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Reader question: When someone says “This is not what I signed up for”, what does it mean exactly? My comments: Basically it means they regret having previously agreed to do something. Taken literally, it means that the speaker signed his or her name on the signature line in a contract or agreement some time ago but is now finding something wrong with it. To sign up for something, you see, is to write your name down in a piece of document, meaning you’re formally committing yourself to an agreement, a contract or something. Many social activities today involve a formal document including your signature. For example, you have to sign your name when you buy a house, a car or, to a much lesser extent, a washing machine. Take the washing machine for instance. If you wanted a washing machine that’s fully automatic but then, after installing it in your house, you find out that the machine isn’t automatic at all, you may go back to the salesman and lodge a complaint making an exact statement like that: “This is not what I signed up for.” After taking a further look, the salesman is able to see what the matter is. A simple mistake has been made, say, on the part of the delivery man – who sends to your house a machine intended for some other family. Whatever the case, this is a literal interpretation of what it means when people say: “This is not what I signed up for.” | 
