Booked a training course but received no confirmation email

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

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Evening legal types,

So my girlfriend registered her interest for an excel course on a particular day with a training company. If they have spaces, they will apparently send you a confirmation email.

She didn't go on the course because I advised her not to, which was a good move IMO.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and she received a letter saying they want the money for the course because she had booked a place, and are threatening to take her to court.

As far as we can tell, having scoured all her emails, she has never received a confirmation email. This would be fine, but emails aren't really firm proof, and they can't really prove that she ever received the email (which she didn't).

Also, she hasn't paid them a penny.

Can anyone advise us on where we stand? Thanks on advance :)

TL;DR girlfriend inquired about an excel course, company claims it was booked but she received no confirmation of it, company now threatening court action.
 
They probably would have had a register for any attendees (that what we do in work)...

So...Ask them the following;
Proof that the confirmation email was sent and received.
Proof that your girlfriend attended the course. (edit: don't need this as they are saying she didn't attend but only booked the course?)
 
So are you saying she booked a place on a course and has not paid any fee or deposit....?

I'm no legal expert, but if that's the case, I'd think they can threaten court action all they like, but they have no real contract with her so it will likely just get thrown out. I believe this is why the majority of businesses offering any kind of course or similar will have a requirement that you either pay up front or have a deposit. That way the cost is covered, whether they come or not, or in the case of a deposit they still get some of the fee and the chance to find a replacement.
 
well they can't send a summons to an e-mail address.... and if they don't have your real address then it sounds rather dubious that she's booked a course...

Of course it could well be a combination of your GF being a bit naive and the company being a bit of a shambles - maybe she did attempt to book a course on the website and they didn't send a confirmation e-mail...
 
rhysduck said:
Proof that the confirmation email was sent and received.
Proof that your girlfriend attended the course. (edit: don't need this as they are saying she didn't attend but only booked the course?)
Click to expand...

She didn't attend the course because she didn't receive confirmation of her place, and because I'd convinced her it was a waste of money. They don't have any proof that the confirmation email was received, though.

Nexus said:
So are you saying she booked a place on a course and has not paid any fee or deposit....?

I'm no legal expert, but if that's the case, I'd think they can threaten court action all they like, but they have no real contract with her so it will likely just get thrown out. I believe this is why the majority of businesses offering any kind of course or similar will have a requirement that you either pay up front or have a deposit. That way the cost is covered, whether they come or not, or in the case of a deposit they still get some of the fee and the chance to find a replacement.
Click to expand...

She paid absolutely nothing. I think you're right, no money was exchanged and no contract was made because her place on the course was never confirmed. The grey area for me is that I guess they have to prove that she received the email, but I can't find it anywhere, so I'm guessing she didn't receive it...hopefully the burden of proof lies with them.

dowie said:
well they can't send a summons to an e-mail address.... and if they don't have your real address then it sounds rather dubious that she's booked a course...

Of course it could well be a combination of your GF being a bit naive and the company being a bit of a shambles - maybe she did attempt to book a course on the website and they didn't send a confirmation e-mail...
Click to expand...

They sent this aggressive letter to her house, sorry if I wasn't clear. She was a little naive, but they basically have to tell you that they have a free space, and they didn't, so that's not her fault at all.
 
Why didn't you just call the company and clarify? If you didn't want to go you could've cancelled.

Absence of common sense?
 
Because the way they apparently operate is that you fill in an enquiry form to see whether there's a space available on a certain day. If they reply with confirmation, then obviously you go, but as far as my girlfriend knew, having not received a confirmation email, she hadn't got a space.
 
What did your girlfriend actually fill in to "book" the course? Is there any confirmed paper trail at all?
 
I imagine they can't prove you received the e-mail and this is the reason why lots of things are still sent out in the post because e-mail is typically a non-assured method of correspondence.
 
Nexus said:
I'm no legal expert, but if that's the case, I'd think they can threaten court action all they like, but they have no real contract with her so it will likely just get thrown out. I believe this is why the majority of businesses offering any kind of course or similar will have a requirement that you either pay up front or have a deposit. That way the cost is covered, whether they come or not, or in the case of a deposit they still get some of the fee and the chance to find a replacement.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with this.

Tell them to jog on.
 
So if this is how the company operates, what would stop you from signing up a bunch of random people at different addresses, and them being able to bill you?
 
deuse, she didn't book and just not turn up. She enquired as to whether there was a space available on the course. Apparently there was and it was assigned to her, but no confirmation was ever sent to her, so as far as she was concerned, the course wasn't going ahead.

You're a bit of a dick, really. Why does it matter whether I have offered to foot the bill or not?

To everyone else, there is no paper trail at her end. They can confirm (they led her to believe) that the confirmation email was sent out to her, but they can't confirm that she ever received it, and she can't show that she received it either. If she'd received the email then she would have called and cancelled.

You could well sign up loads of people with email addresses, but if you did actually receive confirmation to one of these emails then you would be liable for the cost, I guess.
 
For it to be a contract you'd need an offer, acceptance, consensus ad idem (meeting of the minds or an intention to create legal consequences) and consideration.

If the information provided is right then it doesn't sound as if this process is set up very well for a contract to occur. Taking it in reverse there appears to be a failing on the consideration element as told just now, there's arguably no consensus ad idem if your girlfriend thought it was an enquiry rather than a binding obligation to go on the course, acceptance must generally be communicated apart from in limited circumstances such as an offer to the world where acceptance can be indicated by taking certain actions so it would fall to whether there was a valid offer for there to even be one element of a contract. As you need all four then it doesn't seem as if there is a valid contract so it shouldn't be an issue - the company might wish to revise their processes though to avoid such situations in the future.
 
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