stuck in new card machine contract

hard_up_and_fed_up

Hi
Can anyone help?!
We recently started a mobile catering business and rang up a company about getting a mobile card machine to take card payments.

They said it would boost sales by around 33% but 3 months down the line we have only used it at one event and we took £90 on it.
we have to pay £40 a month for it and they take it quarterly so we have to put £120 in to an account for them to take which we have forgotten to do as the idea was that the money we took on the machine would be in the account to cover it.
So it was ok the first time but this time round we forgot that they would be taking it and i am now in arrears. My fault and htati s not the issue, i have asked them if i can cancel and they want the equivilant of 6 months rent to buy ourselves out. It might be that we can use it more in the summer events but we can't take a contract break.

Does anyone know if there might be a get out seeing as we have not seen a 33% increase in sales or even have 33% of normal trade paying by card. No one wants to despite our signs and offering how they can pay.
We are not turning over very much at the mo and £120 a quarter is a lot to find for absolutely nothing.
Any ideas?

Thanks

steve1980

You've signed the contract, and fell for the sales spiel unfortunately.

If you have it in writing that the sales agent told you it would increase your business by 33% and it hasn't then you might be able to get out of it that way (mis-selling).

Otherwise, it's a pay off to the company to get out of it.

You say that it's £40 per month but a quarters payment would be £160, not £120. Six months pay off would be £240. If you're not going to make that back then fair enough, for the full year it will be £480.

Mistral001

I tend to agree with Steve above. Cannot really blame a salesmans for giving an exaggerated pitch (I am sure he can back up his claims by quoting some companies who have had a 33% increase anyway)

However, you perhaps need to think long-term and look beyond just the low sales you have had already where a credit card was used. The fact that you offer card sales, could improve your imageand make customers regard you as a serious enterprise who means business.

chalkie99

steve1980 wrote: »

You've signed the contract, and fell for the sales spiel unfortunately.
Quite agree - that's what sales people do
If you have it in writing that the sales agent told you it would increase your business by 33% and it hasn't then you might be able to get out of it that way (mis-selling).

Otherwise, it's a pay off to the company to get out of it.

Seems quite a reasonable offer actually - have seen much worse than that.

You say that it's £40 per month but a quarters payment would be £160, not £120. Nope a quarter is 3 months - £120 Six months pay off would be £240. If you're not going to make that back then fair enough, for the full year it will be £480.

If you canot afford to keep it then cut your losses.