Is PA copier lease contract valid in SC?

[KatherineM]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Carolina

Our company entered into a copier lease in 2004, being induced to do so by a local third-party copier company who orally assured me that we were entering a lease-to-own program and would own the equipment at the end. The contract ended in July 2009. When I tried to do the $1.00 buyout with the leasing company, I was informed that the third-party did not set the lease up correctly (it was not a lease-to-own as it should have been, but just a straight lease), the leasing company is charging us for an extra year on the lease, and will of course be taking the copier back. In protest, I haven't made any payments since August and they are, of course, about to come and take the copier. The local third-party copier company refuses to make it right, even though it was their former employee who made the "mistake." Another representative of the same company disclosed to me that the former employee I dealt with had been let go due to his incompetence.

The contract specifies that you waive your right to a trial by jury, doesn't allow for arbitration, and forces you to take any suits to a PA state or federal court. I signed this contract in SC. Doesn't SC law require contracts to have a large print or underlined clause that alerts you to the fact that you are waiving your right to arbitration? Do I have any other recourse?

Thanks,

KatherineM

 

[Zigner]

The terms of your lease cover all of your questions...

 

[swalsh411]

Has the copier company violated any terms of the contract? If not, what right do you have to withhold payment? If you don't pay them they will sue you and win along with court costs and attorney fees. There is no way you can prove this verbal agreement ever existed and even if you could, what is on paper in the contract that you signed overrides that.

Even if this did go to arbitration, based upon what you have posted, there is no way you would win.

You can't just say "oops I didn't read what I signed so I'm not going to pay" and expect to not be liable.

edit: It's entirely possible that they purposefully wrote up the contract as a lease-only hoping you wouldn't catch it, and brush it off as an error if you did. This is unethical but not illegal. As the saying goes, there's a sucker born every minute.

 

[KatherineM]

There is something in writing from the third party

The third-party copier company's representative did write up a short note:

To whom it may concern,

In the event that the KM350 leased by [the company] needs to be terminated Duplicating Products will Sell of [sic] Purchase the equipment at the highest possible price. Also noted [the company] would like to extend the option to purchase the leases [sic] equipment at the end of the lease.

[signature of third-party company representative]

 

[Zigner]

The third-party copier company's representative did write up a short note:

To whom it may concern,

In the event that the KM350 leased by [the company] needs to be terminated Duplicating Products will Sell of [sic] Purchase the equipment at the highest possible price. Also noted [the company] would like to extend the option to purchase the leases [sic] equipment at the end of the lease.

[signature of third-party company representative]

I'm sorry - what did the leasing company do wrong that entitles you to withhold payment?

Furthermore, there is no mention of what the cost to purchase at the end of the lease period would be.

Really, you've played this wrong since August and now you have a mess to clean up.