Is This a Binding Contract?

[ready2strikebak]

What is the name of your state? VA

A few months ago my husband started his own business. He decided to advertise via local newspapers and radio stations to get his business' name out there. One of the radio stations that he went to gave him a price of $780 for radio spots that would run over a period of about 10 weeks or so. The saleswoman he spoke with told him that they could take his flyer that he had written up and given them a copy of and make up an ad from the text in the flyer. She said that they would then call him in when it was ready to take a look at what they had written up and authorize them to begin running the ad. She said he would need to make a deposit at that time and the rest of the price would be billed on a monthly basis. He agreed to let them write up an ad for him to review and that once he had approved that ad, he would bring in a deposit and the ads would begin to run. She asked him to sign a piece of paper which listed the days that the ad would run when approved and which gave the total price as $780. My husband did not hear back from them and decided to run an ad with another station in the area. About two weeks later, he received a call stating that the ads were already running on the first station and that his deposit was needed immediately. He didn't even know the ads were running before this call. He received no calls from customers as a result of these ads, and the station is now trying to make him pay for the entire 10-week period even though the ads only ran for six weeks before they finally cancelled them agreeing that there had been a misunderstanding. Is this a binding contract?

 

[JETX]

Based strictly on your post, I don't see anything that would imply that it wasn't binding. However, any valid determination would require a review of the exact documentation.

 

[ready2strikebak]

Let me explain further. I'm not sure if I'm totally off-base or just wasn't clear enough. The radio station in question agreed during the initial conversation to write up an ad for my husband's approval. To this day, an ad has never been shown to him for approval. They just started running an ad - or at least said they had. When asked for a copy of the ad, they replied that they could not produce one. Also, the paper he signed was not labelled in any way shape or form as a contract or any sort of legal agreement. It was presented as an estimate of what the ads would cost and examples of when they would be run - although specific dates were listed on the paper, my husband and the saleswoman had agreed that the ads may not be run at that time. They agreed that he would approve the written ad first and then drop off a deposit. At that time the ads would begin. They did not stick to that agreement and went ahead and ran the ads without any money or any sort of approval of the ad. Are we stuck paying this bill?

 

[ready2strikebak]

Also, on the paper he signed, they marked the payment terms as "Payment in Advance". This was not the case, as no payment has ever been made - because no copy of the ad was ever produced. And, at one point they stopped the ads after my husband repeatedly told them that he had not approved these and would not pay for them. Then, for no reason at all, they started them back up again and started billing us again! After we reported them to the Better Business Bureau, they went the next day and filed a claim in small claims court. What are our chances here?

 

[JETX]

As noted in my post, it would require a review of the WRITTEN docuements and what they included..... and that is simply not possible on the forum.

Any verbal promises ("to write up an ad for my husband's approval", "my husband and the saleswoman had agreed that the ads may not be run at that time", "They agreed that he would approve the written ad first and then drop off a deposit") are all moot IF the agreement says otherwise. A written agreement will ALWAYS trump a verbal statement.

 

[ready2strikebak]

OK, well thanks for the input. As I said, the written "contract" doesn't spell out any details and doesn't even make it clear that it is a contract, so I think we've got a good defense. I guess we'll see.