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I apologize to everyone, my earlier 'thank you' post seems to have gone adrift. So I thank you all again. Factor 30, I'm happy to say I sent these people a small cheque, they have no access to my money. Their operation isn't quite a scam, though the Office of Fair Trading are unhappy about their methods. It works like this - you answer an ad, and buy rather a nice little item for a derisory price, and in due course it arrives, accompanied by an invoice. However, they ask you NOT to pay this invoice, but to accept the item free, with their compliments, and order another similar item, at a higher price (though not MUCH higher) in order to begin your 'collection'. Obviously, simply paying the invoice completes the contract, and that should be the end of the matter. But our friends 'lose' the cheque and the returned invoice accompanying it, hence my use of the phrase 'pretending to assume' and along come more items for your 'collection', but Lo! these are rather dearer. A 'phone call to the firm elicits the info that they never got my cheque (my bank statement begs to differ, because they've cashed it!) and they say they will now send a pre-paid label so I can send back the unwanted bits and pieces. I doubt if they will. I had a word with the Fraud people at my bank, and they tell me this selling trick has been around for a while. So there you go, I now know a bit more about Contract Law and other odds and sods than before, so no harm done.
Thank you all again...-G-