The fact that online service providers expect you to check in periodically to see if they've made any changes to their Terms of Service (ToS) is already an old, bad joke. But if you're in the mood for a really bad joke, take a look at what's involved in really tracking those changes even if you wanted to try. Even when a vendor like Verizon at least goes through the motions of giving its customers some form o
What other hints might be hidden in those 33,000 words about what Verizon is actually up to? We don't know, because, as the reader says, life is too short for any of us to read it all. "So here's a new form of binding, accepted-if-you-don't-opt-out, sneak-contract," the reader wrote. " Just send out e-mail about the changes -- I'll bet complaints forced Verizon to do even that -- but still make it virtually impossible to read it and change in time. Besides, who has the lifetime it would require to read all these interminable contracts and their changes in terms of service?"
And the scary thing is that Verizon Online is probably behaving better in this regard than many of its competitors. At least they are providing e-mail notification of changes instead of just expecting you to read all their legal documents to if they've arbitrarily changed the rules. As laughable as such a form of "contracting" is, it would seem that the joke is on us.
Post your comments about this story below or write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.
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