On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 16:36:08 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:

On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 15:29:31 GMT, "Blueyonder"
wrote:


"tim (moved to sweden)" wrote in message
Makes me wonder -- IANAL, but if you offered valid legal tender for
the goods, I rather suspect they would find it very difficult to
prosecute you if you just walked off with them.

They'd find it very easy.

You've made an offer, they have rejected it.

They have no obligation to accept any form of payment
before an acceptance of offer.

I don't think so. You have not made them an offer by giving them the cash -
the offer has already been made by B&Q to let you have the items for
appropriate renumeration. You have accepted their offer by giving the cash.
It's very simple:

B&Q: I will offer you this door for £10
You: I accept that offer. Here is ten pound.
B&Q: Err, we don't like the colour of your money.
You: Tough. It is valid and legal cash and you must take it now that we have
accepted your offer.
B&Q: I've changed my mind...
You: You should have done that before I gave you the cash that we agreed.

-- JJ



That is not correct.

The display of goods on the shelf is an invitation to treat only.

True

The offer is made by the customer when he takes the goods to the till
and offers payment.

Not exactly, the contract has already been made before the customer
offers the cash. The customer only has to bring the article for sale
to the till, to be deemed to have made an offer of payment (assuming
they don't say something like "Can you tell me how much this is ?")

If the assistant rings the article up on the till and says "That will
be £10, please", this is deemed acceptance of the offer and a contract
is formed.

In theory, the customer now *has* to pay for the goods and the store
*has* to accept legal tender (Coins or notes (except for Bank of
England notes outside England and similar for BOS notes etc.) The only
items of legal tender valid throughout the UK are £1 and £2 coins).

http://www.consumereducation.org.uk/...lrights/03.htm

Look at the case between Boots and the PSGB (1953)

http://www.accaglobal.com/publicatio...countant/36664


You can't insist on buying something either. The shop is completely
within its rights to refuse.

Absolutely, *but* they can't refuse once the article has been rung up
on the till since they will have accepted your offer.

They are also within their rights to ask
for legal tender as opposed to a credit card for example.

Yes, but, in theory, if you offer legal tender in payment and the shop
decline to accept it after they've rung up the sale, you can walk out
of the shop with the goods.

I don't recommend trying it though as the staff in most shops haven't
the foggiest idea about the law and you might find yourself rugby
tackled if you did so. :-)


This is not to say that following this whole line is commercially a
good idea, since in practice there would be no point in displaying the
goods if they didn't want to sell them, but that is the legal
situation, AIUI.

Of course, this doesn't provide any excuse to treat customers poorly.

True

Cheers,

John