Working in collections means you’ve probably heard every imaginable excuse.

So what would you do if a customer with a long history of missed payments begged for more time and swore that this time was different?

Would you shut her down and refuse to listen to her reasoning? Or would you give her one chance to change your mind?

In the following story, a collections employee finds themselves in this situation and is shocked by the customer’s reason.

Here’s what happened.

Me: “Ma’am, if you can give me an excuse I’ve never heard before, I’ll consider your unreasonable request.”

Major telecom worker here. The collections department, so we usually get the worst of the worst.

This particular customer in question had an amazingly bad payment record and many non-pay service denials within the last year.

On this particular day, it was the date that we had established for a payment arrangement to maintain active service. She had previously set up an arrangement, broke it, was denied service, then managed to convince a rep to restore her service on the promise to pay for today.

The woman was desperate and trying to buy herself more time.

It was pretty much the end of the line, and she was asking for more time.

Me: “I’m sorry, Ma’am, but I’m afraid we have reached the limit of how far we can extend you. You will need to keep your arrangement for today and make your payment, or we will have to deny your service again.”

Cus: “But you don’t understand…it’s not my fault this time!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but you haven’t been keeping your arrangements.”

She began by telling them all about her life.

Cus: “I know I haven’t but this time you have to believe me! It’s not my fault, and I need more time!”

Customer proceeds to tell me a sob story about her life, involving her crappy ex-husband and abusive father. If it was true it was truly heartbreaking, but at the same time, completely unrelated to why she needed more time.

Me: “So is that why you need more time?”

Cus: “Well, no. I just told you that so you’d understand my life. You won’t believe me if I told you why I need more time.”

Then, she told them why her payment was late.

Me: “Ma’am, if you can give me an excuse I’ve never heard before, I’ll consider your unreasonable request.”

Cus: “The mail truck caught fire.”

Me: “…wut?”

Cus: “I actually did mail you a money order, but the mail truck that was carrying the letter caught fire. I need the extra time to replace the money order.”

It turns out, she was telling the truth.

Me: “…please hold.”

So I placed the customer on hold while I whipped out my phone. A quick Google search for news in her town showed that she was telling the truth.

Me: “Thanks for holding. How’s the end of the month sound?”

Wow! That’s why you should always give people the benefit of the doubt.

Let’s see if the people over at Reddit have ever encountered something similar.

This person would still hold her accountable.

This sounds like a good policy.

That is bad luck.

Yet another person calling out their cell phone use in collections.

That was some quick thinking!

Luckily, she was telling the truth this time.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.