Curious? Then stay with me.

December 2009: I just closed a big deal at work and thought that it was safe to buy the big-ass 55” TV I always wanted even before the sales commission arrives in January. So I ordered the TV on Amazon and pay for it with my credit card so that my checking account would be billed around the time the commission would arrive. I didn’t realize that I was actually not buying FROM Amazon but THROUGH Amazon from a small company who didn’t have its own online shop. But that usually isn’t a problem. Amazon forwards the order to this small companies, gives them the money, and they send the item directly to you. Amazon get a small fee and everybody is happy.

Still December 2009: I get a shipment confirmation from Amazon that says that the actual seller informed Amazon that my TV has been shipped and shall arrive on Dec. 29th. I was thrilled.

December 29th 2009: No TV arrives… I am pissed because I stayed at home the whole day to wait for my new TV.

December 30th 2009: I call Amazon asking for my TV. They tell me to call the actual seller since they only forwarded me their shipment confirmation. I call the seller. They tell me that they in deed got the order for my TV from Amazon but couldn’t see any order confirmation in their own system. It was very likely that there hasn’t been any shipment at all and the shipment confirmation was sent out by mistake.

January 4th 2010: My TV arrives. I am happy!

January 4th 2010 (later that day): I get a shipment confirmation for my TV. I am confused. I immediately call the seller to tell him that and that I suspect that they send me 2 TVs by mistake.

January 5th 2010: The seller confirms that they send me a second TV by mistake and that I should just not accept the 2nd one so that the logistics company would just send it back. The TV arrives a few hours later, I don’t accept it, and it gets shipped back ti the seller. Everything is fine.

January 10th 2010: I get an email from Amazon telling me, that they confirm the return of my TV, that they sorry I didn’t like it, and that my money will be returned to me shortly. I am confused. I immediately call the seller and tell them that I thing they transferred my money back by mistake. They tell me, I shouldn’t worry. That mail i received was a standard computer generated mail when an item is shipped back to the seller and that no money was transferred anywhere.

January 15th 2010: I get my credit card bill and the money for my TV has properly found its way to the seller. I am glad they got their money and I got my TV. All is fine (except that my TV is already broken… but that is another story).

January 18th 2010: I get a mail from the seller informing me that they in deed transferred my money back to Amazon by mistake. And that I should just send them the money bay wire-transfer. I write back that I don’t see that any refunds sent back to my credit card, and that I won’t wire transfer anything until I do.

February 1st 2010: I get an email from the seller where they remind me to transfer the money. I repeat my argument that I do not see any refunds from them on my credit card and probably won’t until the 15th of Feb. Thats when my credit card bill arrives.

February 15th 2010: I see that in fact the whole amount for my TV is refunded on my credit card so I tell the seller that they can charge my credit card again.

March 1st 2010: The seller tells me that they are not able to charge my credit card because they don’t have the equipment. They can only charge credit card through Amazon. The actually ORDER me to transfer the money by wire-transfer (quote: “You must send the money directly to our checking account…”). Now I am pissed. I chose payment by credit card for a reason. I want the Amex membership award points. I only need like 10.000 points for a round-trip ticket to the States. I tell them that and demand a solution where they can bill my credit card.

March 2nd 2010: The seller has a glorious idea: I buy the TV again on Amazon. They cancel the order when they get it but keep the money. It actually might work but there is one thing: The TV got more expensive since i bought it in December. Its 200 bucks more now. They promise me they will simply refund me the 200 bucks but I don’t trust their business processes.

I am thinking about just wire-transferring the money and ask for discount of 100 bucks as compensation for my lost award points. I hope they accept that.

This is a test using MacJournal

By the way: I got this on macheist.com go there, Buy iT. It’s for a good cause.

This is what my old place looked like after that day:

And this is what awaited me and my junk:

The previous owner just finished repainting all 3 rooms so I have clean walls to drill some holes in. First thing was installing Ethernet in all rooms so I have high speed access to my NAS. If you whatch HD videos over the Network, wireless LAN just doen’t cut it anymore. You can see the CAT6 cable lying on the floor on the first picture.

But first things first: The couch and the TV

After that we focused our attention on the kitchen

Not much going on on the second floor since the new bed wasn’t delivered yet

Day 2: The furniture store delivered the new diningroom table…

… the new couch table…

… and the new book case.

Ok that are the first impressions of my new home. At least for the living room and the kitchen. Sorry that the pictures are in such a poor quality but my digital camera is broken so I had to use my cell phone.

I have two more rooms which aren’t quite done yet. The gameroom wit a big couch and a big-screen TV and the bedroom. So stay tuned.

I bought a condo, a place to call home. Come November I will not have to pay rent anymore. I have to pay for my loan though which is around the same amount I am spending on rent right now but then again this money will not be gone but invested.
It has been quite an experience looking for a place, negotiating with the owners, and applying for a bank loan. Despite of the financial crisis getting the loan has been the easiest part. They even suggested that I’d spent even more money.  But my goal is to be dept-free after 15 years. We’ll see about that.

And here ist is

I will add some more pictures from the inside later.
But the place is great.  It has been totally remodeled in 2003 including new wiring, new pluming , and new Windows. It has  hardwood floor (real wood) and a customized kitchen which was build by hand.

I will have to wait until November to move in since the owners still need to finish building their new home.

How many times have you wasted an hour of your life in a rubbish presentation? It’s horrible isn’t it? You sit there, glued to your chair whilst some suit stands in front of you droning on about something.

1. When the presenter says “this is interactive, please ask questions if you have any” I’m going to stand up and ask him/her why he’s/she’s here. In fact I intend to question everything.
2. If he/she starts using words that I have banned or don’t understand I’m going to stand up and ask what the word means. I will do this because I am convinced that they do not know what the word means.
3. If the presenter is boring me I intend to tell them (not show them), and I intend to tell them why.
4. If the presenter reads the bullet points word for word then I will join them. I will read their bullet points word for word too. In fact I may sing along.
5. If the terms “ducks in a row”, “pushing the envelope” or any other bullshit terms are used in the presentation I will stand up and turn my back to the presenter and wait for an apology.
6. If the presentation reaches slide 32 I will leave the room.
7. If the presenter has slides with more than twenty words I will stand up and demand pictures and a hand book.
8. If the presenter shows me a list of clients, or worse a slide full of client logos I will stand up, take out my wallet walk to the presenter and show him pictures of my children.
9. If the presenter hasn’t managed to make me laugh within the first 2 minutes I will start laughing.
10. If the presentation is a corporate template I will leave the room before the presentation starts.