Purchase Order - is an email sufficient?

[martin_electrician]

If a client emails saying they wish to order 10 of product x @ £x each and says to use this email as my purchase order, would you accept it or would you insist on them sending you an actual company headed purchase order by email?

Should the order turn sour and they don't pay or there's a dispute, would a court accept an email to be legally binding in the same way that an actual purchase order would be?

 

[StevensOnln1]

If it was sent from their company e-mail address by someone you know has the authority place the order then it should be just as binding legally. The only flaw might be if you don't have a PO number you could find payment being delayed.

 

[Ian@Compel]

I have accepted emails in place of PO's before as well as email terms of work for campaigns in place of signed contracts. 99 times out of 100 it's no problem but we did get screwed by one company who tried to refuse payment. Though in fairness, I think that's more to do with the contact we were dealing with being a dodgy sod than anything else if I'm honest.

As long as everything is clearly detailed in the email and confirmed in response i.e made as airtight as you can in that situation you should be fine. Just make sure you trust them.

TL;DR - It's ok, just be cautious.

 

[Vectis]

If a client emails saying they wish to order 10 of product x @ £x each and says to use this email as my purchase order, would you accept it or would you insist on them sending you an actual company headed purchase order by email?

Should the order turn sour and they don't pay or there's a dispute, would a court accept an email to be legally binding in the same way that an actual purchase order would be?

99% of our orders come via email these days and have done for years now.

Back in the old days we used to ask for POs but not anymore. Even Councils, for lower value orders, use emails. Just quote the email and person's name as reference on the invoice.

 

[Vectis]

This is not sufficient.we cannot now who is behind the email.people make fake email id use for just fun.

Well, obviously if you got an email out of the blue from someone you'd never heard of previously saying 'send me 200 of your products, I'll pay you later', you would, of course, send off the order, wouldn't you? No, of course you wouldn't. You'd contact the sender and, probably, ask for money up front. Unless you were daft, that is.

 

[GraemeL]

Nothing wrong with an email, provided you have done all you want and need to with regard to information. (Is this a B2B or B2C sale?)

If you have your own terms and conditions that you would want your customer to accept, then you need confirmation from your customer that they have done so. So you might want to send them an order acknowledgement with details of the items and your T+C for them to approve.

If it is a sale to a Consumer then you are also required by law (and increasingly so under the new regulations effective June http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/t...ce-and-off-premises-selling-june-13th.325981/ ) to provide standard information.

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Personally I'd be asking for an order number, if I'm told that they don't use order numbers then I'd ask for an email confirmation from the company email address.

Some councils are finally getting into the habit of ordering through their ordering systems now which is great, we currently have an agreement with both Local councils that we currently supply to stating that orders will not be processed without their official order numbers and not internal order numbers.