Question

Mrs. Jelly, a recent divorcee, was under a lot of financial pressure and decided to sell her luxury yacht. She placed an advertisement in the local newspaper and showed the boat to a young couple that weekend who indicated that they were looking for a boat ' around the $ 30,000 mark'. The couple was impressed, but stated that they were not prepared to pay the $43,000 Mrs. Jelly was asking. The following week, not having sold the yacht, Mrs. Jelly sent the young couple a letter stating that she was now prepared to sell the yacht to them for $ 30,000 and that if she did not hear from them she would consider the yacht sold at that price. The young couple seeks your advice as to whether they are now obliged to purchase the yacht. Advise them.

Answer 1

Well, the advise would be that they are not obliged to purchase the yacht anymore or were never obliged.

Mrs. Jelly is doing the most common thing that most buyers do which is assumptions and presumption of the behalf of the buyer. Assumptions seldom lead to conclusive and correct inferences as they are done on the basis of biases. Mrs. Jellys desperation to sell the yacht makes her judgment clouded and propels her to assume that ghe couple would still be ready to purchase the yacht.

The couple has no obligation as they never gave Mrs. Jelly a deal or a promise to purchase it after or ever.