Regular correspondent Subhash Varambhia (Snutch Newsagents, Leicester) has complained about 'split invoices' from his local paper, the Leicester Mercury. He has mainly casual customers placing classified ads through him for things like birth and death announcements, cars for sale and so on.
"I ring through to the Mercury in the presence of the customer. They inform me of the cost (usually about £30 for which he gets a 25% discount) which I collect straightaway from the customer. Done and dusted."
Except that he then seems to get two invoices. "A week later I get the first invoice, which I pay, and after five or six weeks I get a second one, for a tiny sum (and it's not VAT). By this time I've forgotten the details of the original transaction because it was paid and completed. I have no way of checking."
He says he can't get anywhere with this and I admit I couldn't either. Does anyone else get these type of split invoices and, if so, why?

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