£1 Radio Times subscription offer - Postal Law of Contract

Genghissian

I recently received an offer for 14 weeks subscription to the Radio Times for £1.  It was addressed me personally by name and included a password and activation code.  I completed the online process.  I subsequently received an email telling me that I was not eligible for the offer since I had previously had something similar and the system automatically sent out offers to people whether or not they are eligble. Instead I was offered 3 months of £29.99 ie about 30x the original offer.
This annoyed me considerably so I completed the form and posted it to the company that made the offer.  Am I right in thinking that under the Postal Law of Contracts I now have a binding contract?
I have a picture of the completed form and can specify the date and time it was posted.
What is my position if the company refuses to honour this contract?

Okell

What do the T&Cs in the small print of the "offer" say?

Are you sure that it was an "offer" and that you were "accepting" it?

Genghissian

Okell said:

What do the T&Cs in the small print of the "offer" say?

Are you sure that it was an "offer" and that you were "accepting" it?

As I understand it an offer "is an expression of willingness to contract on specific terms, made with the intention that it is to become binding as soon as it is accepted by the person to whom it is addressed".  I had a letter with my name, offering 14 editions of the RT in exchange for a specified price.  The letter also staes "Hurry this offer ends 31st October" so I'm pretty sure that's an offer.  I think that under the Postal Rules, posting the completed form back is acceptance.
There are no T&Cs - after I had the email, my husband and I both looked really carefully to see if ther was an exclusion for people who have taken up similar offers in the past but there is nothing at all.  The closing date is the closest thing to a condition on there.

user1977

Genghissian said:

I subsequently received an email telling me that I was not eligible for the offer 

I would interpret that as a withdrawal of the offer (if indeed it was an offer). So "accepting" it afterwards wouldn't have been competent.

Alderbank

Who was the initial email offer from?

Was it from Immediate Media Co Ltd? They seem to do all this promotional stuff for Radio Times (as well as for many other magazines).
If so, are you quite certain that the email does not have a link in the footer to their T&Cs?

Their T&Cs include:

OUR CONTRACT WITH YOU

3.1 How we will accept your order. Your order is an offer to us to buy the product(s) in your order...

5.1 Short-term introductory offers and free trials. We sometimes run short-term introductory offers or free trials for our subscription products (e.g. 12 issues for £1, 5 issues for £5). These offers include an introductory rate or free trial period that increases to a standard subscription rate after the initial payment term or free trial period. These offers are open to new customers only. We reserve the right to reject or cancel any subscription purchased using a short-term introductory offer or free trial at any point if the customer has previously purchased a subscription for that magazine or any other magazine in the Immediate Media portfolio.

This is their bread and butter so I would be surprised if they forgot to include this link. However if you were not able to view the T&Cs at the point of purchase you might be able to dismiss them as unfair contract terms.

A lawyer might then say you are in Carbolic Smoke Ball territory.

DullGreyGuy

The Posting Law just says that the acceptance of an offer to contract is deemed to have been made as soon as the letter is sent not at the time the counterparty receives it. 

For a contract to be valid there must be an offer, acceptance and consideration (normally in the form of payment - Scottish law wouldnt apply here). The Terms of an offer is free to define when the contract is considered bound (most web shops T&Cs say its when they post the goods to deal with risks of mis-pricing) and may also give unilateral rights to terminate contracts with instant effect.

You need to find the T&Cs for the subscription service, if you follow the subscription offers on the Radio Times own website it takes you a third party site (could be a related party) and their T&Cs state the contract is only bound once they have emailed you confirmation of their acceptance of your order.

Genghissian

Alderbank said:

Who was the initial email offer from?

Was it from Immediate Media Co Ltd? They seem to do all this promotional stuff for Radio Times (as well as for many other magazines).
If so, are you quite certain that the email does not have a link in the footer to their T&Cs?

Their T&Cs include:

OUR CONTRACT WITH YOU

3.1 How we will accept your order. Your order is an offer to us to buy the product(s) in your order...

5.1 Short-term introductory offers and free trials. We sometimes run short-term introductory offers or free trials for our subscription products (e.g. 12 issues for £1, 5 issues for £5). These offers include an introductory rate or free trial period that increases to a standard subscription rate after the initial payment term or free trial period. These offers are open to new customers only. We reserve the right to reject or cancel any subscription purchased using a short-term introductory offer or free trial at any point if the customer has previously purchased a subscription for that magazine or any other magazine in the Immediate Media portfolio.

This is their bread and butter so I would be surprised if they forgot to include this link. However if you were not able to view the T&Cs at the point of purchase you might be able to dismiss them as unfair contract terms.

A lawyer might then say you are in Carbolic Smoke Ball territory.

Thank you, this is helpful.  Yes it was from Immediate Media but it wasn't an email it was a letter - not "to the householder" but to me personally.  I'm quite certain that it had no T&Cs on it or any direction to where they might be found.  I suppose when I went to the website they might have been there.  I regard the whole thing as sharp practice - make an offer you have no intention of fulfilling (because you are too lazy to sort out your subscription database) only to make a vastly increased offer.
Not worth pursuing but I will be making Trust Pilot and FeeFo reviews.

Genghissian

DullGreyGuy said:

The Posting Law just says that the acceptance of an offer to contract is deemed to have been made as soon as the letter is sent not at the time the counterparty receives it. 

For a contract to be valid there must be an offer, acceptance and consideration (normally in the form of payment - Scottish law wouldnt apply here). The Terms of an offer is free to define when the contract is considered bound (most web shops T&Cs say its when they post the goods to deal with risks of mis-pricing) and may also give unilateral rights to terminate contracts with instant effect.

You need to find the T&Cs for the subscription service, if you follow the subscription offers on the Radio Times own website it takes you a third party site (could be a related party) and their T&Cs state the contract is only bound once they have emailed you confirmation of their acceptance of your order.

This is interesting in that if I had originally completed and mailed the form instead of applying on line I would have had no reason whatsoever to visit the website and so no way of viewing the T&Cs or even knowing they existed.  Not worth pursuing but definitely underhand.