The package, according to my amateur knowledge of German, says: “Sea hake fillet in dill sauce with spinach leaf and carrot purée”. Sounds great, eh? The contents, alas…

This is one photo from a series of 100 called werbung gegen realität where the photographer has juxtaposed images from the packaging of processed food with what’s actually inside. This may be Germany, but I reckon it ain’t any different here in Australia. (Hat-tip to Boing Boing.)

• Learning to Lie, a fascinating article covering not only how lying is a sign of an intelligent child, but how we learn that no-one likes a tattle-tale and teen rebellion. Hat-tip to Bruce Schneier.
• A selection of 27 images from Life‘s coffee-table book 100 Photographs that Changed the World.
• 6 Influential Datasets That Changed the Way We Think. Hat-tip to O’Reilly Radar.
• Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait, an amazing series of photographic images by Chris Jordan which illustrate the excesses of human consumption.

Prussia.Net serves small business clients, including a start-up which recently asked us to build them an inexpensive website. Now they’re late paying up and we’re getting all the usual excuses (see below).

Now maybe they’re genuine. But I reckon there’s a simple explanation: cash is tight and they need time to pay.

I prefer to build trusting long-term relationships with clients — as opposed to ripping them off for short-term gain. Hey, it’s easier to keep an existing client on-side rather than forever finding new victims. So I prefer the truth.

If a client comes to me honestly and says, “Hey cash is tight this month,” I’m more than likely to say “Not a problem, let’s leave it for a few weeks.”

Then we can all get on with something else, like running our businesses.

But a series of what appear to be lame excuses only wastes time and builds suspicion. If I think someone’s lying, they won’t get the benefit of the doubt in future. And the price of any project will factor in the expected delay in payment.

So what do you think? Does this sound like a genuine screw-up? Has your business received even better excuses for late payment? Please comment below.

Fibs or Not?

Here’s how it’s unfolded so far:

• We emailed the invoice.
• Once it was overdue, we emailed them a reminder with the subject “OVERDUE ACCOUNT”.
• A week later, we emailed them again, “SECOND REMINDER: OVERDUE ACCOUNT”.
• They emailed us to say they hadn’t received the original invoice, but that the account would be paid “forthwith”.

I’m not sure if they meant half past forthwith or Tuesday the 16th of Forthwith — but at this point I’m suspicious. They got the second reminder, but not the other two emails. Apparently.

• A week later, we still hadn’t received payment, so we sent them our usual “SUSPENSION NOTICE”, warning them that Internet hosting could be suspended if they didn’t bring their account up to date.
• This time, the guy we’re talking with says his business partner was paying it by direct deposit into our bank account.
• No payment appeared, so we emailed them again.
• This time, the response is that the cheque was mailed on Tuesday.

Well, that was three days ago, and even Sydney’s postal service isn’t that bad.

To recap, so far we’ve had:

• “Sorry, I didn’t get the invoice.”
• “Oh, my business partner was doing that.”
• “The cheque is in the mail.”

Wager anyone?

I’m now putting my money on “Sorry, we posted it to the wrong address.” Either that or the cheque arrives but bounces, and we’re told “Sorry, some cheques from clients haven’t cleared yet.” Wager, anyone?

And no, I’m not going to name the client. Yet.