contract law

Assignment Task
Maisie owns and runs a bakery called Popular Pies. She puts an advertisement in the local newspaper as follows:
“Why not order your special event pies from Popular Pies? We have cheese and onion/steak/minced beef pies all from £1.50 each. To place your order ring Maisie on 0161 222 1111 or call in to the shop at 100 Saville Street, Manchester.”
a) Alan telephones the shop to order 50 steak pies but as the shop is closed, he leaves a message on the answer machine to order 50 steak pies at £1.50 each totalling £75. When Maisie returns his call the following day to say that the steak pies are £2.00 each Alan says that he is simply agreeing to the advert and demands to buy at £1.50 each.

b) Barbara posts a letter dated 10th October to Maisie saying:
“I would like to place an order for 100 cheese and onion pies for a party for £1.40 each assuming a discount for bulk purchase. They should be delivered to 1 Dales Lane, Stockport on 10th November. Unless I hear to the contrary within 1 week of the date of this letter, I will assume that we have a contract.”
On 18th October, Maisie posts a letter back to Barbara agreeing to supply the cakes for £1.40 each but this is never received by Barbara. On 21st October, Barbara telephones Maisie and says she no longer wants the pies.
c) Maisie is going to a trade fair and is hoping to get a significant number of orders for pies for bonfire night. In anticipation of this, on 15th October, she submits an order to Flour Ltd for “200kg plain flour for £100 on our standard terms and conditions”. On the back of her letter is Popular Pies’ standard terms and conditions. These include a clause permitting Maisie to return any bags of unopened flour within 2 weeks of delivery should they not be used.

On 18th October, Flour Ltd reply with a letter headed “Acknowledgement of Order”. It states “We are pleased to accept your order for 200kg plain flour on our terms and conditions.” Flour Ltd’s terms and conditions do not allow customers to return unused goods. The letter contains a tear off slip for Maisie to sign and return agreeing to this. Maisie does not sign and return the tear off slip but instead files the Acknowledgement of Order in her suppliers folder. She receives the flour. Following the trade fair, Maisie is disappointed that she has not received more orders and she telephones Flour Ltd to return the unused bags. She is told that they will not accept returns.

Advise Maisie in each of the above scenarios.

NB the advice should be written in the 3rd person and this is not a letter to Maisie. You must support your analysis and advice with legal authority. You are required to write a fully reasoned answer to the problem question and not produce a simple IRAC grid.