RACHEL RICKARD STRAUS: What if customers wrote the Ts & Cs? That would get companies to sharpen up

By Rachel Rickard Straus for Thisismoney.co.uk

Published: 01:00 EST, 8 December 2016 | Updated: 02:11 EST, 8 December 2016

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As consumers, we are endlessly signing contracts. Some involve pages of small print, some lock us in to payments for months or years, others are riddled with clauses we don’t notice until they sting us later on.

But we’re the ones engaging companies, not the other way around. So what if it was we who wrote the terms and conditions?

Turning the tables: Firms might sharpen up if they had to agree to our terms and conditions

Of course I realise the flaws. It would be an administrative nightmare if we were all writing our own.

But I got to imagining how firms might sharpen up if they had to agree to the terms their customers thought were fair. We wouldn’t ask the world, just what we thought was reasonable.

Here are my top four. What would yours be?

1. My phone calls must be answered within two minutes, after which I reserve the right to start charging for my time

I have never understood how companies can, with a straight face, blame ‘high call volumes’ for not answering their phones.

After all, there are two variables – the number of callers and the number of people answering. Why blame the people phoning? If a lot of people are phoning, they need more answering. And if not, we consumers should have some recourse when our time is wasted.

2. If the nature of the service changes, I reserve the right to cancel my contract and compensation for the inconvenience caused

When broadband suppliers whack up bills mid-contract or banks cut rates when you’ve just opened an account, they generally say ‘well if you’re not happy, you can leave’.

But the truth is, switching around all the time is a bother. If you’ve only recently switched, how about demanding that firms give you compensation if they change the terms.

3. I reserve the right to cancel my contract immediately if you are found guilty of serious misconduct

This is a right we already have, although few choose to employ it. It may be five years since former Barclays boss Bob Diamond claimed the time for banks’ remorse was over, but the fact is many still have fines coming out of their ears for wrongdoing.

If you don’t like the behaviour of your bank or other provider – even if it doesn’t affect you directly - switch to a better one now.

4. I expect any personal information held about me to be protected and invulnerable to hackers. Should you fail in this, I reserve the right to cancel my contract and will be eligible for compensation

Personal data has a monetary value – that’s often why hackers try to steal it. So how about compensation for any data that is shared without our permission (we could assign a value to each type, a fiver for a name and date of birth, say, a tenner for password, etc.).

When our data is stolen, we are told that we should monitor our accounts for fraud. But this takes time and hassle – why should we be put out if it was they who gave away our data? Perhaps if the Ts & Cs stipulated companies would have to compensate us, they’d be a bit more careful.

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