John: On your contract, you spell out everything you want in cold black ink! CYA, man!
On my contract, I have a space I write whatever I want. It goes like this: Surf Surf Sound, Inc., in good faith shall provide the following goods and/or services. Then I have about a 1/4 page of blank lines. Then it says, "The parties agree to the following terms of payment." Then a 1/4 page of blank lines. So, I write whatever materials, equipment, etc. If I used an estimate out of my Quickbooks, which I 99% use, I reference the estimate number and date. On the payment section I spell out the terms, which is written as 50% deposit before ordering. Upon receipt of deposit customer is called and a date is set for installation. The remainder is due upon installation and final training, or 30 days whichever occurs first. That way I have the install date discussed on the contract, and can start my 30 days from that point. Legal and BINDING is the key. Then the legal mumbo jumo of how I will sue if they don't pay, and court costs are on them, for unpaid amount plus interest, etc. I also have a section about changes, and additional materials to be charged "pro rata". And these are billed in change orders, OR additional billings. Page two is the warranty. And here you cover your butt bigtime. I even have in this part, if anyone else works on the system outside of the employ of my company, the warranty is toast. We only cover new materials we install. Customer's existing wiring is not included. So if you are installing in a prewire, or replacing a system, faulty wiring is not an issue. If someone so much as cuts a wire, warranty is toast. And don't forget the acts of God. We just went thru Isabel here in OC, MD yesterday, and I'm gonna be busy today. One of my hotels had a fire!! So I hope this helps. And by the way, everyone gets this contract, I don't care if it's for $10, they sign. Service calls are a different issue. I also have a rental contact for when I rent my sound system or equipment. Rent-A-Center takes deposits on the stuff they rent, you are no different. Steve L. Martin Surf Side Sound, Inc. multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html _________________________________________________________________ KX-T Mailing list --- http://kxthelp.com/ Subscription changes: http://kxthelp.com/mailman/listinfo/kxt
