“My puppy ate my chequebook” and 7 other awful late payment excuses
06/07/2020
Previously we asked our readers to share the worst late payment excuses they’ve ever heard and we wanted to re-share these wonderful responses with you.
From post boxes being superglued by vandals to puppies eating chequebooks – and even someone blaming God, these reasons for delaying or not making payment are truly terrible.
Take a look at some of the best responses below:
“I’ve broke[n] my right arm and I’m right handed. Also broke my leg, can’t reach [the] cheque book and I write with my toes.”
Via Anita on LinkedIn
“I once had a customer tell me he couldn’t post the cheque as promised as the post box had been super-glued by vandals. This same post box had previously been set on fire by gypsies, cut off by snow drifts and boarded up by the post office due to flooding… We did eventually get paid each time but finally stopped offering credit. The business folded some time later.”
Via Barbara on the blog
“Someone once said they had broken their leg and the company chequebook was upstairs, which they couldn’t get to. Another one was that their puppy had chewed up the company chequebook.”
Via Belinda on LinkedIn
“At Uni the guy I was sharing a flat with told me ’God doesn’t want me to pay the rent’. According to my flatmate’s version of God, you only pay rent for the time you actually use a property… and not for the time you’re not home. What can I say… it brought the Devil out in me.”
Via Ken on Google+
“Hoarding cash for some (often year-end) balance sheets’ best-looking liquidity position (sometimes months in advance), and individual people’s absence due to holidays with no apparent desire or arrangements for colleagues being able to cover remain regular excuses we have to healthily challenge and generally very successfully cut through.”
Via Paul on LinkedIn
“Had a contract with a construction management firm who was issued a proposed change notice from the Engineer/Consultant for the client (local school board) and didn’t ask us for lump sum pricing, just asked for our rate sheet, then directed us to do the work. Then they did not want to pay the £70k forced work order because the client didn’t sign off on their proposed pricing… I informed them I really didn’t care as my contract was with the managers of the project, not the client, and one of the owners directed us to do the work.”
Via Caleb on LinkedIn
“Some years ago when working for another company I was told the senior managers were out of the country at a seminar and no cheques had been signed, a likely story!! I sent an LBA via a well-known Liverpool based firm of solicitors which was received the next day. Within a couple of days I had a cheque from the company. Was I to believe someone had flown back into the country to sign a cheque just for me or was the seminar a bluff to evade paying? Needless to say that company was kept on a very tight reign thereafter.
“Another example [is] when I was told a cheque had been posted on the such and such date. When the cheque arrived the franking date was some days later than they had told me. We always keep the envelopes with the cheques and I scanned a copy across to the person who told me the lie. They paid on time thereafter, knowing that they had been caught out with a ‘fib’.”
Via Chris on the blog
“Every excuse not to get paid is the worst one, at the point in time you get the excuse. Especially as you probably needed the cash when you were chasing for it.”
Via Stewart on LinkedIn
Do you have more late payment excuses you’d like to share? If so, we’d love to hear them. Please share your experiences in the comments below.
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