Invoice from Hell Contest

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We recently asked readers to submit the worst invoice they've ever received. We selected a few and have posted them for your entertainment. Our readers went to the polls and selected #8 The Optimist by a hair over #6 Really Lost in Translation. We've left up the other contenders.

• 1) The Invoice from No One

This invoice was probably prepared using a Microsoft template. The enterprising vendor did not change the “Your Company Name here” spot. So, the invoice arrived without any indication as to who it was from (or for that matter what it was for). And at the bottom it said … Your Company Name here. No, the company did not make out a check to “Your Company Name” although the staff was tempted.

• 2) The Medical Invoice in Need of Surgery

We received a medical bill to pay that had a neon orange label that said "THIS ACCOUNT IS SERVERLY PAST DUE!"  I copied it and emailed it back to the company. I told them this was the first invoice we had received and pointed out that "serverly" was not a word.  I received no response.

• 3) The Postage Meter Nightmare

I have a current invoice for our postage meter that is $710.  We pay one company (third party) a monthly lease fee for the use of the machine.  We recently received a bill for over $700 from the postage meter company.  On the bill it was listed the meter, total dollar amount and quarterly dates.  The dates were for December thru February, March thru May, June thru August with no breakdown of dollar amounts.  When I called we were told that the $700 was incorrect and should be $500 that they billed us wrong AND that the third party should have been charging us more from last year when we updated our lease so this amount they were charging us was the difference between the old lease and new lease since the third party was not paying them the correct amounts. Needless to say the invoice has not been paid and we are still trying to get our salesman to answer our calls.

• 4) The Mickey Mouse Invoice

We had an invoice submitted to us for snow removal.  The “invoice” was submitted to us on a Mickey Mouse note-card, no vendor name, no address, no phone number. It did say our company name and showed the amount owed for the snow removal but that was it. How on earth are we supposed to know who and where to send the check?  We do have an advantage in that we are in a small enough area that I truly knew who’s invoice it was. However, needless to say the invoice was rejected and sent back to the vendor for a proper invoice to be sent.  

• 5) What’s This Invoice for?

I work in a Cooperative Grocery store where one of our missions is to sell product from local vendors.  This means LOTS of invoices from hell, including:1. Invoices without a vendor name written on it (ANYWHERE)2. Illegible handwriting3. poor math4. quantity of item delivered not written on invoice5. cost per item not written on invoice6. product name not written on invoiceI could pick ONE invoice it would be the invoice that contained every bit of information except the actual name of the product. The amount owed was there but NOTHING was written in the column for "item description."

• 6) Really Lost in The Translation  
  

Let me start by saying that we deal with a number of manufacturers in Asia.  This presents its own ongoing issues (i.e. language barrier, money conversions, time zone issues, Chinese New Year holiday, etc.).However, our Invoice from Hell came in just a couple months ago…not only was the invoice in Chinese but the amounts were in Yuan. The vendor’s translation program was broken so they could not translate the invoice to English and they could not translate our e-mail re: the issues with the invoice into Chinese in order to read the e-mail to know that there was a problem.We finally had to have one of our employees from another department, who happened to speak Chinese, call the factory with us, after hours, and translate our English Accounting speak into Chinese to get the invoice fixed.

• 7) The Double Take
  

The invoice from hell doesn’t even begin to describe what’s going on with us. We have recently implemented an e-invoicing system which includes the typical AP type forms including expense reports, check requests, etc. Because the e-invoicing system is not yet required and we’ve been using it since December we are processing invoices in two systems. The e-invoice system feeds into the main system however, people are submitting the invoices via the e-invoice system and also sending us the original invoices or expense reports which then may have a different number on them and things are being paid twice. Now AP is having to stop and review everything that comes through to make sure someone didn’t enter it in the e-invoice system in order to prevent another duplicate. This will continue to happen until it is determined whether everyone will be required to use the e-invoice system and then we can shut down all the other paper forms. It’s become a nightmare for AP.

• 8) The Optimist

This one is not an invoice from hell, but clearly from someone who thinks the best of the world and the vendor community. The vendor returned the request with this comment typed on the form: "KINDLY SEND TO US WHATEVER BALANCE DUE (vendor's name) THAT APPEARS ON YOUR BOOKS" 

So which one of these do you think deserves the title, Worst Invoice of 2011? Unfortunately this contest is over. However, to get information about other contests run several times a year sign up for our free weekly ezine.

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