Seller refunding money and not providing service

[CulDeCannard]

Hello,

A few months ago I arrange for a GSM home alarm to be installed. That's an ordinary home alarm, but with a mobile phone connection instead of a landline one.

I spoke to an alarm firm, paid just under €1000 by Visa credit and signed up for a 2 year monitoring plan that they would provide the SIM card for.

I signed a contract for sale, installation and monitoring.

Two days before the installation I noticed the money had been refunded to my card. I called up to find out why and all I could get out them was that they weren't proceeding with the install because they accidentally under quoted me and there would be no profit for them. There was no attempt to ask for more money, they just refunded me.

I assumed they might be going bust and was happy to get my money back and go somewhere else. But a few months later they appear to still be going strong.

This question is more to settle a pub argument. I think once a contact is signed and monies exchanged, the seller is committed to providing the service and they just cant back out because they made a mistake. Others think otherwise. So what is correct?

 

[44brendan]

Once valid acceptance takes place a binding contract is formed. It is therefore important to know what constitutes a valid acceptance in order to establish if the parties are bound by the agreement. There are three main rules relating to acceptance:

1. The acceptance must be communicated to the offeree.
2. The terms of the acceptance must exactly match the terms of the offer.
3. The agreement must be certain.

It would appear that if the contract was signed by both parties and funds exchanged then a binding contract has been created. Unfortunately it would likely cost you more to take a case rather than to accept the return of your funds

 

[Padraigb]

I think that you are right.

But if they had held on to your money and failed to provide the service, you might have taken them to court. I think the chances that the judge would order them to refund your money. Even if you could show that it would cost you, say, €1500 to get the same package from another supplier, you might have a problem getting a judge to order specific performance or damages.

 

[CulDeCannard]

That's what I though. Contracts signed, money paid and receipts issued (well an email acknowledgement).

My suspicion is that they did not factor in the cost of a SIM plan in to the price. I paid. Quotes from other firms I received after all this happened were slightly over, but I had to sign up for a SIM plan by myself.

In the end I paid an extra €150 (plus a SIM plan) to go elsewhere as I didn't even want to argue with the original company due to what they did.

Many thanks for the clarification.

 

[RainyDay]

If you do find another provider, be very, very careful about paying up front. I really wouldn't be paying up front for any work like this.

 

[Leo]

They may have protected themselves in the contracts signed, but even if not, as others have said, it'd cost you more than its worth to fight it. And do you really want to be stuck relying on a service of a company you had to take legal action against?