Old vendor told me to ditch long term contracts and I fought him for a year

Back in 2019, a guy named Pete from a small IT procurement firm told me I was crazy to sign 3 year SaaS deals. He said I should do month to month even if it cost a little more per unit. I thought he was just trying to sell me his services, you know? But after 18 months, we got stuck with a clunky CRM that we couldn't shake and ended up paying a $4,000 early termination fee. Now I only do 12 month max terms with a 30 day out clause. Has anyone else had a vendor give advice that sounded self serving but actually saved your hide?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix5731mo ago

Funny how that works. It's like when a mechanic tells you to change your oil every 3,000 miles and you think they're just trying to sell you oil changes. But then you skip a few and your engine blows up. We've all been trained to think everyone's out to get us, but sometimes the old school advice is just common sense dressed in work clothes.

amy_west1mo ago

@phoenix573 you nailed it, people forget common sense is learned from mistakes, not convenience.

caseythompson1mo ago

Do you think it's actually possible to teach common sense to someone who never had to learn it the hard way? I've seen so many people in my life who just repeat the same mistakes over and over because they always had someone else to bail them out or a safety net to catch them. In my experience, the ones who "get it" are the ones who had to figure things out on their own at some point, whether it was burning toast or blowing up a car engine. But I wonder if there's a way to make that lesson stick without the full blown disaster, you know? Your mileage may vary, but I've watched people get handed all the advice in the world and still run headfirst into a wall because they had to feel the crash themselves. Maybe that's just how our brains are wired, or maybe we need more honest mentors who let us fail small before we fail big. Just thinking out loud here.