I have a blurb I give to clients. It has been modified a bit over the last few years as hard lessons have been learned
I don't have people sign mine, it's implied that if they hire us to maintain their tank, they accept the terms of the agreement. Verbal agreement is binding here in GA, but if your state does not recognize a verbal agreement, I'd suggest having it signed.
I've got mine on the computer at the shop - if I can remember, I can shoot it to you in a PM, or if you'd prefer, email me, jenn "at" imagine-ocean.com and I can bounce it back to you in an email. It's a Word document.
I think it's imperative to have something in writing, because people will make all kinds of assumptions...
I've had to amend mine to state that if the customer buys livestock from another dealer, it voids any warranty on livestock we supply - this after somebody bought sick fish at another dealer and got angry with us for charging them for the medications required to treat all their fish once they got sick.
I had somebody get annoyed when we would have charged them to fix a messed up system that another service installed - they hired us after the fact to maintain the system when the original service failed to show up on a regular basis. We warranty our own hardware and workmanship - not somebody else's, and we do charge if somebody other than our staff, dinks around with it, and if it needs fixing or adjustment after somebody tampers with it.
I've had customers call me because a coral fell over in the tank, and they didn't want to reach in and set it back up.... they had gloves and tongs and everything, but they actually paid me $60 to go downtown (45 minutes' drive away) just to reach in and set a coral back up. (Ch-ching!)
Assume nothing. One thing I've learned about the type of client that is hands-off, is that you need to cover all of your bases and anticipate anything.
Every year I update my agreement - or more often if a situation arises that prompts me to make a change.
As I posted in another thread, I'm currently about to go to court because a client refuses to pay for their maintenance bill for service we provided in an appropriate and timely way, because the SHARK they bought at another dealer, against our advice, and placed in a tank that wasn't cycled, nor large enough, died, one day before we were scheduled to return for service, some 13 days after our last visit. Because they have more money than common sense, they are trying to pin their poor choice on us and make us pay the bill.
I can prove that they owe my company the money for the maintenance service they are withholding.
They're going to have a hell of a time trying to prove that our act or omission directly caused the death of the shark.
Still it's a frigging inconvenience - and my liability insurance will more than likely provide an attorney if needed - but it's yet another case of people just not wanting to be responsible and accountable for their own poor choices.
After that debacle started, I did amend my agreement, to include a paragraph stating that as the hobbyist, the client is ultimately responsible for their choices, and for the daily upkeep of their aquarium... blatently obvious, yes, but obviously has to be spelled out to some.
Jenn
