denying the existance of a cancellation policy does not get you your money back

[bankworking]

People apologize to me about having questions sometimes. I'm always like Please ask questions. This is a loan on your house. A variable rate loan, more often than not, since most people want the line of credit. The last thing you should do is to sign without knowing exactly what it is you are getting into.

[Sparklyturtle]

Eh, I'd say it's about 1 in 5 who scan their home loan docs, 1 in 20 who read them, and 1 in a hundred who take the time to really question more than the basics. I like that 1 in 100. Gives me a chance to go over the parts that we just never bring up on our own due to eyes-glazing-over-syndrome when you try to explain everything.

You'd have loved Turtleguy when we bought our house. While I also read the documents, he read them and asked questions. He's one of these who won't sign anything without reading it first, and I've picked up the habit from him.

[bankworking]

Eh, I'd say it's about 1 in 5 who scan their home loan docs, 1 in 20 who read them, and 1 in a hundred who take the time to really question more than the basics. I like that 1 in 100. Gives me a chance to go over the parts that we just never bring up on our own due to eyes-glazing-over-syndrome when you try to explain everything.

[Sparklyturtle]

This past year we were going to go to our usual vacation place. Unfortunately, the day after the cancellation deadline we both came down with the flu. So, I called the place and explained what had happened, and they let us cancel without charging us a fee. This particular place is usually always booked solid at the time we were booked to go there, so I'm sure they had no problem renting the room to someone else. I'm also sure that they preferred we keep our germs out of their hotel.

[Stormraven]

When I closed on my house a month ago during the closing mound of paperwork signing/initialing many pages I actually did read (or at best a slow skim) the paperwork I was signing.

The closing agent and my loan officer commented to me that I was the first person in like 2 years who even bothered looking at much less reading all that paperwork before signing.

We did the same.

Of course, as both of us were in the Mortgage industry, even skimming the Note was sufficient to know what it was about.

We were more careful with those bits we hadn't seen hundreds of times before.

[Racket_Man]

I've worked in the Mortgage industry myself. The one that always struck me as funniest was the actual lawyer who clearly hadn't read the contract (Note and Deed) before signing them.

When I closed on my house a month ago during the closing mound of paperwork signing/initialing many pages I actually did read (or at best a slow skim) the paperwork I was signing.

The closing agent and my loan officer commented to me that I was the first person in like 2 years who even bothered looking at much less reading all that paperwork before signing.

[katzklaw]

Out of curiosity, what is to stop them from moving it to a month later, then calling back 2 days later and cancelling for a refund?

we can look in the records to see if a reservation has been moved. some people call wanting to move their reservation... for them nbd.. anyone who i get the slightest feeling they're gonna try to pull a fast one (like they raise a big fuss about losing their deposit, then suddenly act happy about being able to change it for free to some random date in the future.. etc), i make notes along the lines of "reservation originally dated blahblah, moved to suchnsuch. if they call to cancel they lose their deposit"

some places i've worked allow unlimited moves (unless someone is just being obnoxious about it). some allow you to move once for free, additional moves are a charge. that particular aspect is up to the individual owner/manager.

[nutraxfornerves]

I've worked in the Mortgage industry myself. The one that always struck me as funniest was the actual lawyer who clearly hadn't read the contract (Note and Deed) before signing them.

I was on a jury once for a civil suit. Party A was suing Party B because "you promised to put me on the deed if I paid for all these other expenses." As part of proof that the expenses were paid, Party A actually presented 5-year old documents on which any literate person would notice that Party B was the only listed owner. Party A had not bothered to look at them at the time they were written. They settled out of court halfway through the trail.

Party A was an attorney--specializing in real estate law.

[Seanette]

I've worked in the Mortgage industry myself. The one that always struck me as funniest was the actual lawyer who clearly hadn't read the contract (Note and Deed) before signing them.

That one's a bit scary. Hope s/he is more attentive with client matters.

[Stormraven]

I've worked in the Mortgage industry myself. The one that always struck me as funniest was the actual lawyer who clearly hadn't read the contract (Note and Deed) before signing them.

[RealUnimportant]

I blame the length & intricacy of internet/software Ts & Cs for making reading the small print less & less common. We've been conditioned to just click "I Agree" without checking what we agree to - but I'll still look through everything when there's money involved.

[LadyAndreca]

Let's just say I work for a lender.

At least half my calls in a given day are from people oh-so-shocked by the terms of the contract they had to sign off on at least twice to get the money. I've become convinced that having the sense to read a legal document such as a contract before signing is nearly obsolete.

It probably is. Our mortgage broker was quite surprised when both my husband and I read every single page of the mortgage and asked questions about points we didn't understand. Our realtor less so, but then she'd been working with us for a year by the time we found a house in our price range that wasn't falling apart.

[Seanette]

Let's just say I work for a lender.

At least half my calls in a given day are from people oh-so-shocked by the terms of the contract they had to sign off on at least twice to get the money. I've become convinced that having the sense to read a legal document such as a contract before signing is nearly obsolete.

[Food Lady]

I run into this allllll the time with leases. If you cancel early there's a fee. And there's a return fee on the equipment.
"I wasn't told about that." Everything I outlined is in the terms and conditions. "I didn't sign that. The person who did is no longer here." OK, but someone from your company did and the contract's been going for 3 years already.... "I didn't read what I signed." Well, at least she admits it.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

This thread reminds of one time a couple of months ago at <red checkmark> when a customer was denying they'd agreed to a certain portion of our terms and conditions. As with the OP's case, it was in regards to a fee.

He told me he could prove he never agreed to it, so, being curious, I asked him how he intended to do this, he said would email the proof. Okay, fine.

A few minutes later I get an email from him which shows our terms and conditions and his agreement to them at the bottom, BUT, the section at issue is completely whited out. Like "horrible eraser job in MS Paint" whited out!

I called him back and politely told him his "proof" wasn't valid but the fee still was.