Ben Little with a crazy anecdotical story of federal government inefficiency

LINK

A federal agency placed a $5k catering order w/ one of my stores. They asked for net-30 invoicing...done, no problem. All the standard rules apply, ie 10% late payment charges after 30 days, every 30 days.

Catering day comes, food goes out, everything was smooth, everyone was happy. We get to day 29, & we still haven't received the payment, so I email the lady in charge so they don't get hit w/ a late fee. She emails me back to say that the date on the invoice was wrong (it only had 2/5...not 2/5/18). So I send it back & don't hear anything for a week.

1st late fee goes into effect, so now the bill is $5.5k. She then informs me she has to get new approval for the updated total...4 more weeks go by. This cycle goes on for 10 months. The bill is now 10k (5k food, 5k late fees).

She finally gets someone else involved to help settle the bill. He reviews the invoice, and I crap you not, finds a .30 cent error, and asks for an updated invoice. Another month goes by, so now we're at $5k food, $5.5k late fees. I threatened to send them off to collections (no idea how to even do that) & they finally get it paid off at $10.5k

And that ladies & gentlemen is how the federal government stewards your tax dollars