Excuse 14: Not good business practice

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Customer understands they were late, but thinks it is bad business practice to actually charge penalties
This is usually only where the customer did not think that the penalties were serious Customer somehow thinks that paying late is not bad business practice though, which seems odd
Customer does not believe they have an obligation to adhere to the agreement they have made
Customer probably has a fundamental misunderstanding that they don't have to do what was agreed, but that it is fair to do whatever they can get away with and feels aggrieved that they failed to get away with paying late when they usually do (with other suppliers).

What we suggest here is to politely ask the customer what the good business practice is that will get them to pay on time. Nobody has yet come up with an answer on this as they usually want to say "let me get away with paying late and don't complain about it", which they know would be bad business practice on their part.
The government and HM R&C seem to think it is good business practice - who are we to argue.
This is not really an excuse not to pay, and often leads to excuse 2