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Who reads all those terms and conditions before clicking ‘okay’ or ‘proceed’ or whatever?
It turns out that some people are just that bored (and/or anal), and they’re here to tell you what you’re missing – and what you need to know.
15. The Canadian math requirement.
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 shit no one but examiners read. The Canadian math requirement is the strangest I’ve ever seen.
14. What a disappointment.
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.
13. Free chocolate, anyone?
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.
12. Bonus content.
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.
11. The devil is in the details.
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.
10. Pure randomness.
I was stoned and downloaded a mobile game some years ago and decided to read the terms and conditions. It was like 20 pages and mostly had to do with privacy and micro transaction stuff. In the back half a paragraph was the lyrics to ToTos Africa.
9. A bonus day.
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.
8. Beware.
DeviantArt’s ToS is basically a contract allowing them to print, reproduce, and profit from your art (if they so choose) without needing your permission or consent.
Usually this takes the form of ads or contests, where they’ll be used in public displays. If you post works that show a high level of technical skill, then you need to either sign it or use a big ol’ watermark.
7. Tips and tricks.
After reading through all the comments here, I see no one has mentioned how useful this tip can be-
If you’re downloading some shady software, scroll through the entire ToS and find any check boxes, then uncheck them.
Usually for things like this, that’s how various programs and malware will end up being downloaded without you understanding how, which is what will usually happen with people who are especially young or especially old. There will be something written in there like “You agree that you would like to install MegaSuperSaverSearchPlus to your PC and set it as your default search engine” with a pre-checked box next to it, leading to a lot of easily avoided problems.
So yeah, scroll through and uncheck boxes when you’re downloading something weird. You dont even need to read the terms, just be aware what could be tucked away inside them.
6. To be a lawyer.
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.
5. Beware the serial killer repairman.
I know at some point Comcast was not responsible if it killed you.
Haven’t looked at it in years though (used to work for them so you get to learn the terms pretty quickly)
4. No biggie.
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. “
3. Just a small cut.
If you make money on tik tok , the owners can rightfully take the money .
2. Winner winner chicken dinner.
I don’t have a story myself, but I found this article about a man who won a $1000 giveaway that was hidden in the EULA of an app. The 3000 people who installed the program before him didn’t bother to read it.
1. Literally.
Sony can sue you for literaly not updating your console software if you’re connected to internet
I don’t know about you, but I’m still not reading them.
