Opinion needed

IITYWYBMAD

I'm presuming that this is more contract law than anything else, but what about this hypothetical situation:

A company receives a contract document and stamps and returns the document expecting a free service. On closer examination, it looks like the company has been subject to an underhand, but not necessarily illegal ruse. Instead of signing up for a free service, they have actually signed up for a paid service, and the service provider is now demanding payment.

On examination of this hypothetical contract, the following terms and conditions are seen:
"The signing of this document represents the acceptance of the terms and conditions as set out in the "Terms and conditions for insertion". The signing of this document is legally binding..."

However, it turns out that the document, while stamped by the company has not been signed by anybody.

My question is, if the signing of the document is an acceptance of the T&C's and is legally binding, does the 'non-signing' of the document make the contract non legally binding and a refusal of the T&C's?

Procrastastudy

In hypothetical situation: Did company avail of the service in any way?

Would said service be listing on some 'euro guide' type thing. If so tell them to foxtrot oscar, they're a bunch of con artists and will never actually take you to court. (Seek proper legal advice etc etc)

pitythefool

ignore them, they do not want to go to court as they are most likely scam artists

IITYWYBMAD

Procrastastudy wrote: »

In hypothetical situation: Did company avail of the service in any way?

Would said service be listing on some 'euro guide' type thing. If so tell them to foxtrot oscar, they're a bunch of con artists and will never actually take you to court. (Seek proper legal advice etc etc)

In this particular hypothetical situation an employee, who would not have the authority to sign off on any contract, stamped the document, and sent it back, thinking it was a free service.

The listing would be in a 'guide', and we've every intention of telling the hypothetical service provider to FO. Legal advice has been sought, but this has landed on my desk, and I'd rather handle it directly, for reasons I do not want to go into.

I've done plenty of 'google' type research, and I get a good feeling for the type of company this hypothetical company are. My question, in general, is that if the document is not signed, and only stamped (and not even a company stamp) does it mean that you do not accept their terms and conditions and that the document is not legally binding, given that if it was signed, the reverse would appear to be true?

Procrastastudy

IITYWYBMAD wrote: »

In this particular hypothetical situation an employee, who would not have the authority to sign off on any contract, stamped the document, and sent it back, thinking it was a free service.

The listing would be in a 'guide', and we've every intention of telling the hypothetical service provider to FO. Legal advice has been sought, but this has landed on my desk, and I'd rather handle it directly, for reasons I do not want to go into.

I've done plenty of 'google' type research, and I get a good feeling for the type of company this hypothetical company are. My question, in general, is that if the document is not signed, and only stamped (and not even a company stamp) does it mean that you do not accept their terms and conditions and that the document is not legally binding, given that if it was signed, the reverse would appear to be true?

I should be able to answer you but I can't and given that I'm on boards in my dressing gown 3 hours before my Criminal Law exam probably answers as to why.

I wont drag this any further off topic than to say we used to get those hypothetical situations and used to ignore them. They are persistent little blighters though.

pitythefool

IITYWYBMAD wrote: »

In this particular hypothetical situation an employee, who would not have the authority to sign off on any contract, stamped the document, and sent it back, thinking it was a free service.

The listing would be in a 'guide', and we've every intention of telling the hypothetical service provider to FO. Legal advice has been sought, but this has landed on my desk, and I'd rather handle it directly, for reasons I do not want to go into.

I've done plenty of 'google' type research, and I get a good feeling for the type of company this hypothetical company are. My question, in general, is that if the document is not signed, and only stamped (and not even a company stamp) does it mean that you do not accept their terms and conditions and that the document is not legally binding, given that if it was signed, the reverse would appear to be true?

There own terms and conditions says they havnt got a leg to stand on based on this information

Just ignore them and let them waste time and money chasing you

Tow

Depends. I know of one company where the senior management took up the offer of some 'free' software, as they were a good customer. But, they would have pay for any customisation. Needless to say the customisation ran to well over 2M and I believe lots of fun at board meetings.

keng66

Exact same thing happened where I work about 5 years ago, some gulide based in Italy. They kept sending invoices and threats of legal action for about 2-3 years and then stopped. It's all a scam, just ignore them