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AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

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Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#511

Post by mvdtnz »

01284a7e wrote: post #466
donavanm wrote: post #449

Ive dealt with this error at AWS. It’s a unit error. In my case we _meant_ to charge like 5¢/GB, but missed the unit (GB), and then the billing system defaults to bytes. 5¢ per Byte of data transferred meant some customers were seeing MM bills within hours. Got paged by support around 2am, had it fixed and amendments issues by 3-4am, apology emails shortly after. Services emit metering values that arent directly tied…

No tests? Just mess up some mundane detail [1] and voila! Wake-up calls and heart attacks for 100,000s of administrators? 1: "Oh, well, this is not a mundane detail, Michael!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fGHaVn5rGo

Why would you think there are "no tests"?

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#513

Post by infamouscow »

akerl_ wrote: post #42
rucury wrote: post #22

Uhh class action incoming? $34,909,930,575.09 over here.

What would your damages be? They’re not actually going to charge your credit card for 34 billion.

I could see someone sadly taking their own life over this.

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#514

Post by michaelmrose »

londons_explore wrote: post #447
ibejoeb wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow: In this role you will: - Design and build agentic AI systems that analyze, generate, and validate... - Build agentic architectures that compose specialized AI agents dynamically... - Build AI-driven continuous validation frameworks powered by agentic workflows and large language models that autonomously manage... This is invoicing? If ever there was a domain that was purely deterministic, you'd hope it was invoi…

Probably not actually. Transferring one kilobyte across a network link has such a low value that the billing costs of aggregating it cost more than the revenue. So instead you take a probabilistic approach - charge the user for a megabyte of data transfer 0.1% of the time, and bill nothing 99.9% of the time. Now the typical cost is the same, the users bill is probably accurate to the cent, but you have divided the nu…

The way you describe requires somehow counting every bit but somehow discarding most which is obviously nonsense.

This seems statistically invalid insofar as it will tend to overbill potentially by a lot on the minority of cases.

Don't you know how much of the pipe is occupied by a given customers code at any given time or what data is being sent

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#516

Post by amelius »

bot403 wrote: post #504
01284a7e wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I am taking legal action, no doubt.

Why? What's the damages? They showed you a wrong number, then later acknowledged it and fixed it. Just because the number was "very big" to you doesn't mean you were actually aggrieved in some way.

Big numbers can lead to stress which can lead to all kinds of disorders.

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#517

Post by zelphirkalt »

tyre wrote: post #492
qurren wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You overestimate how much people give shits at big techs like Amazon. When literally everything is driven with sticks instead of carrots, the work culture does not invite employees to proactively care about product quality. You'd be better off letting the heart attacks happen and take the 3am on-call and be the hero instead. It would be good promo doc material, and being a hero is extremely good insurance against get…

Are you speaking from experience or simply making things up? I know a fair number of former AWS engineers and managers. None of them think like this.

Maybe they are former AWS employees for a reason and now want things to go better than they were at AWS.

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#519

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

blitzar wrote: post #376
root-parent wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wanna bet the description of this job post will be updated by the end of the day? "Software Development Engineer II, AWS Invoicing" https://www.amazon.jobs/de/jobs/10428480/software-developmen... "...Our platforms are powered by generative AI, large language models, knowledge graphs, and agentic architectures that dynamically compose specialized agents based on context. We apply these capabilities across three reinfo…

> 194,400.00 USD annually Fuck it, im in.

Just wait until the same system runs payroll and you're getting paid $1.94400 annually.

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#520

Post by 12_throw_away »

inigyou wrote: post #509
Finnucane wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or slowly boiling a human. The frog is actually smart enough to not fall for that.

Downvoted for truth. Frogs do indeed jump out of pots as they gradually get hotter. Humans are less likely to.

Any individual human (or frog, obviously) is getting out of the pot when it gets uncomfortable.

True stupidity requires a group of humans, all sitting in the pot, telling each other how lucky and special they are to have this wonderful pot, getting paranoid about outsiders who might disrupt their god-given pot-dwelling way of life, and mocking anyone who suggests that the pot might be getting a little too warm.

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