Common Debtor Excuses
With over 10 years of experience chasing late payers and bad debtors in the Commercial Debt Recovery industry, Darcey Quigley have heard it all. Having recovered millions of pounds of overdue accounts around the world we have experienced our fair share of weird and wonderful excuses for non-payment.
With over 20 years of industry experience our Senior Credit Management Consultant, Pamela Dunsmore told us some excuses she has heard from debtors to further delay payment.
Here are her top 10 excuses for non-payment:
- “I am waiting on a new cheque book!” after claiming, they don’t have a debit card or online banking
- “My bank account has been hacked so all my accounts are frozen”…
- “I am travelling through South America so cannot get online to make payment, so I won’t be back for 4 weeks”
- “I’m waiting on Milk Cheque from the government”
- “My main contractor hasn’t paid me, so I cannot pay”
- “I posted a cheque, but the local post-box was fire bombed”
- “We have ceased trading/are in liquidation/receivership and they do not have the details on who has been appointed”
- “I’m in the process of changing banks”
- “I haven’t received the invoice”
- “We are disputing the invoice but don’t have any details of the dispute it was raised by someone else”
Everyday customers will come up with new excuses for non-payment of invoices. It clearly highlights the need for a robust credit control process. You must ensure that your customer details are correct before invoicing, your documentation should contain all the correct PO and customer numbers. You should always call your customers to confirm receipt of your invoice before it is overdue then chase any outstanding invoices as soon as they are due, don’t leave it too late.
If you would like to discuss what approach you should take with your customers or you are experiencing any of the above excuses or your debtors are simply refusing payment, contact us today to find out more about our services.
Telephone: 01698 821468
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.darceyquigley.co.uk and chat with us on live chat.
