Do you guys just sign things??

[Rainman4707]

I was in the mall once when I was 13. A salesman called me over trying to sell me his product. He described it & said he'd send me this, this & that. Just sign here.
I thought whats the harm in signing it so i signed without reading it. When I got home & told my dad about this, he was very annoyed. He said It could of been any document that I signed. He said It was stupid of me to sign without knowing what it was.

Since then I have always been over cautious in signing things. Sometimes to the frustration of everyone in the room I take way to long reading documents before I sign them.

It seems everybody else just signs without reading.

I can see the logic in reading mortgage documents carefully before signing, but even then I was expected to just sign certain paperwork without reading it carefully. I was in a mortgage advisors office a few years back & he presented me with a pack of paers to sign. He was shocked when instead of just signing them, I said I wanted to read every page before signing. I know that other people would of just signed.

I rented something from a company & everyone was shocked in the room when instead of just signing the documents, I started inspecting them. Afterwards my friend told me that my that my behaviour was very strange. He said a legitimate company are'nt going to try & fleece me. Just sign the god damn document he said. I thought "yeah that's true but who's to say these people aren't going to put something on the document that isn't true"

 

[Bible_Belt]

Boiler plate contracts are a part of modern life. The terms of service agreement on sosuave is an example of one.

Here's a link about them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_form_contract

 

[dasein]

Read it. Take the little extra time to know what's in what you are signing. Another tip is to negotiate it. If you are asked to sign something and you find an objectionable provision, especially if you are giving someone money as a downpayment, rent, whatever, strike through it, initial and date it, make them do the same. If they won't consider the change, and you end up signing it anyway, that's just more evidence of something in the law called a "contract of adhesion" and -might- help you down the road (depending on jurisdiction, disclosure, caveat blabla). Now there are some things, like student loans or government papers, where you won't be able to negotiate things. But it never hurts to try.

Anyone who tries to pressure you into signing something quickly, or even rolls their eyes at your reading an agreement, is either not an experienced, mature adult businessperson, or is hoping to get you to sign something disadvantageous to you without reading it.