Originally Posted by
Freehills
Eh? If we are coming up with completely irrelevant examples - can I play?
Imagine you live in a house. You are having something delivered. Your courier is asking you to sign for delivery. .You tell him I will sign nothing. He tells you, no problem, and doesn't give you the item
Not signing caused this mess in the first place, and not signing a second time won't be the solution either.
Yeah....perhaps it is a bit of a ridiculous example.
But maybe not so irrelevant.
If you DID buy and arrange to have something delivered, you would likely have signed some form of sales contract, or done so under terms and conditions delineated by the seller (in the store, on a website, etc.). Absent these there are uniform commercial codes and laws in the particular jurisdiction.
Not everyone reads these in full, so many of these entities (including websites) say "signature required for delivery" or "adult signature required for delivery", etc. such that the terms are clearly understood. So, these terms had been previously agreed.
And if you refused to sign on delivery, these would be the basis of what happens next. Perhaps it would be the deliverer simply drops off the item, noting the time and place and person contacted, and writes "signature refused." Or perhaps these terms and conditions require you to sign for delivery (which you would have agreed when you bought whatever it is you bought under the original sales terms or contract) and the deliverer doesn't give it to you without signing.
The key here is that you previously had agreed the terms and if the terms are ambiguous it defers to prevailing law.
Now, how about the case where an inferior set of terms are presented later. This would be exactly like the delivery person saying "sign here--oh yeah, there's a 1000 dollar delivery charge add on." (that you didn't agree to and wasn't in the original terms and conditions).
I don't know anyone who would sign something like that. And the seller would still be on the hook to deliver the goods as promised under the original terms.