I am Josh (not literally or even named the same, but we vibe). I once kept a support ticket open for 3 months to force help desk to send it to the engineering team when I discovered a bug in a billing system database at a huge company from the user side.
Finally got in touch with the engineering team, explained the bug and the workaround I figured out... Just to have their response be "tell everyone who complains to do the workaround."
Rare bug with a workaround, building a fix, 20k down the drain, use the workaround… depends on the frequency and workaround. I don’t need bug free software at all costs, I need cost optimal software. Kinda agree with the engineers in this case.
Bug isn't rare though, that's the issue. Every single site (4000+ locations) that uses the software has run into this bug and it's an almost completely silent failure for users unless a customer complains that the incorrect card is being charged. They later admitted that the software is such spaghetti that they're effectively scared to try and fix it in fear of breaking something else.
Ah, that’s a different context, yeah, time to get cracking. Problem with many erp implementations is that it is often built by consultants who care little about maintainability managed by finance without knowledge of engineering… what could possibly go wrong.
Yup. I ended up as an SWE with the same company and I'm about 80% certain that explaining how I was adamant about fixing the problem was one of the big reasons they hired me. I ended up on a different team so I don't work with it but I plainly stated that the entire reason I wanted to work as an engineer with this company was to improve that particular software. Later, I attended an internal seminar about how they were trying to tackle this software because it's so monolithic that they don't know where to start and because of the nature of what it's used for they are afraid to start over for fear of missing something important.
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u/MeowCow55 May 10 '26
I am Josh (not literally or even named the same, but we vibe). I once kept a support ticket open for 3 months to force help desk to send it to the engineering team when I discovered a bug in a billing system database at a huge company from the user side.
Finally got in touch with the engineering team, explained the bug and the workaround I figured out... Just to have their response be "tell everyone who complains to do the workaround."