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The unfortunate truth of the world we live in is that people take advantage of each other. This web site is for people who believe they have been taken advantage of by the use of unfair terms in a contract. A contract should be equitable to all parties, but some companies write their contracts with an extreme bias favouring themselves. Often, unfair terms are written into contracts simply as a safeguard and they are meant to be used only in extreme circumstances, but occasionally even a large corporation will stoop to low levels and begin exploiting their "standard terms and conditions" in a bid to extract as much money from their customers as possible.
If you have had such an experience we suggest that your first step should be to contact the customer service department of the company concerned. If that fails to get results, please contact us with the details of your story and we will do our best to bring the story to public attention. Negative publicity is something no company wants. We will only publish the facts and let the public determine the integrity of the company involved. See the Resources link for a list of other organisations which may be of assistance.
When a company writes unfair terms and conditions into their contracts, there is often no protection from the law. This is the case in Queensland Australia. Once you sign a contract you are on your own. We have written a letter to our State MP Phil Reeves regarding this issue. This letter was then passed on to The Queensland Minister for Fair Trading, Mrs Margaret Keech, and a response was received. The response is published further down this page. A Government which does not offer basic consumer protection against unscrupulous operators is not doing it's job very well. The Victorian Government, the UK Goverment and the European Union offer their constituents some basic protection against unfair contract terms - see the links to the Consumer Federation of Australia in the Resources page.
The warning is clear - even if you think a company is reputable, read the contract and understand exactly what the clauses mean. Even innocent looking clauses may be time bombs just waiting for an unscrupulous company accountant to use to your disadvantage. If you don't understand (and often even when you think you do understand) the contract, you may be signing a blank cheque.
The response which is detailed below basically blames the Federal Government's unwillingness to act on this issue for the Queensland Government's lack of action. According to the response, the Queensland Beattie Government has been pushing for a uniform National stance on this issue, and because none is forthcoming the Queensland Government has decided to hide it's head in the sand and pretent the problem doesn't exist. The minister states that she is aware of the problem and the need for action, but because nobody is willing to hold the Queensland Government's hand, they are not willing to take the lead and pass State legislation. This is what we get for the millions of tax payer dollars that we pay our politicians each year. Indecisiveness, impotence and buck passing. Of course, there is still some hope that Queensland may decide to go it alone and pass some sensible laws to prevent the unscrupulous corporate bullying being employed by many large corporations, but since the Government has been "studying" this issue since 2004 we won't be holding our breath waiting.
The letter dated 26th June from the office of the minister The Hon Margaret Keech MP is detailed below...
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Dear Mr Reeves |
A few too many portfolios maybe? Not enough time to address the issues? It is time for the Beattie Government to take the lead and stop blaming it's inaction on others.
Whilst the poor overworked QLD Labor Minister for Too Many Things to Take an Interest in Any of Them was going to all the trouble to explain her own inaction by way of blaming the Federal Liberal Government, it seems that the Federal Liberal Government has been draughting a Bill to address the above issues. An amendment to Section 51AC of the Trade Practices Act is currently going through Federal Parliament, which will add "unilateral price variation clauses" as an item that the courts should take into consideration when determining unconscionable conduct in contracts between large and small businesses.
You would have thought that a State Minister for Fair Trading would have at least had some idea of what was occuring in the Federal Parliament when it is related directly to her portfolio.
