Spam/ProofReading

OP = Admiral

A while back, I suddenly started getting regular spams from a certain computer retailer. As I had not requested such items, I decided to try out a suggestion given to me by my DoS <mumble> years ago. After complaining to postmaster@the site, receiving a bounce, reporting the problem to their web-based helpdesk, getting no reply, and reporting the site to rfcignorant, I replied to the spam, with the following text:

 Welcome to the <me> proofreading service. Thankyou for choosing this service, providing efficient and accurate
 proofreading services for all users of email advertising. To use this service, simply send emails to be proofread to
 <my address>. Proofreading services will be charged at Ł200 per email, and payment is due within one month
 of receiving an invoice. By sending emails to be checked, you agree to the charges, and you agree that the primary point
 of contact for yourselves is the email address from which the emails originate. Results and invoices will be sent to this
 address, so make sure it is valid. Please do not send emails if you do not agree to these points.

 Since you are a new customer, this first email is proofread below for free:

and then I included a report on the spam that they had sent me, things like invalid XHTML, there's no text only images, images are sourced from your website which most mail readers will refuse to do, no alt tags, html and text/plain parts do not even remotely match, and grammar errors in the subject line. The next email I received from them had "[presend-copy]" prefixed onto the subject line. I subsequently proofread eight messages, and sent an invoice for Ł1600. Of course, no reply has been received. I also withdrew my services, as they were very obviously not taking any notice of my suggestions, and I was getting bored.

So, any idea where I stand on legal grounds? I believe there is a case to be made that this company have entered into a contract with me, and I should be able to take them to court for nonpayment of my invoice. Any comments?

.... don't be silly. --Vitenka

: Perish the thought --Admiral

Hey, this is me talking; there's a threshold to silliness, and expecting this sort of thing to carry on into the real world is it. --Vitenka

There is no contract unless they used some variant of the phrase "We would like you to...", or "We agree to...". They are probably using an automated system so you are actually trying to set up a legal agreement with a for-loop (not legally able to act on behalf of the company). In any case, I am certain that they got your email address from a "valid source", which means that you haven't been ticking your "don't share my addresses with a select list of companies" boxes (where a "select list" is whoever pays them some cash). May I recommend buying stuff from them, then returning it within the allowed 14 days? -- DDD