The all do this. One project, I had to remind the guy who wrote the cheque that our agreement stated that they did not have rights to redistribute without payment, and "oops" they already redistributed it and should I talk to his boss? Payment in the account next morning.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/21/tesla-refund-and-return-problems-detailed.html He uses returns and refund money as cash flow now along with the registration tax delay, if Tesla doesn't get it's stock at 360 by March 1, they will be forced to borrow in junk. Tesla will not have the required cash to continue operations after paying maturing bond in cash. In the fourth quarter of 2018, as Tesla exerted itself to achieve profitability, CEO Elon Musk urged people to place their orders before year-end, when a tax credit for electric cars would become a lot less valuable. He touted the company's lenient return policy as part of his sales pitch. Musk emphasized the refund and returns policy in a series of tweets, saying: "full refund if Tesla can't deliver your car this year," and "If you order a car without a test drive you get 3 days to return for a full refund vs 1 day if you do get a test drive." In reality, getting a refund hasn't been simple for some Tesla customers, as the company has struggled with growing pains that Musk has described as "delivery logistics hell."
I have to agree, even working with state and local government you can end up with absurd A/R queues. Managing your A/R is a pretty significant part of running a business, there a all kinds of tricks to both managing it and things like factoring if it's not manageable. I kind of doubt any otherwise healthy and viable company literally went out of business solely because Tesla didn't pay them, but if they did I would like to know who they were and what they were doing because I'd be happy to jump in and fill that healthy, viable niche that was lost by nothing more than an inability to handle A/R!