Customer Denied Employee’s Expense Report For Barely Going Over The Limit, So They Charged The Exact Max On Every Report After That

Some folks who are sticklers for the rules just can’t seem to see the whole picture.

Like the person you’re going to learn about in this story from Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” page…they had to be so stringent that the person they annoyed decided to push the envelope just to prove a point.

Take a look at this story and see what you think.

“So I was on an off-site short-term (not really short) project.

Coming from one of the cheapest to live countries in Europe and staying for months in Singapore (project location) i had found some places that i could be eating for pretty cheap and the food was good and within my taste palate.

They always stayed within budget.

We were getting (let’s say a random number) 60$ per day for food expenses, but i was spending somewhere around 25-30$ on average with the highest ever getting to just under 50$.

Short project going long (drawn over 10 months by the point of the story) and our customer’s client is raising a ton of issues (70% of them not really an issue). Discussed this a few times with some guys in my company and a manager told me to take the client out for a dinner and some drinks.

He would confirm the extra expense, just be careful to not go too much overboard on the expense. Specifically asked what that means and he told me try to not go over 200-250$.

No problem!

We go out and neither me nor the client really drink much, so we end up having some food and a drink each. The guys at the restaurant know me well by that point and almost always do some rounding on the bill or bring something extra to the table on the house and with them bringing plenty fingerfood I end up with a bill of 60.68$ (number adjusted to the random number above). But yes about 70 cents above the daily limit. Way below the 200+ allowance for that.

End of month I send the report in and put a special note for that day/night.

But there was a problem…

Expense report goes through my company with no problems, but the customer (our company’s customer) flags that receipt up as not acceptable and not to be covered. They put me in direct communication with customer and Ι explain.

Nope. Not accepted – not covered.

Talk again with my company and tell them the situation and that manager X advised me to do so as well as mentioned he would confirm, but unfortunately the guy is out sick (covid + flu) and not to return for at least 2 weeks.

It was getting complicated.

The customer ‘must’ have this settled by the 15th of the month and “he wants to hear specifically from the manager that i was advised to act in such a way and approved by that manager” for him to cover it.

This is getting crazy and out of hand, so my boss (owner of our company), just covers it from his side. The full 60.68$, not just the 0.68$…

This guy was a real pain in the behind.

Customer says no receipt that goes over the 60$ limit will be approved. Unfortunately for me the customer is local to Singapore and he randomly drops in at the jobsite… And i get to see him the day after the “resolution” above and all comments were written (in emails).

Face to face I tell him, you do realise that i spent on average less than 27$/day from the allowed 60$/day. This was laughable to be denied.

He probably was offended and he yells at me again the “No receipts over 60$ will be covered”.

Okay, you wanna play that game?

Well cue MC, at all three places that i eat everyday for the past 10 months, they agree to print 60$ receipts everytime i eat at their place. They even agree to split in half the remaining value between me and a tip to the server.

I had requested for the entire amounts to go to the servers as tips as i just cared for the petty revenge, but apparently all of them felt a 100% tip every day is uncomfortable for them.

Next month expense report is sent out and the customer calls me directly seething and asks why every single daily receipt is at 60$ from a specific date onwards.

I just reply with “No receipts over 60$ will be covered, so I have to fit my meals within the allowance.”

The guy wasn’t happy about it.

He called to complain to my company, but the relevant person told him that they didn’t understand and to please explain what agreement was broken. He never came back as far as i know.

And they kept it up!

I continued charging the max for the remaining 2 months there netting me a cool 700$ and even better service, food and chef experiments that were otherwise only internal to the staffs of the restoraunts.

TBH i had to “pay” in having to deal with the idiot customer even more after that, but he was a handful before it as well… ( I can say that that project took at least a year off of my life with all the stress and nerves…).”

Here’s what folks had to say about this on Reddit.

One reader made a good point.

This Reddit user talked about how it’s worked for them in the past.

Another individual said their company changed course.

This person offered some insight on how the IRS operates.

And this person used to work for a company that didn’t want to tip very well…

Lesson learned!

This was a good one!

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.