What does "no contract" mean

[potentialcustomer]

I received a few Sonic postcards that offers pre-orders for fiber service, for $40/mo, with first month free, and "no contract". The offer expires 2/28/18. When I tried signing up through the URL sonic.com/gofast as instructed by the postcards, the fine print in the sign up page said I am signing up for 12 months, and there is an early termination fee if I terminate service within the first 12 months. There are no explanations for "no contract" on the postcard. Can you clarify what "no contract" means? I am in Kensington area.

[miken]

If the postcard says no contract then you shouldn't have a 12 month contract. I'd give our Sales team a call at 1-888-766-4233 so that they can make sure that the promotional offer is applied to your account correctly.

Edit: Just got an update from our programmers. There were a few display issues they found that have since been resolved with contract length. If you try again this should display properly.

[potentialcustomer]

OK. I see the updated page that says "first month free and no contract promotion has been applied", but before the "place order" button where it asks me to agree to the terms of service, including billing, the billing terms say that "Sonic Internet services require a twelve (12) month service agreement... if you do not cancel the agreement within thirty (30) days, you will automatically be billed and the terms of the twelve (12) month agreement will apply... you will pay an early termination fee of one hundred forty-nine dollars ($149) or the remaining monthly charges, whichever is less. Acceptance of these terms will occur at checkout."

These terms in your billing policy seem to invalidate the "no contract" part of the offer. How do I sign up and check out without accepting the 12-month commitment agreement?

[miken]

You should call our Sales team so that they can make sure the account is signed up with the right offer. At the same time, they can get more information on why it's displaying the way it is (like the specific address) and get it over to the correct team to fix.