I had a small supplier call me up one day with a "your account is 125 days past due" ... I immediately said, really, we ordered and paid for supplies 4 times since then, are you sure? ... after 20 minutes of file searching, we got an invoice faxed that we never received ... a backordered item. I apologized even though we never got it ... Told them we'll get a check out to them right a way and thought we were done with it, 2 days later, check was sent out ... they called the 3rd day with 'you're account is past due' crap again ... told them check was sent out previous day and this thunder **** tried yelling at me about financial responsibility ... and I tore into her with a long *** reaming about how as the accounts receivable whatever she should know when accounts are nearing their 90 day past due mark let alone noticed when one order wasn't paid but had 4 others after that paid that are 10 times that amount. her excuse 'well we have thousands of accounts, and i can't keep track of that' ... i was quiet for a couple seconds, she yelled 'WELL?!?!' ... and last we communicated was a polite, 'If we are amongst thousands of accounts, and get this response ... then I guess we no longer need to do business with you." and hung up. called our sales rep, told him the deal ... last I heard she was no longer working there, and we no longer buy from them. also should note, accounts weren't in the thousands.
sometimes there are honest mix ups so if they say 'Oh, I must not have gotten an invoice or might have misplaced it' I believe them the first time ... after that ... no.
best line i heard for not getting paid was a month after I did the panel van graphics ... guy said 'the van is repo'd, so I can't pay you back since my wallet was in there'
also had a dude order something completely custom fabricated and wanted it with 2 day delivery ... made him
sign a
paper saying he agreed on the 2 day over sized delivery charges and made him pay for the item up front ... shipping cost more than the item ... he said I should refund him the amount he already paid since he didn't think shipping would be that much. his excuse ... 'i lost my job' ... he didn't. after 6 months and many attempts to collect, i told him his deposit is now forfeit, someone came in the shop, saw it in the corner bought it a week later for the cost of the shipping. made me happy, haven't heard or seen him since.