conditions' is usually the biggest lie ever ...
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but by ticking the box, they are deemed to have read and agreed to them.

i almost wonder what would happen if this was added to TOS

" within 2 weeks of you signing up we will send the boys round to remove all your tv and computer equipment"

just to see how many actually do read the TOS and spot this. :D
 
easyhostmedia said:
but by ticking the box, they are deemed to have read and agreed to them.

i almost wonder what would happen if this was added to TOS

" within 2 weeks of you signing up we will send the boys round to remove all your tv and computer equipment"

just to see how many actually do read the TOS and spot this. :D
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99% would never know until the' boys' turned up ;)
 
easyhostmedia said:
True and most who be shocked when they find out that's they agreed too
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I think this is where some business have their customers 'by the balls' so to speak and can pretty much add anything they want to the T&Cs knowing the customer most likely will not look and realize until it is put forward to them ...
 
I believe Apple did a prank like that. I believe the prank was that apple would be granted permission over your soul upon agreeing to the terms.

I won't lie, I've signed up for stuff without reading the TC but sometimes depending on the length will read it through. I normally read it through if it is important. I don't know anyone who hasn't signed up for something without reading the TC. I'm sure most of us here are guilty of that lol
 
It would be interesting to calculate how much productivity time would be lost if everyone actually took the time to not only read but to also consider the implications of agreeing to some of these extensive terms and conditions.
 
Funny story. :)

But, really, in our platform analytics we can see that users often spend some time on the ToS page. I assume they look for things like refund policies, support policies, SLAs, etc.
 
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