Hello forum
I am a citizen of France and I do have a PR agency here. I want to expand my PR agency to the UK and hire a UK employee.
In order to find the right employee I initially got in touch with a recruitment agency. We worked on a no cure, no pay basis.
They did some effort and we found a candidate after months but after the candidate did not show up on the second job interview I didn't want to hire this candidate anymore.
The recruitment agency discussed with me that if they would look for another employee within the course of three months.
Now, since they've worked many months and didn't earn anything the manager of the agency called me and also send me an email where she asked if I did agree with the terms and conditions which were stated in an attached standard document. I literally wrote 'I agree with terms and conditions' and the e-mail. The e-mail stated that her colleague would send me an invoice with the
fee that I now had to pay upfront since they decided to work on a retainer basis.
Because I am French and I had good faith I believed this manager when she told me on the phone that
I just had to write that I agreed with the terms and conditions while I clearly told her I didn't have the money yet to spend it on invoices as much as I wanted to pay. I never responded
to the e-mail with the invoices (these invoices were not attached) and I never agreed to anything else but the general terms and conditions of their company. I just wrote ' I agree with terms and conditions of your e-mail'.
This e-mail did not include any of my company details (I also have a company in the UK) it was a general document with terms and conditions and a message that I would receive the invoices later on. I never signed or acted on behalf of one of my companies, I initially contacted them with my own personal e-mail. Never signed or agreed to any documentation that included any of my company information. This manager told me she would start looking after a new candidate after I send her the 'agreed with terms and conditions', I didn't hear back from her in a month when she called me and ask if I could now pay the invoices. I reminded her that I did not have the money to do that and again she lets me wait for one month. Now, she calls me again and tells me she's going to start looking for an employee but I never got back to her.
Last week I am getting another mail where the manager asks me to pay the invoices or they will sue me in the British courts. I wonder if they can do that knowing that I never signed or agreed upon anything on behalf of my company. I did it by myself as a person, also that mail where I wrote that I agreed to pay did not include the invoices yet. The invoices were sent later on and I never responded to that mail since they included my company's details. (they found those details on the internet, I never wrote it anywhere)
Can they send those invoices to any of my companies or sue one of my companies knowing that I have never spoke on behalf of these companies or can they just sue me as a person (even though half of the communication regarding the terms and conditions happened by verbal agreement which is also confirmed by them per mail) so we're talking about a very disorganized agreement.
I also let my business partner who is an investor and my legal advisor (not a licensed attorney) send the recruitment agency an e-mail stating that I did never sign any invoices on behalf of any of the companies and by sending invoices they would actually committing fraud, more specifically 'False accounting'. I personally wonder where the agency got the guts to even threaten me like and try anything to collect unjustified invoices. I was going to pay the invoices if they send me a candidate which they never did.
Are they committing a crime by sending invoices knowing that we have confirmed it was not on behalf of the companies and without any legal substance that it is?
Also, can they sue me as a person and how hard will it be for them to let them pay me the invoices? Everything happened by mail, I only wrote 'I agree with terms and conditions' (not even in correct English) I personally can't believe a judge will say I have to pay for an agreement that was discussed half by phone half by mail and by the shady ways the agency was collecting information. They literally do not have anything on me, no personal address, no home line, no bank account information. How is it even possible that I simply am being threatened with so little evidence... Please help a poor French man here, my only intention was to create jobs in the wonderful UK but I feel like I am being conned thank you and sorry for my bad explaining
I am a citizen of France and I do have a PR agency here. I want to expand my PR agency to the UK and hire a UK employee.
In order to find the right employee I initially got in touch with a recruitment agency. We worked on a no cure, no pay basis.
They did some effort and we found a candidate after months but after the candidate did not show up on the second job interview I didn't want to hire this candidate anymore.
The recruitment agency discussed with me that if they would look for another employee within the course of three months.
Now, since they've worked many months and didn't earn anything the manager of the agency called me and also send me an email where she asked if I did agree with the terms and conditions which were stated in an attached standard document. I literally wrote 'I agree with terms and conditions' and the e-mail. The e-mail stated that her colleague would send me an invoice with the
fee that I now had to pay upfront since they decided to work on a retainer basis.
Because I am French and I had good faith I believed this manager when she told me on the phone that
I just had to write that I agreed with the terms and conditions while I clearly told her I didn't have the money yet to spend it on invoices as much as I wanted to pay. I never responded
to the e-mail with the invoices (these invoices were not attached) and I never agreed to anything else but the general terms and conditions of their company. I just wrote ' I agree with terms and conditions of your e-mail'.
This e-mail did not include any of my company details (I also have a company in the UK) it was a general document with terms and conditions and a message that I would receive the invoices later on. I never signed or acted on behalf of one of my companies, I initially contacted them with my own personal e-mail. Never signed or agreed to any documentation that included any of my company information. This manager told me she would start looking after a new candidate after I send her the 'agreed with terms and conditions', I didn't hear back from her in a month when she called me and ask if I could now pay the invoices. I reminded her that I did not have the money to do that and again she lets me wait for one month. Now, she calls me again and tells me she's going to start looking for an employee but I never got back to her.
Last week I am getting another mail where the manager asks me to pay the invoices or they will sue me in the British courts. I wonder if they can do that knowing that I never signed or agreed upon anything on behalf of my company. I did it by myself as a person, also that mail where I wrote that I agreed to pay did not include the invoices yet. The invoices were sent later on and I never responded to that mail since they included my company's details. (they found those details on the internet, I never wrote it anywhere)
Can they send those invoices to any of my companies or sue one of my companies knowing that I have never spoke on behalf of these companies or can they just sue me as a person (even though half of the communication regarding the terms and conditions happened by verbal agreement which is also confirmed by them per mail) so we're talking about a very disorganized agreement.
I also let my business partner who is an investor and my legal advisor (not a licensed attorney) send the recruitment agency an e-mail stating that I did never sign any invoices on behalf of any of the companies and by sending invoices they would actually committing fraud, more specifically 'False accounting'. I personally wonder where the agency got the guts to even threaten me like and try anything to collect unjustified invoices. I was going to pay the invoices if they send me a candidate which they never did.
Are they committing a crime by sending invoices knowing that we have confirmed it was not on behalf of the companies and without any legal substance that it is?
Also, can they sue me as a person and how hard will it be for them to let them pay me the invoices? Everything happened by mail, I only wrote 'I agree with terms and conditions' (not even in correct English) I personally can't believe a judge will say I have to pay for an agreement that was discussed half by phone half by mail and by the shady ways the agency was collecting information. They literally do not have anything on me, no personal address, no home line, no bank account information. How is it even possible that I simply am being threatened with so little evidence... Please help a poor French man here, my only intention was to create jobs in the wonderful UK but I feel like I am being conned thank you and sorry for my bad explaining
Comment