contract-law legal-terms
Which has precedence, a purchase policy or an invoice&#39;s payment terms?
<p>If an online company has a posted policy that says your payment is due on the second of every month, but send you an invoice with terms of net 30 and a due date of the thirtieth, is the invoice date the binding date or does the stated payment policy trump the invoice due date?</p>

<p>This is a direct contradiction rendering the terms ambiguous, and because both terms were drafted by the seller, would probably be construed against them.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>is the invoice date the binding date or does the stated payment policy
  trump the invoice?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It depends on the exact terms of the policy that you agreed upon, which is not clear from your inquiry.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Since this has all been online, I have not signed anything. I did
  receive an email where he dictates his policy for payment dates.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Beware that having received/read that email is equivalent to having signed the document. In U.S. courts, a party only needs to prove that the adversary was aware of the terms and conditions.</p>

<p>In line with my 2nd comment to your inquiry (about the <em>contra proferentem</em> doctrine) and ohwilleke's answer, you might prevail in a case against that company. Hence the relevance of what jurisdiction you are in, since I am not sure that all countries incorporate that doctrine in their contract law.</p>

<p>As an alternative approach to "having the terms read against the person that wrote them" as suggested by ohwilleke, I put forth another perspective -</p>

<p>The terms of the agreement would need to be known before the agreement was made - anything which comes afterwards (and which does not have the consent of both parties) is irrelevant - thus the terms on the website/stated policy would prevail provided it was clearly laid out and disclosed prior to completion of the purchase.  </p>

<p>His saying you "forfeit all previous payments" would appear to be naive on his part, but similarly the payment date specified on the invoice is likely a mistake and I believe would be treated as such.</p>
