I terminated one of our software contracts today.

We’re perfectly happy users of the platform.

Their renewal process was that you had to notify them 30 days prior to annual renewal of any changes.

We’ve had to reduce our headcount since we signed the contract, and we also wanted to downgrade from their Enterprise to Business plan as we didn’t turn out to need any of the Enterprise features. This would have reduced our annual bill with them by about £9K.

We missed the 30-day notice window, but dropped them an email on day 25 to say we’d love to renew but would need to reduce our seats and swap out to the Business plan.

We've chatted internally and given our current usage, please could we change our plan from enterprise down to business and reduce our number of seats down to 8.

Their response:

Yes, we can do it, but only on the next renewal in 2026, for the actual renewal, any change would need to be requested within 30 days in advance of the renewal.

I replied:

We don't want to churn. You don't want us to churn. We are making the request with 24 days advance notice which is more than enough time for you to accommodate our request.

Their final response:

I understand your request, and we can proceed with both scenarios for the renewal in 2026, but for the current renewal, we would need 30 days in advance to proceed with any change.

Our final response:

I am formally giving notice of our termination.

I understand this means that we will be billed for the 2025-2026 period and that we will retain access to the platform until July 11, 2026, after which our subscription will lapse.

…

Living under the rule of law means contracts are binding…but enforcing a contract unreasonably against a customer is a bad way to run a business. This vendor will get one year of revenue instead of a long-term loyal customer, and a bad reference forever - all for the low, low price of £9K.

Life is long and the world is small.

~ David