Purchaase Orders - are they a valid contract?

iammumtoone

It is not harassment as long as the OP remained polite in the communication it can't be called harassment, if it was, nobody would have a job! I 'harassed' lots of people today, those who didn't reply to my emails, those who I had asked to do something and they didn't. I also got some 'harassment' back. All done politely and respectfully.

With regard to T&C is a difficult one, as I understand it its the company who supplied theirs last that takes precedence. In reality it doesn't work customer sends PO with terms on, supplier confirms with their terms, consumer goes back with query sending order again with terms on etc..... Most B2B transactions run on understanding and trust.

I would not get too involved in who terms apply in this case, that is down to your companys legal team. Concentrate on the accusation against you, that you harassed them. Was you polite and respectful in all communication and did you stick to your companies procedures regarding chasing payment.

Unfortunately it doesn't matter what anyone thinks on here if your employees believed you harassed, you need to convince them otherwise.

sangie595

I think you are all missing the point. This is a meeting with the employer. Not a court of law. You should know by now that what an employer may or may not think worthy of disciplinary action is quite different than what a court of law think about contractual details or debt - or even harassment. And yes, I'd be interested to know who thinks that a Wikipedia article written by lawyers isn't applicable? Google it, and you'll find plenty of other references the same.

What people here think is irrelevant. The company has accused the OP of harassment, and that is the relevant issue. Being right or wrong about the contract is irrelevant - employers are not held to the same standards, and that is assuming the OP even has two years employment. If they don't, they aren't held to any standards! Righteous indignation is great. It's also completely pointless. It doesn't make any difference.

jobbingmusician

OP, let's go back to basics a bit. Your employer has called you to a meeting. If it was a disciplinary meeting you should have been told so, and you should have been told of your right to be accompanied.

So either it isn't a disciplinary meeting, or your employer is setting off down a path which, if they dismissed you, makes any dismissal automatically unfair. Surely in this day and age it is far more likely to be the former?

sangie595

jobbingmusician wrote: »

OP, let's go back to basics a bit. Your employer has called you to a meeting. If it was a disciplinary meeting you should have been told so, and you should have been told of your right to be accompanied.

So either it isn't a disciplinary meeting, or your employer is setting off down a path which, if they dismissed you, makes any dismissal automatically unfair. Surely in this day and age it is far more likely to be the former?

It's impossible to know what the meeting is. But it could also be an investigation meeting, which there is no right to be accompanied at - so not automatically unfair, IF dismissal is even a consideration. There are disciplinary sanctions less than dismissal.

HONEYMONSTER

Hi!

Well thank you all for your input and here is a bit more info.

The client rang requesting one of our event bookking forms which was emailled out to them and the form says that once completed they have committed to booking a stand at £X and payment is under normal 30 days terms and in the event of late booking, payment must be made at least 4 weeks before the event or immediately if within the month before the event. As a charity we have to make sure that we cover our costs and if people thought they could book and back out at the last minute without payment, it could cause us severe money issues in hosting the event and thankfully todate this has not been an issue. We are a small organisation and I fulfil many functions from admin to accounts but I do not organise the events. The company concerned emailed back a scanned copy of the signed booking form, with a scanned copy of a single sided purchase order form which made no reference to term and conditions and as it was a single sided scanned copy I was not privy to any had they been on the other side. However the accompanying email sought clarification of payment being due at least 4 weeks prior to the event and we wrote back in the terms outlined above so they had clearly read our terms and conditions. An invoice was issued at this point referencing their purchase order and confirming our terms and conditions which does not include anything about cancellation and outlined payment terms as above. This was issued 3 months before the event. At 30 days a statement was issued, at 60 days a statement and reminder invoice and along with an email to the person who had booked the stand and their accounts dept (info they had provided on our booking form), no reply, I emailed them again, very politely explaining that payment was needed and hoping we could solve this amicably. I received a call from their accounts dept asking for a copy invoice and sent it to him by email and very politely asking them to made immediate payment if they had not already done so. I then checked our bank account and we had received a payment by bank transfer, it did not reference an invoice number as we request on our invoices and the company named was not known to us and we could not track them down. The amount paid was very distinctively for a stand due to the strange amount. At this point we had a couple of companies for whom we had not had the invoices settled and so I contacted each one and very politely requested immediate payment for the invoice and stated that if they believed they had already made payment could they please provide me with the payment details. The gentleman at this organisation said (having been provided with the invoice on numerous occasions by now) that he would need to check and come back to me and he did not. I would have normally taken this to the next stage but being a charity and not knowing the relationship to us of the company concerned, I first referred it back to the event organiser. She contacted the company directly and their MD basically said that the booking had not been authorised and the person who sent our booking form back did not have his authority and had this been with their authority we would have received a purchase order from them. I wrote back advising him that they had forwarded our booking from using their official email address and in doing so had accepted our terms and that they had also attached a copy of their official purchase order and this number was quoted on the subsequent invoice. If as he stated the purchase order was not valid, then why was this not stated upon receipt of the original invoice or in reply to the numerous reminders? I was exceptionally polite in all correspondence and would not be in the least bit concerned about anyone reading the content. I stated that given his only reason for none payment was that we had not been given a purchase order when we had, I requested full payment by return as it was now too late to offer it to someone else. Two days before the event he replied basically saying that he was aware their were unscrupulous people out there trying to extract monies thru harassment that they were not entitled to and as such they were not falling for it and were not paying for something they had no intention of using. I was flabberghasted as I was appropriately chasing payment on an order they had clearly placed. In my mind he was simply trying diversion tactics to put me off. At this point the event organiser, who was clearly in my corner discussed it with a senior manager assuming his total support when it all backfired. I have not harassed anyone, am not ashamed or embarrassed by my actions, they are just trying it on and I would call their bluff. I have no qualms about standing my ground with the client or my boss but I would like to know the official position re a purchase order. One response quotes Wiki and I also looked there, the problem with this is that this refers to US law and I am in the UK! I feel I have acted entirely appropriately and within the limits of my authority which includes taking legal action for recovery of outstanding monies due however as a matter of courtesy, I first sought to confirm the importance of the client to us before deciding the way forward. My colleague is distraught that she may have inadvertently got me in hot water and the team fully support my stance. Obviously my boss does not and I want to have an informed discussion with him. Thanks

sangie595

The legal definition of a purchase order is the same in the UK and the US - there is no difference.

I am surprised that you have the authority to take legal action on behalf of the charity - that would be in breach of Charity Commission guidelines, since you are not the charity, and it requires authority from the Board of Trustees.

iammumtoone

From your post it does sound like the customer is trying to put the fault on you. If someone from their company has written a PO outside their remit that is for the customer to take up with their employee not the supplier.

Have you worked for your company for over two years?

HONEYMONSTER

From your post it does sound like the customer is trying to put the fault on you. If someone from their company has written a PO outside their remit that is for the customer to take up with their employee not the supplier.

Have you worked for your company for over two years?

Hi!

Yes, I agree they are just trying to avoid payment and are trying to make it tricky and I just wanted clarification on the legality of purchase orders before I had the meeting with my employer as I have only recently returned to work after a few years off and wondered if (a) I was falsely recollecting the legal status of purchase orders (b) if things had changed and I needed to update myself. However there seems to be a vastly differing view.

I have only been there for 6mth and one of my specific remits is debt collecting. I'm not worried by the harassment allegations as I haven't harassed anyone and can prove it as there is a clear paper trail and chasing unpaid bills in a reasonable and justifiable manner is not harassment.

Thanks for your help.

xapprenticex

Bloody Ek!!

If you received a PO then it was authroised, no way can a company even reach a stage of generating a PO without it going through authorisation first.

As for terms and conditions, that should have been agreed upon by procurement, between yourselves and your various vendors/suppliers.

But then again, if you are a charity then maybe your set-up isnt so watertight.

Try not to get scapegoated.

HONEYMONSTER

xapprenticex wrote: »

Bloody Ek!!

If you received a PO then it was authroised, no way can a company even reach a stage of generating a PO without it going through authorisation first.

As for terms and conditions, that should have been agreed upon by procurement, between yourselves and your various vendors/suppliers.

But then again, if you are a charity then maybe your set-up isnt so watertight.

Try not to get scapegoated.

Thanks for your support, as yet I haven't had any input to the paperwork as I am relatively new and things do need tightening up but we have limited resources. However we are aware we need to make changes.

I haven't done anything wrong so not overly sure where this is going so I will have to wait until Friday.