Quote:
Originally Posted by chandrika
A few months ago a man emailed me with regards wanting to purchase some stock at trade prices. He asked for a price if he were to purchase 100 units and so I quoted him a knock down trade price.
Subsequently things started to get weird. Rather than placing an order, he started emailing some contacts he had and then coming to me saying can you send one/two units to his contacts.
I stated that I we not have a dropship arrangement, and that the price was different on those terms.
I then discovered that the guy did not actually exist and was using an alias, had provided fake company details, a fake company website and so I did not want to deal with him any longer, at which point he started demanding money from me. he wanted commission from me based on the price I had given for a quantity order of 100, so he wanted me to give him around $120 for each unit that his contacts had bought, which was just 3 in total.
I did not know what to do, so I just ignored his email demanding money.
I had sent a free sample of the unit to one company, who were supposed to return it to me, I enclosed packaging addressed for the return of the unit.
I just discovered that the guy demanding money from me, contacted the customer who had had the free sample and told him to return the unit to him. He mailed me saying he was taking it in lieu of payment.
I am really peed off, first that he has used an alias, second that he is trying to railroad me into arrangements I didnt make and third that he is holding one of my units worth two hundred pounds, hostage.
This seems like simple theft to me and I wondered what you think I should do?
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I think your best approach here is to approach this from a 'contract law' perspective. From the facts that you presented, it appears that the man demanding funds from you did two things: 1. he used false information to obtain the initial quote; this is fraudulent inducement or a fraud
ab initio (a fraud from the onset); 2. Despite all of this, he never actually places the order, so basically you just had a quote that is out there without any acceptance.
For some reason, this man begins to e-mail you contact information of potential leads. I am a little bit perplexed here because why did you think he was doing this? Essentially he's putting in a Request for Quote for a hundred units and then he's giving you the contact information of the people who would ostensibly be purchasing these units from him? This doesn't make much sense.
Notwithstanding, this man somehow knows that you sold units to these contacts. Why would he know if he's not part of the deal?
At this juncture, he's attempting to seize what he considers the appropriate 'commision' by going to your customer. Frankly, he should not be doing this, there is simply no privity of contract (tortious interference with contract).
Without a formal writing, you will have to check out the UK's quasi-contract principles because his position is going to be that you were 'unjustly enriched' - When I first came out of law school, I wanted trial experience and the cases that the higher ups will give you are the small lousy cases, ie. the son of an important client, etc. These sorts of facts and circumstances happened all the time, people dealing very informally which worked until a dispute arose.
Your best bet here is to communicate with the recipient of the free sample and to indicate that unless the free sample is returned to you that you will be invoicing them.