So I start my new job today. It's my first winnipeg job, how exciting. Well, not really. I'm going to be working in a call center doing technical support for Comcast business customers in the states. So it's the "techiest of the tech jobs" at Comcast, according to the HR lady there.
Training starts today, runs Monday to Friday, 4:00-11:30pm and lasts 5 weeks. 3 weeks(ish) of training and 2 weeks of on the floor training. On the "production floor" as they call it. Not sure what it'll be like, so we'll see. The pre-test was a whole lot easier than anything I've ever done before, and they didn't mention anything about needing to pass a test when the training was done or anything, so...
The downside is the pay. $10/hr is less than half of what I used to make, and far to low for someone with my experience. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I can do better. But it's quite alright, it's just until I find something better.
I currently have a placement agency looking to place me with an engineering or architectural firm. Somewhere that can take advantage of my extensive Autodesk product experience. I had an interview with them last week, and they were pretty excited about my skill set. Now the market isn't booming in that area, but they figure they can get me something in the next couple of months, which is awesome.
There is also lots of room to grow with this company, so should things progress here, there is lots of room to move up. Maybe the pay too?
So that is what is up on the job front.
And we're watching Syndey White, which is great. Amanda Bynes is teh qtness.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Truck Update
I still advise against renting from Universal Truck Rental for one-way truck rentals, and will continue telling everyone I know.
I sort of sorted things out with them. They are charging me for 68L of fuel at 1.50/L and a $50 fee. So they can pretty much go fuck themselves. I get 2/3 of my deposit back, which is bullshit, but I'm tired of this shit, so I'm done.
And will continue to say..."Do not rent from Universal Truck Rental."
I sort of sorted things out with them. They are charging me for 68L of fuel at 1.50/L and a $50 fee. So they can pretty much go fuck themselves. I get 2/3 of my deposit back, which is bullshit, but I'm tired of this shit, so I'm done.
And will continue to say..."Do not rent from Universal Truck Rental."
Letter to a House Owner
Dear Retarded Fucking House Owner,
So your house has been on the market for over 1 month. You've had 1 offer for $5k under your asking price that you flat our refuse, though they wanted posession in 3 weeks and you'd prefer 2 or 3 months.
I put in an offer for $185 with a 2 month from now posession date. While en route to deliver the offer I find there is another offer being presented. I up my offer to 189 before dropping it off.
2 hours later I get a call. You have flat-out rejected both offers and are upping the asking price to over 200.
Are you fucking kidding me? You fucking tool! Yes, there are lots of people in town listing their houses a little lower in order to start a bidding war over their place, which quite frankly is retarded. But They have their place on the market for less and 2 weeks and get multiple offers for far over their asking price. I've but in offers of over 10 grand over asking price and have lost it to people paying 30-40k over asking price. But when your house has been on the market for over a month, and you've only received ONE FUCKING OFFER, then there is a problem. The interest in your house obviously isn't there. And it's not going to be. You're in Transcona for fucks sake. On the very outskirts of the city, you never even used to be in the city. Nobody is going to start a bidding war over a fairly nice property that's way the fuck out there. Get over yourself, get a fucking clue and stupid wasting our time.
Sincerley,
Christopher
So your house has been on the market for over 1 month. You've had 1 offer for $5k under your asking price that you flat our refuse, though they wanted posession in 3 weeks and you'd prefer 2 or 3 months.
I put in an offer for $185 with a 2 month from now posession date. While en route to deliver the offer I find there is another offer being presented. I up my offer to 189 before dropping it off.
2 hours later I get a call. You have flat-out rejected both offers and are upping the asking price to over 200.
Are you fucking kidding me? You fucking tool! Yes, there are lots of people in town listing their houses a little lower in order to start a bidding war over their place, which quite frankly is retarded. But They have their place on the market for less and 2 weeks and get multiple offers for far over their asking price. I've but in offers of over 10 grand over asking price and have lost it to people paying 30-40k over asking price. But when your house has been on the market for over a month, and you've only received ONE FUCKING OFFER, then there is a problem. The interest in your house obviously isn't there. And it's not going to be. You're in Transcona for fucks sake. On the very outskirts of the city, you never even used to be in the city. Nobody is going to start a bidding war over a fairly nice property that's way the fuck out there. Get over yourself, get a fucking clue and stupid wasting our time.
Sincerley,
Christopher
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Stupid Fucking Truck Company
Do NOT rent a truck from Universal Truck Rental. At least not until they get their shit together. They are a small 1-way truck rental company based out of Ontario. Comparative pricing to U-Haul, but without the U-Haul problems...or so I thought.
All the booking was done via e-mail and phone. Steve, the guy I talked to, was super informative and very helpful. He e-mailed me a quote, we setup a time and all was good.
The day before I called and arranged a time to pickup the truck from their location at the truck stop. It managed off-site, so they had to arrange a time for someone to be there. We arranged for 10 am. I show up at 10 and no one is there. We wait until about 10:25, when the lady working there shows up. It is her first day on the job and she has no idea what's going on. The fax machine and phone aren't working in her little office, and to accept a fax at the main truck-stop office it's 7 dollars. She doesn't know any of this. She has no paperwork for us, just has the key to the truck. She doesn't ask us for any ID, or anything. We finally get the shit sorted out in the office, still with no paperwork, and go out to the truck. It's a big 24' 2004 International, nice truck. We do a walk-around, check for damage or anything, check the oil and fluids and start it up. She has no idea about any of this. How to do the walk-around, what to check for, or even how to start the truck. My dad and I are pretty handy with this kinda of stuff and have done it before, so we are fine. If some normal Joe Blow came along he'd be lost.
I fill out an inspection sheet that she has (but had no idea what to do with), and she took a copy for herself and I kept one. Again, she took no id, no drivers license numbers, nothing. She had no idea who we were, or if we were the right people.
So off we go. We load the truck and lock it down and all is fine.
The next day it doesn't start after lunch in Medicine Hat. My dad calls the number on a piece of paper in the truck for service. The guy that answers has no idea what's going on. My dad gives him the truck number, and it isn't even on file. He gives my dad another number, which he calls, and gets pushed through to another number. After an hour of fucking around with calling ppl a service guy is dispatched. He shows up about an hour later and it turns out the problem is a loose connection between the battery box and the transmission and started. Apparently this is a problem with all International trucks of this type, and will continue to be a problem until the wiring is replaced. My dad knows enough to have the guy show him how to jiggle the cables each time it doesn't start. This happens another 5 times throughout the trip, so it's a good thing he showed my dad, otherwise there would have been alot of service phone calls.
Upon arrival in Winnipeg, we unload the truck and go to drop it off at the drop off location 2 days early. Nice right? Well the guy there has never received a truck before. Apparently we are the first people to do this. I ask him where the nearest gas station is that has diesel, at which point he tells me that it's a gasoline truck. No, it isn't. Now tell me where a fucking gas station that has diesel is. He hums and haws and another customer at the counter tells me where one is. I go down, fill it up, and come back. He comes out and has no idea what do to to inspect for damage. All he checks is the gas guage, which is reading 6/8's. Now I just filled it up. Both tanks. $300. I KNOW they are full. I open the caps on both tanks and SHOW HIM that they are full. He says okay, and then writes on the form that the tank is only 6/8's full. We park the truck and leave. He has no idea how it works for charging me or any of that and that Universal Truck Rental will take care of all of that.
I come home and write an e-mail to my buddy Steve at Universal (the guy I dealt with in the first place) and said pretty much what I've said here so far. I dont' hear anything back. It's been over a week, and nothing. I even asked him to send me my receipt via e-mail or mail. Nothing.
So I check my credit card statement today. $2796.50. WHAT THE FUCK!?! I was quoted $2330, with $150 deposit. This would have left me with a remaing charge of $2180. Ummm...what? That's over $600 MORE than they should have charged me. AND it was charged back on the 31st...before I returned the truck, so there was nothing about the gas or anything. They just plain over charged me.
So I sent another e-mail, and left a phone message, but this is fucking bullshit. That's 1 month's rent.
Bullshit motherfuckers. I'm pissed.
All the booking was done via e-mail and phone. Steve, the guy I talked to, was super informative and very helpful. He e-mailed me a quote, we setup a time and all was good.
The day before I called and arranged a time to pickup the truck from their location at the truck stop. It managed off-site, so they had to arrange a time for someone to be there. We arranged for 10 am. I show up at 10 and no one is there. We wait until about 10:25, when the lady working there shows up. It is her first day on the job and she has no idea what's going on. The fax machine and phone aren't working in her little office, and to accept a fax at the main truck-stop office it's 7 dollars. She doesn't know any of this. She has no paperwork for us, just has the key to the truck. She doesn't ask us for any ID, or anything. We finally get the shit sorted out in the office, still with no paperwork, and go out to the truck. It's a big 24' 2004 International, nice truck. We do a walk-around, check for damage or anything, check the oil and fluids and start it up. She has no idea about any of this. How to do the walk-around, what to check for, or even how to start the truck. My dad and I are pretty handy with this kinda of stuff and have done it before, so we are fine. If some normal Joe Blow came along he'd be lost.
I fill out an inspection sheet that she has (but had no idea what to do with), and she took a copy for herself and I kept one. Again, she took no id, no drivers license numbers, nothing. She had no idea who we were, or if we were the right people.
So off we go. We load the truck and lock it down and all is fine.
The next day it doesn't start after lunch in Medicine Hat. My dad calls the number on a piece of paper in the truck for service. The guy that answers has no idea what's going on. My dad gives him the truck number, and it isn't even on file. He gives my dad another number, which he calls, and gets pushed through to another number. After an hour of fucking around with calling ppl a service guy is dispatched. He shows up about an hour later and it turns out the problem is a loose connection between the battery box and the transmission and started. Apparently this is a problem with all International trucks of this type, and will continue to be a problem until the wiring is replaced. My dad knows enough to have the guy show him how to jiggle the cables each time it doesn't start. This happens another 5 times throughout the trip, so it's a good thing he showed my dad, otherwise there would have been alot of service phone calls.
Upon arrival in Winnipeg, we unload the truck and go to drop it off at the drop off location 2 days early. Nice right? Well the guy there has never received a truck before. Apparently we are the first people to do this. I ask him where the nearest gas station is that has diesel, at which point he tells me that it's a gasoline truck. No, it isn't. Now tell me where a fucking gas station that has diesel is. He hums and haws and another customer at the counter tells me where one is. I go down, fill it up, and come back. He comes out and has no idea what do to to inspect for damage. All he checks is the gas guage, which is reading 6/8's. Now I just filled it up. Both tanks. $300. I KNOW they are full. I open the caps on both tanks and SHOW HIM that they are full. He says okay, and then writes on the form that the tank is only 6/8's full. We park the truck and leave. He has no idea how it works for charging me or any of that and that Universal Truck Rental will take care of all of that.
I come home and write an e-mail to my buddy Steve at Universal (the guy I dealt with in the first place) and said pretty much what I've said here so far. I dont' hear anything back. It's been over a week, and nothing. I even asked him to send me my receipt via e-mail or mail. Nothing.
So I check my credit card statement today. $2796.50. WHAT THE FUCK!?! I was quoted $2330, with $150 deposit. This would have left me with a remaing charge of $2180. Ummm...what? That's over $600 MORE than they should have charged me. AND it was charged back on the 31st...before I returned the truck, so there was nothing about the gas or anything. They just plain over charged me.
So I sent another e-mail, and left a phone message, but this is fucking bullshit. That's 1 month's rent.
Bullshit motherfuckers. I'm pissed.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Winnipeg begins
So...Winnipeg...
It's been good so far. We're all moved into our little apartment, with the rest of our stuff in storage. Only a few hiccups with the move; nothing we couldn't take care of.
Mama Bean and I each drove our cars out, while my parents drove the truck. After stopping for lunch in Medicine Hat the truck wouldn't start. So after 2.5 hours of phone calls and waiting for the repair guy to come, it was fixed and they were on the road again. We stopped in Regina for the night and continued onto Winnipeg on Friday. We got to spend a great night with Kari and James in Regina and check out their awesome new house.
The rest of the drive was rather uneventful.
We met my Aunt and Uncle, and they along with their kids (our age, so not really kids) we unloaded the stuff into the apartment, had some dinner and went to unload the stuff into the storage facility. After unloading a bunch of the truck, we found that ther unit was padlocked...:( So we broke out the hacksaw and cut it off. We filled it up but still had stuff left over, not much, but a little. So we left a bit at our relatives and packed a few more things into our apartment.
Mama Bean and I have been enjoying Winnipeg though. It's quite a nice little city. We've gone exploring some of their parks, and went down to the Forks the other day (kinda like what Eau Claire should've been) and even went and checked out their zoo.
We've been trying to find a church that could possibly come close to Journey, but have been unsuccessful so far. The first was a little MB church right next door to our apartment, but it's very much geared to university students (seeing as how we are just north of the university, that makes sense). The one we went to on Sunday was more than a little nuts. Now I've never been to a charismatic church before, but those ppl were fucking crazy. Like more than a little off their rockers. So much clapping and cheering. I mean it's good that there is a church like that for ppl like that who worship that way, but it's really not for me. I really enjoyed the music part of it, performance style worship, but that's what works for me.
We've also been doing some house hunting, which has been enjoyable. We put in an offer on a place tonight, but were outbid. It was an amazing little place, but that's how it works.
I kept meaning to update this, so thanks Stacey and Tasha for your perserverance. :)
It's been good so far. We're all moved into our little apartment, with the rest of our stuff in storage. Only a few hiccups with the move; nothing we couldn't take care of.
Mama Bean and I each drove our cars out, while my parents drove the truck. After stopping for lunch in Medicine Hat the truck wouldn't start. So after 2.5 hours of phone calls and waiting for the repair guy to come, it was fixed and they were on the road again. We stopped in Regina for the night and continued onto Winnipeg on Friday. We got to spend a great night with Kari and James in Regina and check out their awesome new house.
The rest of the drive was rather uneventful.
We met my Aunt and Uncle, and they along with their kids (our age, so not really kids) we unloaded the stuff into the apartment, had some dinner and went to unload the stuff into the storage facility. After unloading a bunch of the truck, we found that ther unit was padlocked...:( So we broke out the hacksaw and cut it off. We filled it up but still had stuff left over, not much, but a little. So we left a bit at our relatives and packed a few more things into our apartment.
Mama Bean and I have been enjoying Winnipeg though. It's quite a nice little city. We've gone exploring some of their parks, and went down to the Forks the other day (kinda like what Eau Claire should've been) and even went and checked out their zoo.
We've been trying to find a church that could possibly come close to Journey, but have been unsuccessful so far. The first was a little MB church right next door to our apartment, but it's very much geared to university students (seeing as how we are just north of the university, that makes sense). The one we went to on Sunday was more than a little nuts. Now I've never been to a charismatic church before, but those ppl were fucking crazy. Like more than a little off their rockers. So much clapping and cheering. I mean it's good that there is a church like that for ppl like that who worship that way, but it's really not for me. I really enjoyed the music part of it, performance style worship, but that's what works for me.
We've also been doing some house hunting, which has been enjoyable. We put in an offer on a place tonight, but were outbid. It was an amazing little place, but that's how it works.
I kept meaning to update this, so thanks Stacey and Tasha for your perserverance. :)
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