Top 10 Late Payement Excuses That I’ve Heard…

  • By Steven Riis-Christensen
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O-MY-GOD!
Just when I thought I'd heard them all, a client, old or new, manages to come up with a newerest, lamerest, stupiderest, excuse as to why the cheque, which has been in the mail for 3 weeks has not arrived yet. I hate having to cold call people, but what the hell people!!!

Top 10 all time classics:

  1. Our accountant is away on vacation.
  2. We mailed your cheque last week, you should be getting it any day now.
  3. We never received your invoice, please resend and we'll pay you right away.
  4. We received your invoice, but forgot to give it to our accountant.
  5. Your cheque has been ready for 1 month now, we just forgot to mail it.
  6. You didn't receive the cheque that I sent you yet? I'll cancel it at the bank and send you a new one. You should have it within days!
  7. Our accountant is sick and should be back sometime next week.
  8. It was the holidays and we were closed.
  9. You sent it by email? Please resend to my accountants address by snail mail.
  10. We moved to a new office and your invoice must have been misplaced.

A few more...

I know that these one's are true, but I still find them pretty funny.

  1. We've closed for renovations and don't have any more money to pay you (3 months later). We'll send you a cheque soon.
  2. My accountant's grandmother is dying.
  3. All from the same client over a period of 3 months: "Thanks I'll send you a cheque next week" / "So sorry, my partner will make the cheque and send it to you" / "My partner made the cheque but left in the filing cabinet" / "I'll mail it as soon as I get it" / Then finally: "You're cheque was lost I'll make you a new one and send it right away" and finally it was done. LOL
  4. After 2.5 months: "I was in Quebec City" - I wonder what Fido would do if I waited 2.5 months to pay my phone bill and used "I was in Quebec City" as an excuse.

If you are reading this and feel like I'm talking about you...


I probably am!

What's up with accountants anyway? How come they get so much vacation time and are yet always so sick? What's up with the post office? When I mail a letter, the person I've mailed it to always gets it within 3-5 days. Most cheques coming to me seem to go through some different mail system that takes at least 3-5 weeks to arrive. Anyways, at least they arrive! And that's all that matters.