When is a contract not a contract
Discussion
I'm no solicitor, but as far as I'm aware (and correct me if I'm wrong) in contract law a contract is agreed when two parties, as in buyer and seller, agree at a price offered by the seller and accepted by the buyer.
Example being seller offers item or service for £100 and buyer accepts.
So what happens in my case when after much haggling and reduction of price, the seller offers said advertising at a reduced price to list price (after speaking and authorised by the manager) which the buyer then accepts, then a few days later the seller emails the buyer containing a link to click to confirm and agree to additional number of terms and conditions before the advert will be accepted.
As far as I understand contractual law, the initial offer by the seller had been accepted by the buyer, so any additional terms and conditions is now irrelevant.
Bottom line is the advertising manager of the magazine now says the sales rep who agreed to the advert at the price agreed no longer works for the company and the contract hasn't been accepted because she doesn't work there any longer and I didn't click the link containing the additional advertising terms and conditions which were never mentioned in the original phone call.
Now if additional terms and conditions can be added after agreement of the contract, surely I can add additional terms and conditions, which is why offer and acceptance are elements required for the formation of a legally binding contract or else the initial offer and acceptance may end up in a never ending offer accept loop.
The manager is adamant that since he works for a large global marketing company that unless I click on the email link and accept their now additional terms and conditions my advert will not be placed in their publication.
I'm not actually that bothered because Google is now my friend, but what annoys me intensely is the fact that these people can initially agree on terms of the advert and price via the phone calls and emails, then a few days later, impose additional terms and conditions not originally agreed with the click on the link, then if you don't agree to click and accept they just pull your advert.
Any solicitors care to put their view forward on contract law offer and acceptance...?
Example being seller offers item or service for £100 and buyer accepts.
So what happens in my case when after much haggling and reduction of price, the seller offers said advertising at a reduced price to list price (after speaking and authorised by the manager) which the buyer then accepts, then a few days later the seller emails the buyer containing a link to click to confirm and agree to additional number of terms and conditions before the advert will be accepted.
As far as I understand contractual law, the initial offer by the seller had been accepted by the buyer, so any additional terms and conditions is now irrelevant.
Bottom line is the advertising manager of the magazine now says the sales rep who agreed to the advert at the price agreed no longer works for the company and the contract hasn't been accepted because she doesn't work there any longer and I didn't click the link containing the additional advertising terms and conditions which were never mentioned in the original phone call.
Now if additional terms and conditions can be added after agreement of the contract, surely I can add additional terms and conditions, which is why offer and acceptance are elements required for the formation of a legally binding contract or else the initial offer and acceptance may end up in a never ending offer accept loop.
The manager is adamant that since he works for a large global marketing company that unless I click on the email link and accept their now additional terms and conditions my advert will not be placed in their publication.
I'm not actually that bothered because Google is now my friend, but what annoys me intensely is the fact that these people can initially agree on terms of the advert and price via the phone calls and emails, then a few days later, impose additional terms and conditions not originally agreed with the click on the link, then if you don't agree to click and accept they just pull your advert.
Any solicitors care to put their view forward on contract law offer and acceptance...?
A little bit of past history:
We've been advertising in the magazine for many years, it has changed owners several times over this time-period.
In the past we have just received a quick call from the rep to ask whether we wanted to run the ad again for another 12 months period and this has worked just fine. There have been a few lapses in advertising through the years when they have tried to increase the price of the ad at which point we have declined their offer.
On this particular occasion the previous 12 months advertising had finished so the rep phoned up to ask whether we wanted to run the ads again for another 12 months, then tried it on with the advertising rate to which I declined. She rang back a few hours later after having discussed the lower rate with her manager at which point we came to an agreed price per month for 12 months. She said she would confirm the order with me via email.
Said email was received a few days later containing a link which I had to click on for the order to be accepted.
I ignored this because that wasn't what had been agreed over the phone.
A few days later she was on the phone again pestering me to click the link to accept their long winded terms and conditions, at which point I said no.
Fast forward a few weeks and her manager is on the phone telling me that the rep no longer worked for the company and although they had placed the first advert in the magazine, no further ads would be placed until I accepted their T & C, to which I replied I would not be doing.
At the end of the day I'm not bothered whether the advert runs or not because most of our customers use Google nowadays, but what I don't like is the fact that they can force customers to accept T & C after the deal has been done.
And apologies if this type of thread has been posted many times before, I did have a trawl through previous posts but didn't see any.
As for that sarcastic reply from un1corn "When it's ajar?" very droll, made me laugh.
Thoughts from BV would be much appreciated, I happen to enjoy reading his dry wit on here
We've been advertising in the magazine for many years, it has changed owners several times over this time-period.
In the past we have just received a quick call from the rep to ask whether we wanted to run the ad again for another 12 months period and this has worked just fine. There have been a few lapses in advertising through the years when they have tried to increase the price of the ad at which point we have declined their offer.
On this particular occasion the previous 12 months advertising had finished so the rep phoned up to ask whether we wanted to run the ads again for another 12 months, then tried it on with the advertising rate to which I declined. She rang back a few hours later after having discussed the lower rate with her manager at which point we came to an agreed price per month for 12 months. She said she would confirm the order with me via email.
Said email was received a few days later containing a link which I had to click on for the order to be accepted.
I ignored this because that wasn't what had been agreed over the phone.
A few days later she was on the phone again pestering me to click the link to accept their long winded terms and conditions, at which point I said no.
Fast forward a few weeks and her manager is on the phone telling me that the rep no longer worked for the company and although they had placed the first advert in the magazine, no further ads would be placed until I accepted their T & C, to which I replied I would not be doing.
At the end of the day I'm not bothered whether the advert runs or not because most of our customers use Google nowadays, but what I don't like is the fact that they can force customers to accept T & C after the deal has been done.
And apologies if this type of thread has been posted many times before, I did have a trawl through previous posts but didn't see any.
As for that sarcastic reply from un1corn "When it's ajar?" very droll, made me laugh.
Thoughts from BV would be much appreciated, I happen to enjoy reading his dry wit on here
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff