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Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

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Re: Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

#51

Post by nabilhat »

peterldowns wrote: post #30

Billing and Accounts Payable will always seem like a "how could you mess that up?" problem to engineers, but it literally is difficult and complicated and rife with ways to very seriously and permanently fuck your relationship with your customer. And potentially with your auditors, investors, and whoever performs legal oversight in your jurisdiction. All of the largest companies in the tech world have been hit by AP…

For things to get this far is a failure of accounting. Engineering may have set the stage, but it's accounting's job to respond appropriately rather than letting (or not seeing) this play out. Treating accounting unseriously is an extremely obvious, avoidable mistake that a mindboggling number of businesses make. A substantial portion of the finance and accounting industry thrives on cleaning up the outcome of accounting being pawned off on the owner's spouse / kid / niece / nephew. They'll figure it out, right? It's just math.

I was thinking, surely it can't be that stupid in this case, but then I checked. Who knows, maybe Geeta Gupta-Fisker really is a profoundly skilled financial wizard. The founder's / chairman's / CEO's spouse is always the wrong person to be managing finances for so very many reasons. At the very least the optics of undermining of a firewall between accounting and equity undermines trust in finance. Such a relationship inspires extra special attention from auditors and regulators when mistakes happen. It's a clear sign that leadership doesn't take accounting as seriously as they should. Yet nepotism keeps being a normal thing that happens often.

Re: Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

#53

Post by VHRanger »

nickjj wrote: post #40
peterldowns wrote: post #30

Billing and Accounts Payable will always seem like a "how could you mess that up?" problem to engineers, but it literally is difficult and complicated and rife with ways to very seriously and permanently fuck your relationship with your customer. And potentially with your auditors, investors, and whoever performs legal oversight in your jurisdiction. All of the largest companies in the tech world have been hit by AP…

> Billing and Accounts Payable will always seem like a "how could you mess that up?" problem to engineers, but it literally is difficult and complicated and rife with ways to very seriously and permanently fuck your relationship with your customer Yep. Over the years I've seen some pretty crazy payment related errors that you can't think is possible, like a 12+ year old publicly traded company who generates $60 milli…

Why wouldn't you do the reverse bug on the checkout flow? You'd at least gain

Re: Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

#54

Post by jpmoral »

bigiain wrote: post #49
recursive wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 43, and I don't even know how to do a bank transfer. Sounds amazing. I don't like checks at all. If I don't mind paying a fee, I'll use one of the apps. But for moving money around, checks are all I know. I don't think I'm that unusual in the USA.

I'm in Australia. All the major and I'm pretty sure all or almost all of the minor banks and bank-like businesses (Building Societies and Credit Unions here) use a thing called PayID. I can send almost everybody I know money just by using their mobile phone number or email address, and the transfer happens from my account to theirs literally in seconds. I can also send money to anybody's BSB/Account Number, and that…

BSB and account transfers are also largely instant. New and large transfers may take overnight.

Also, you missed an important part: zero fees.

Re: Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

#55

Post by pornel »

recursive wrote: post #37
ClassyJacket wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truly. I had no idea anyone was still using cheques in 2024. Why weren't they simply doing bank transfers? I don't know if you even could buy a car with a cheque in Australia. In fact we're ending the cheque system entirely in the next few years. I'm 34 and have never written a cheque, and only received about 4 - none of which were in the last 5 years.

I'm 43, and I don't even know how to do a bank transfer. Sounds amazing. I don't like checks at all. If I don't mind paying a fee, I'll use one of the apps. But for moving money around, checks are all I know. I don't think I'm that unusual in the USA.

It’s amazing how different the customs can be.

I’ve only received a check once in my life, in 2004 from a US company. I could not cash it with my regular (online) bank in Poland. I had to open a foreign currency account with the national bank, just for this check, and go to their special customer service department in person, at their HQ. It was like bringing them an alien artifact.

Re: Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

#56

Post by reaperman »

VHRanger wrote: post #53
nickjj wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Billing and Accounts Payable will always seem like a "how could you mess that up?" problem to engineers, but it literally is difficult and complicated and rife with ways to very seriously and permanently fuck your relationship with your customer Yep. Over the years I've seen some pretty crazy payment related errors that you can't think is possible, like a 12+ year old publicly traded company who generates $60 milli…

Why wouldn't you do the reverse bug on the checkout flow? You'd at least gain

No, as described at least, you'd always get the product you paid for. Just not necessarily the one you wanted.

Re: Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

#57

Post by toast0 »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #23
miohtama wrote: post #3

“Checks were not cashed in a timely manner or just lost altogether” only in the US of A, or movies from 70s, something like this.

Truly. I had no idea anyone was still using cheques in 2024. Why weren't they simply doing bank transfers? I don't know if you even could buy a car with a cheque in Australia. In fact we're ending the cheque system entirely in the next few years. I'm 34 and have never written a cheque, and only received about 4 - none of which were in the last 5 years.

> Truly. I had no idea anyone was still using cheques in 2024.

Pretty much nobody uses cheques anymore.

However, checks are alive and well.

Re: Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

#58

Post by usr1106 »

Talanes wrote: post #32
ClassyJacket wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truly. I had no idea anyone was still using cheques in 2024. Why weren't they simply doing bank transfers? I don't know if you even could buy a car with a cheque in Australia. In fact we're ending the cheque system entirely in the next few years. I'm 34 and have never written a cheque, and only received about 4 - none of which were in the last 5 years.

To shed some light on why Americans kept checks for so long: I'm 33 and have never done a bank transfer. I can't even say what the flaws in our system are, because I grew up in a family where it was never considered as an option: money was sent as cash or checks only.

I moved Finland 30 years ago. Checks for private customers did no longer exist at that time. (Checks for businesses reportedly still existed a couple of years.)

Since the pandemic started I have not carried a wallet (paying cash was seen as some kind anti-social behavior with high risk to infect someone) There are zero places where I would need cash. An increasing number of places does not accept cash.

For some ten years we have had international account numbers (IBAN). Transfers inside the Euro zone cost nothing (included in every basic account package) and take one banking day.

Nowadays there are several transfer apps where the transfer takes seconds or less. I am not using those because I run a Google-free Android and have root on my phone.

Re: Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

#59

Post by manuelmoreale »

usr1106 wrote: post #58
Talanes wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To shed some light on why Americans kept checks for so long: I'm 33 and have never done a bank transfer. I can't even say what the flaws in our system are, because I grew up in a family where it was never considered as an option: money was sent as cash or checks only.

I moved Finland 30 years ago. Checks for private customers did no longer exist at that time. (Checks for businesses reportedly still existed a couple of years.) Since the pandemic started I have not carried a wallet (paying cash was seen as some kind anti-social behavior with high risk to infect someone) There are zero places where I would need cash. An increasing number of places does not accept cash. For some ten y…

I have some extra good news for you: https://www.brusselstimes.com/916540/10-second-transactions-...

Moving money using IBAN and home banking is genuinely insanely easy at this point inside the EU

Re: Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

#60

Post by pkphilip »

nickjj wrote: post #40
peterldowns wrote: post #30

Billing and Accounts Payable will always seem like a "how could you mess that up?" problem to engineers, but it literally is difficult and complicated and rife with ways to very seriously and permanently fuck your relationship with your customer. And potentially with your auditors, investors, and whoever performs legal oversight in your jurisdiction. All of the largest companies in the tech world have been hit by AP…

> Billing and Accounts Payable will always seem like a "how could you mess that up?" problem to engineers, but it literally is difficult and complicated and rife with ways to very seriously and permanently fuck your relationship with your customer Yep. Over the years I've seen some pretty crazy payment related errors that you can't think is possible, like a 12+ year old publicly traded company who generates $60 milli…

Believe it or not, I have seen the same problem on an insurance website for a very large insurance company. The issue was that the developers were storing the rates in session variables and so when you open a new product in a separate tab with a different rate, it would overwrite the session variables with the rates for the newly opened product.

Then when the user went to the previous tab to purchase the product they ended up buying it at the rate for the product opened in the new tab.

It is amazing that this mistake wasn't caught for a long, long time.

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