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Administrative mistakes become considerably less amusing when they arrive with threats of legal action.

This former student had already provided receipts proving his university fees were fully paid, but its accounts department kept demanding money.

When another threatening letter arrived, one small discrepancy gave him the perfect opportunity to return the inconvenience.

See how OP balanced the books.

Waste My Time Because Your Accounts Team Are Hopeless: I’ll ‘Fine’ you £20

Some years ago I took a series of evening classes at the local uni.

The fees were payable at the beginning of each term, and you paid a reduced fee if you settled within 2 weeks of being billed.

As money was a bit hand-to-mouth at the time I often missed the early payment slot and ended up paying the full amount.

Annoying when you are already short of cash, but rules are rules.

Very annoying, but this guy sounds reasonable.

I completed the course that July, and thought no more about it.

However, in the July of the following year I received a terse letter from the University Accounts Dept. threatening legal action if I didn’t clear an outstanding invoice for the final term of the previous year.

Now, the tone of the letter rubbed me up the wrong way, especially as I had paid.

Fortunately I’d kept all of the receipts for my course fees in my course work file which I still had.

Hence, I sent copies of all of the receipts to the university showing that I had paid and asked them to ensure my details were updated to reflect this.

Something tells me this won’t work.

I received no reply.

July the following year I got another threatening letter saying my final term’s fees from 2 years previously were still outstanding and they were going to pursue legal action.

This really rubbed me up the wrong way as I’d already wasted enough time on this issue and this sort of incompetence riles me more than it should.

University bureaucracy at its finest.

Once again I dug out my receipts, and the letter I sent the previous year and included them as attachments to a very terse, bordering on rude, letter of my own.

However, while I was drafting that letter I noticed that the sum they claimed was outstanding was the amount you paid if you settled the bill early.

My receipt was for the late payment fee which was £20 higher.

I’m sure he went ballistic.

I saw a chance of some petty revenge, not only to take advantage of their incompetence, but to also force them to update their records.

In my terse letter I demanded that they update my records and refund my overpayment of £20 immediately.

Bold move.

A cheque duly arrived about 3 weeks later.

No letter of apology or anything. Just a cheque. I didn’t hear from them ever again.

Sounds like this guy found the perfect way to stick it to the man. Let’s see if Reddit agreed.

Everyone commented in favor of the original poster.

Others reveled in the luck of it all.

Some in similar situations commiserated.

A few shared personal anecdotes.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this postabout a man who installs a fence after his neighbors cut a property line rope and move a canoe.

Though some shared a different perspective.

After receiving repeated legal threats over fees he had already paid, OP noticed the university’s claimed balance was £20 lower than his receipt.

He demanded that its records be corrected and his apparent overpayment refunded, earning a cheque and permanent silence three weeks later.

The accounts department spent two years chasing imaginary debt, only to successfully collect a real invoice from itself.