1. A widget salesman Widgets International gives a brochure for the 2017 new and improved widget to the CEO of your company at a trade show. The CEO says that the new widget is really great and his company should have a complete set of the new widgets for the IT department. Does the salesman have a contract? Why or why not?
2. Given the wonderful response from the CEO to the brochures for the new widgets, the salesman visits your company's IT department, talks to the Chief Information Officer and gives him a written proposal for the complete set of new widgets. The CIO says “Great. Let's get this going.” Does the salesman have a contract? Why or why not?
3. The CIO finally gets around to telling you, as the Director of Purchasing, to order a complete set of new widgets. You send a purchase order on your standard purchase order form to Widgets International LLC for the widgets. The Widget International sales office responds with their standard acceptance form. A month later, the CIO storms into your office and screams that the it's all over the internet that the WI widgets are a joke, WI is actually a front for Guccifer 2.0, we should never have ordered them, and tells you to cancel the order. Your purchase order form gives you the right to do that. The acceptance form says there is no right to cancel. Do you have a right to cancel the order? Why or why not?
4. Having extricated your company from the Widgets International fiasco, you get a proposal from American Widgets Corporation for a set of platinum widgets. The proposal says it is good for 30 days. Two weeks later you fax a signed purchase order to American Widgets. The next day in the mail you get a letter from American Widgets rescinding the offer. The letter was postmarked two days before you faxed your purchase order. Do you have an enforceable contract? Why or why not?