I’ve got a client who’s three weeks late, and their excuses just keep getting crazier. It’s wild how inventive some people can be when it comes to dodging payments. What’s the craziest excuse you’ve ever encountered while waiting for an invoice to be settled?
Had one say the cat ate the check
Check’s in the mail got old after the third time. Now I just ask for tracking numbers.
Had one client claim their office flooded and destroyed all paperwork. They work from home and we hadn’t seen rain in weeks. Another couldn’t pay because Mercury was in retrograde - apparently their financial advisor said to wait.
Best excuse yet? Client’s elderly mom accidentally shredded the invoice making birthday confetti. Points for creativity, but come on.
I tell everyone upfront now - late payments get hit with fees. Amazing how creative excuses vanish when it costs extra money.
My worst excuse? Client ghosted me for a month after I finished a big project. When they finally surfaced, they claimed their payment system got hacked and all vendor info was compromised.
Bullshit. They were shopping for cheaper alternatives while using my work.
Other classics I’ve heard:
- Wrong bank account - sent payment to an account that doesn’t exist
- Waiting for their big client to pay first
- Company changed their entire payment system overnight
- Never got my invoice (despite read receipts)
Here’s what I’ve learned: real payment problems get fixed fast. People actually communicate and offer solutions. The elaborate stories? They’re stalling or hoping you’ll give up.
Now I follow up every few days with short emails. Done waiting around for creative BS.
Clients usually stick to simple excuses. Forgot to send the payment or lost the check. Nothing wild, just common stuff.
Clients come up with crazy excuses. One guy said his computer crashed and he lost all his banking passwords. It took him two months to recover everything. Another classic is blaming the sick bookkeeper. My favorite was someone claiming their payment got stuck in fraud protection for six weeks.
This video covers the most common payment excuses and how to handle them:
Now I just set clear payment terms upfront and charge late fees.
Clients can come up with wild stories. One said their accountant took all the credit cards on vacation. Another didn’t pay because their partner spent all the money on a wedding. The best was when a client claimed their bank froze their account for too many payments that month.