Common Unpaid Debt Excuses (and How to Deal with Them)

Nobody likes excuses, especially when they drag on forever. When excuses involve a financial loss to you or your company, the situation may feel intolerable. Still, no matter how frustrated you get, there’s no reason to get carried away. When it comes to debt resolution, there’s always a solution. That’s why our team of debt collection professionals at Summit A•R is here to help.

When you’re facing the impact of overdue payments from delinquent customers who seem to be doing everything they can to avoid paying you, it is time to get help. The minute you contact our team, the entire problem will be taken off your hands and entrusted to a team that is trained and experienced in resolving these exact types of situations.

Whether or not you’ve already contacted us for help, likely, you’re already dealing with an ongoing barrage of excuses each time you interact with the person who holds the delinquent account. To help you navigate this issue, here is some information on the common excuses that occur in commercial debt collection and some advice on how to respond.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

For the victim of a financial dispute, the entire matter can seem like an endless line of headaches. You have to deal with the fallout of a significant financial loss, and you may also be dealing with the emotional and psychological fallout.

Managers who face unpaid bills from delinquent customers often blame themselves for their failed attempts at collecting consumer debt, whether that customer had good intentions or bad ones. Ultimately, those intentions don’t matter, given that the damage occurs one way or another. The good news is that a solution exists. Finding our team at Summit A•R is the first step to finding the relief you’ve been waiting for.

Types of Delinquent Accounts

While some people legitimately wish to pay but are prevented by a financial burden, you might also be dealing with someone willing to resort to dishonesty to avoid paying you fairly. Then again, even people who start with honest intentions will sometimes resort to less honorable tactics when facing financial hardships. In such cases, you’re also the victim.

No matter what excuse you receive, there’s no reason to let the matter drop and to merely take a loss. Debt collection agents specialize in resolving matters in a way that works out amicably for both parties. No matter what the excuse might be, we can help you gain a foothold and ensure that you get paid. That said, here are a few specific situations you may encounter: 

Bill Disputes and the Burden of Proof

One excuse business owners commonly face is the claim that the bill was already paid. In such situations, the person holding the delinquent account will endlessly repeat to you that they are correct and your accounts receivable department is the cause of the error.

That said, the potential that the mistake did occur from a member of your team only goes to demonstrate the constant need to treat people ethically and respectfully in all cases. The best way to resolve this issue is to ensure that you always keep detailed records to prove to the customer that they are mistaken. If no proof can be demonstrated in favor of either party, our debt pre-collection team can dig deeper to resolve the issue.

Honest Inability to Pay

When a customer faces you directly by admitting that they cannot pay for your goods or services because they don’t have the money, this may appear to be a sign of honesty. The problem with making this assumption is that they could easily be lying to attempt to avoid payments.

No matter how tempting it might be to take the customer’s word at face value, you can’t allow your company to lose money every time a customer makes a claim of financial hardship. When people genuinely face economic difficulty, they are usually eager to work with a debt collector that employs ethical debt collection strategies and can show that they are there to cooperate on resolving the matter.

Dealing with Excuses

The problem with excuses is that it is often impossible to tell whether you’re dealing with someone who is being honest with you or not. Ultimately, for any small business owner, a loss is a loss, no matter the reason.

When a business owner attempts to deal with a delinquent customer that is full of excuses on their own, the outcome usually goes one of two ways:

1. They cave to the excuses and bear the financial loss
2. They take out their frustration on the customer and engage in unethical tactics

From the point of view of a professional debt collector, either of these situations is unacceptable. If you’re facing a situation where you’ve lost income for any reason, the sooner you contact our small business collection services for help, the better.

Fair and Respectful Treatment

When you hold a policy aimed at treating everyone equally, you don’t have to worry about trying to judge each case on its own. After all, if you merely trusted your intuition in each case, you could risk making an error that resulted in mistreating someone  because you made a mistake. In the end, it might be impossible to ever know whether the person who owes you money is making a legitimate claim or not regarding their excuse.

Instead, the best plan of action is one that is aimed at treating all of your customers with respect and dignity while looking for solutions rather than excuses. If you’re currently facing excuse after excuse with no end in sight, get in touch with our team. Rather than risk a poor outcome, we’ll ensure that the issue is settled fairly. In the end, we may even be able to repair the relationship so that you can continue to do business in the future.