Legal Question in Business Law in Illinois

Contract

If I do not have a contract with a maintenance service provider I have paid for 15 years, and have never been provided any information on their terms of service, does a contract exist?

I have paid this phone maintenance service provider monthly for 15 years for a second hand business phone system, but only used it once.

Over the years, this provider has been sold several times. I did not have a contract with the original provider, I was never asked to enter into a contract with any of the take-over companies, and the companies have never provided any information on the terms of their service.

When I cancelled the service, they claimed I called 11 days too late because of ''our contract'' with them and therefore owe them for a full 11 months beyond the cancellation date.

Despite my repeated requests to provide me a copy of such a ''contract'', they state that they are unable to find one but are still insisting I owe them. They continue dunning and I continue calling but have gotten nowhere with them. Now they are trying to ruin the perfect credit rating of our small business.

Do I owe them anything?


Asked on 3/08/07, 9:43 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Burton Padove Indiana and Illinois Lawyer, Burton A. Padove

Re: Contract

You clearly had an oral contract with them. Contracts do not have to be written. Usually, oral agreements are not very detailed and usually do not have cancellation terms, simply because there is such a lack of detail. You probabaly need to have an attorney draft a very strongly worded letter to them.

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Answered on 3/09/07, 8:31 am


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