Pat asked:

I have a small retail business, and in a hurry I signed a contract with a POS provider for debit/credit. That contract and the business was sold. I was not notified of the change and now the new carrier, provides no support and deducts fees from my business account without any notification or approval from me. Do you have any options to terminate?

Jane Southren answered:

The answer as to whether or not you have any termination options will be driven largely by what the contract terms say. The contract may have reserved the right for the service provider to sell the business and assign the contracts for service it had to a purchaser. It may have also had a provision relating to notice of customers, either that notice has to be given or does not have to be given.

It would seem strange that the company that bought the business would not have the same obligations that the company that sold the business had. Generally the contract terms are assigned with the contract. So whatever rights and obligations you signed up for would continue to exist vis a vis the new company. But even if they are required to provide the same service that you had, and aren't doing so, you would still have to look at the actual words of the contract to see if there is a way that you can terminate the contract for failure to provide the support you had before.

Until you or someone else looks closely at what the contract you signed actually says about these things it isn't possible to tell you whether or not you would have any right to terminate it, or what would happen if you did.

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