WHY A DURATION IS NOT A PROTECTION

A right measured in days needs a day zero.

Consumer protections of this kind are written as durations, and a duration is worthless without an agreed starting point. Day zero is currently whichever date the stronger party wrote on their copy.

• The start is asserted, not recorded

  Nothing about a signature on paper fixes when it happened. The date is a field somebody fills in, and fields can be filled in later.

• Exhibition sales blur it further

  Forms signed at a weekend event reach the office days later. Whether the clock ran during those days is a matter of whose account you accept.

• The buyer is out-documented

  Not defrauded. Simply on the losing side of a records contest against a counterparty who does this hundreds of times a year.

• Nobody litigates a reservation fee

  The amounts are large enough to hurt and small enough that pursuing them costs more than they are worth. So the ambiguity has no consequence for the party who benefits from it.