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It appears that Twitter is doing the same thing to AWS that it is attempting to do with Google. Both should just bounce Twitter and sue them in court. All Twit

It appears that Twitter is doing the same thing to AWS that it is attempting to do with Google. Both should just bounce Twitter and sue them in court. All Twitter has left is Azure and if they pull the same nonsense, Musk better sell more stock and start building data centers. Not paying, is unprofessional, and is a poor way to treat your vendors or maintain a relationship with them.

PeterStuer 3y ago
We might not like it, but being stingy when it comes to payments is normal professional business practice.
- lapcat 3y ago
  > We might not like it, but being stingy when it comes to payments is normal professional business practice. It's absolutely not. The entire economy would break down if every company was constantly "renegotiating", i.e., refusing to pay their bills. People like Musk and Trump who make a habit of this behavior are not normal. Please let's not try to normalize it.
  - viraptor 3y ago
    NET 90 and asking for special quotes from big companies is definitely something that happens all the time. I'd say that is being stingy with payments. (It should be normal of course, but... that's what contractors often deal with)
    - lapcat 3y ago
      > NET 90 and asking for special quotes from big companies is definitely something that happens all the time. These are not the same thing as simply refusing to pay your bills. "Net 90" is not "Net Whenever/Never".
      - viraptor 3y ago
        Every contractor for large corps that I know has at least one story about chasing up payments and researching small claim court rules. I'm not exaggerating - every single one I talked to. It's sometimes "NET please forget this, and we'll try to drag it out anyways.". Also the terms should be an agreement, but in practice it's: the large company has more power and will tell you their finance dept will not pay out before X - doesn't matter what you put on the invoice.
        hgsgm 3y ago
        Google and Amazon could buy Twitter for couch cushion change, and probably run it profitably. They aren't a powerless overworked freelancer.
        bombcar 3y ago
        This is why so many places accept credit card for what you would expect the fees would be too high for; because they know if they can get the large business to just pay the $50k on credit card they will never have to worry about collections, net 90, etc, etc. It's worth the $1,500 hit. I've even been on the other side of that, expensing it because that was easier in our system than getting a PO.
        lapcat 3y ago
        You're missing the point here. Yes, late payments are normal and happen all the time. What's happening here is not simply a late payment. It's a refusal to pay an already agreed upon price as a negotiating tactic in order to get a significantly cheaper price. How many stories of that do you have? If the story here was just "Twitter is late paying its Google Cloud bill, and Google is giving Twitter additional time to pay in full", then that wouldn't even be much of a story.
  - lxgr 3y ago
    > Please let's not try to normalize it. Based on what I've heard anecdotally from e.g. freelancers providing services to large corporations, that ship has unfortunately long sailed. There seems to be a huge spectrum, with "email an invoice payment instructions to the right department and you'll be paid, whoever you are and regardless of whether you provided any service" on one end, and "consider yourself lucky if you saw a cent at the agreed-upon time without having to resort to small claims court" on the other. Obviously, it's much harder to pull off the latter when the payee is a huge corporation themselves and/or has leverage in terms of being able to cease providing ongoing services.
    - lapcat 3y ago
      > Based on what I've heard anecdotally from e.g. freelancers providing services to large corporations, that ship has unfortunately long sailed. You're missing the point, just like the other commenter, as explained here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36280868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36280868 A bureaucratic company failing to pay a freelancer on time is not the same thing as this deliberate, top-down (i.e, Musk-designed) strategy of Twitter refusing to pay its bills. Google Cloud has a lot of big customers. How many of them do you think are doing this?
      - Ekaros 3y ago
        I would guess that lot of slowness in payments with many companies is deliberate and it comes from quite high levels. Keeping cash in your own hands will generate marginal amount of return. Now doing this with existential services you buy from providers that might actually take action and losing you isn't big thing is however not something anyone does.
- tehwebguy 3y ago
  No it’s not and you should run away from whatever employer is leading you to believe this. They are trying to get you to believe it’s normal for when they stop paying your paycheck.
- toss1 3y ago
  Nonsense. Most real companies have real Accounts Payable departments and pay on a strict and reliable schedule. I had one customer who (top professional auto race team builder) who made a practice of paying as soon as possible. I once got a check in the mail so fast i couldn't figure out how they turned it around that fast (exact amt of invoice, not tge estimate). Guess who always got absolutely prompt attention to their requests & requirements? Non-payment is just a move for selfish a*holes, which Musk is turning out to be (& yes, I've defended him here before).
kcartlidge 3y ago
> It appears that Twitter is doing the same thing to AWS They are also not paying their rent on some London office space. In this instance they're being sued by their landlords, the UK Crown Estates (King Charles, sort of, though not exactly).

PeterStuer 3y ago

We might not like it, but being stingy when it comes to payments is normal professional business practice.

lapcat 3y ago
> We might not like it, but being stingy when it comes to payments is normal professional business practice. It's absolutely not. The entire economy would break down if every company was constantly "renegotiating", i.e., refusing to pay their bills. People like Musk and Trump who make a habit of this behavior are not normal. Please let's not try to normalize it.
- viraptor 3y ago
  NET 90 and asking for special quotes from big companies is definitely something that happens all the time. I'd say that is being stingy with payments. (It should be normal of course, but... that's what contractors often deal with)
  - lapcat 3y ago
    > NET 90 and asking for special quotes from big companies is definitely something that happens all the time. These are not the same thing as simply refusing to pay your bills. "Net 90" is not "Net Whenever/Never".
    - viraptor 3y ago
      Every contractor for large corps that I know has at least one story about chasing up payments and researching small claim court rules. I'm not exaggerating - every single one I talked to. It's sometimes "NET please forget this, and we'll try to drag it out anyways.". Also the terms should be an agreement, but in practice it's: the large company has more power and will tell you their finance dept will not pay out before X - doesn't matter what you put on the invoice.
      - hgsgm 3y ago
        Google and Amazon could buy Twitter for couch cushion change, and probably run it profitably. They aren't a powerless overworked freelancer.
      - bombcar 3y ago
        This is why so many places accept credit card for what you would expect the fees would be too high for; because they know if they can get the large business to just pay the $50k on credit card they will never have to worry about collections, net 90, etc, etc. It's worth the $1,500 hit. I've even been on the other side of that, expensing it because that was easier in our system than getting a PO.
      - lapcat 3y ago
        You're missing the point here. Yes, late payments are normal and happen all the time. What's happening here is not simply a late payment. It's a refusal to pay an already agreed upon price as a negotiating tactic in order to get a significantly cheaper price. How many stories of that do you have? If the story here was just "Twitter is late paying its Google Cloud bill, and Google is giving Twitter additional time to pay in full", then that wouldn't even be much of a story.
- lxgr 3y ago
  > Please let's not try to normalize it. Based on what I've heard anecdotally from e.g. freelancers providing services to large corporations, that ship has unfortunately long sailed. There seems to be a huge spectrum, with "email an invoice payment instructions to the right department and you'll be paid, whoever you are and regardless of whether you provided any service" on one end, and "consider yourself lucky if you saw a cent at the agreed-upon time without having to resort to small claims court" on the other. Obviously, it's much harder to pull off the latter when the payee is a huge corporation themselves and/or has leverage in terms of being able to cease providing ongoing services.
  - lapcat 3y ago
    > Based on what I've heard anecdotally from e.g. freelancers providing services to large corporations, that ship has unfortunately long sailed. You're missing the point, just like the other commenter, as explained here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36280868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36280868 A bureaucratic company failing to pay a freelancer on time is not the same thing as this deliberate, top-down (i.e, Musk-designed) strategy of Twitter refusing to pay its bills. Google Cloud has a lot of big customers. How many of them do you think are doing this?
    - Ekaros 3y ago
      I would guess that lot of slowness in payments with many companies is deliberate and it comes from quite high levels. Keeping cash in your own hands will generate marginal amount of return. Now doing this with existential services you buy from providers that might actually take action and losing you isn't big thing is however not something anyone does.
tehwebguy 3y ago
No it’s not and you should run away from whatever employer is leading you to believe this. They are trying to get you to believe it’s normal for when they stop paying your paycheck.
toss1 3y ago
Nonsense. Most real companies have real Accounts Payable departments and pay on a strict and reliable schedule. I had one customer who (top professional auto race team builder) who made a practice of paying as soon as possible. I once got a check in the mail so fast i couldn't figure out how they turned it around that fast (exact amt of invoice, not tge estimate). Guess who always got absolutely prompt attention to their requests & requirements? Non-payment is just a move for selfish a*holes, which Musk is turning out to be (& yes, I've defended him here before).

kcartlidge 3y ago

> It appears that Twitter is doing the same thing to AWS They are also not paying their rent on some London office space. In this instance they're being sued by their landlords, the UK Crown Estates (King Charles, sort of, though not exactly).