Typical Late Payment Excuses and How To Deal With Them

Late payment excuses, most business owners have had them but should you give your customer the benefit of the doubt or have a strategy in place to deal with them? In our experience it should be the latter which is why we have put together this mini guide to how to deal with the typical late payment excuses.  

“I am disputing the amount owed” 

Many customers who try and wriggle out of their payment obligations will go down the route of disputing payment. This can be tricky to get around and is often a delaying tactic. To combat this, it is important to first establish what that dispute is and whether it is genuine. If it isn’t make sure you gather detailed evidence to support your case.  

“I didn’t receive you invoice”  

Another convenient excuse used by clients is to claim they didn’t get an email with your invoice. There is a chance this could be a genuine excuse but to make sure, request a ‘read receipt’ so that you have proof your email was picked up. You could also send you invoice by mail which requires a signature. If your customer avoids both then you may have a problem and again you will need to gather evidence to support a future claim.  

“Our director has died”  

This is obviously a rare but tricky one to deal with. You will need to be sympathetic if the excuse happens to be genuine but you should still try to recover what is owed if for example there are other directors but if the company dies with its owner then you will need to seek legal advice on the best course of action or to see if there is any way to recover debts.

To speak to one of our debt recovery team please call 0800 002 9049