Some time ago I wrote about companies that cheat with their invoicing dates. Most of the companies blame the post office, but that argument doesn’t hold. My electricity vendor, Fjordkraft, offer a so called e-invoice, an electronic invoice which is sent out via e-mail. The e-mail is sent from BBS:

From: eFaktura <efakturavarsel2@bbs.no>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 15:09:50 +0100 (MET)
Subject: Melding om eFaktura fra Fjordkraft AS/BKK AS

[ Note: The message was originally in Norwegian ]

New eInvoice from Fjordkraft AS/BKK AS is now available in your Internet bank.
Due date is 10.03.2004.
Remember:
The payment must be confirmed in the Internet bank.

Unfortunately we do cannot handle replies to this notice. If you have questions regarding the contents of the invoice, these can be posed directly to Fjordkraft AS/BKK AS.

You can change the e-mail address in your Internet bank, where you also can find more information about eInvoice.
For other questions you can contact the customer service of your bank.

So, if the message from BBS was sent on the afternoon of 17th February, then the invoice itself ought to be dated 17th February, or maybe the 16th? The idea being the e-invoice is to avoid the delay induced by the post office, and BBS is always fast sending out information about incoming giro payments.

But, alas! Once more the invoice is dates a week into the past:

So, Fjordkraft, what is your excuse?

Update.