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Setsuna's crazy adventures - a cataloguing

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mariokirby:

--- Quote from: Setsuna on September 29, 2015, 02:05:14 am ---Not that I expect anyone to be reading this, but well, time for another episode of 'How can things go uniquely wrong for one person?'

--- End quote ---

I'm reading it since there are bits of wisdom I pull from your experiences.  Wish I could explain why bad luck always follows you.

Setsuna:
Well, in another episode of fun stuff, we get to look into the weird and wonderful world of contracts.

... No, this isn't actually bad, but it IS weird, or at least some of it is.

Let's first start with a series of fortunate events (no, honest, no un) which resulted in a very odd decision made in regards with the contract.

As you might know, I live in Australia, the world of the stupidly expensive and low quality internet (due to the simple fact well, the previous government was planning to fix the whole mess by just going 'We can't trust any of you private players anymore' and just build a proper fibre based network structure (the NBN) then the current government decided to just scrap all of it.) so even though the numbers will seem VERY bad in comparison to other countries, it's actually fairly good as far as it goes here.

Due to various things (im@s uploads and video streaming) my requirements are that I require a pretty high upload (as in higher than 1mbit) so I can deliver videos in something resembling a decent time.

I was paying 110/month for a 1.4mbit up line. This means I have to allocate as a business, because I needed AnnexM enabled to get past the 1mbit cap.

This also means I have to provide an Australian Business Number (I'm registered as a contractor by the ATO) so I can get the service provisioned.

Of course, when a fire happens, you lose all your paperwork, and the ATO got really really uppity due to the fact that I couldn't prove who I was to retrieve the details.

So after a long discussion with the ISP's corporate division, we work on a way to dodge the ABN requirement.

Since I also lost a significant amount of equipment, they also offered to sell me a small business modem (A Cisco 867VAE-W), and because he knew I was a long time customer with the ISP (About 6 years, and the only reason I had to stop was cause the fire literally destroyed the line they were provisioning me) he'd grant a subsided price for a 12 month contract, with the device being paid for over the 12 months along with the line.

This means they get remote access and I don't get full control of the device until a year later, and I'd have to stay with the ISP for a year.

(Device is provided at 400, but sold to me at half that, spread over 12 months. It's a business grade modem, with the standard Cisco iOS, serial etc. If you're doing networking or plan to get a Cisco qualification (CCNA/IE etc) you'll know it's a fairly big deal.)

So fast forward to today, where the line that was contracted has been activate since yesterday.

The person I was speaking with told me due to a plan shakeup, he terminated the contract.

This is because the plans had changed significantly in my favour. The cost went down from 110 to 80/month, and the quota went up from 600GB down to 1000GB down. He migrated me over to the new pricing for internet provision, and I'm still bound to the ISP for at least 12 months. (which was the terms of the OLD contract, but at lower prices. I'm not complaining.)

In the process the termination clauses for the previous contract kicked in.

Since this was initiated by the ISP, and it was at their behest, the conditions had to be at least reasonable in our favour.

He handed me over the access details for the device, and a notice that we formally have full control of the modem/router. Also, the additional cost of the device was not added to the new contract, because we were added in as 'brought our own device'.

Basically, we had effectively served a 12 month contract in about 36 hours, without putting in a single payment.

Setsuna:
So in the second part of this update, I'll get to talk a little about some of the things I do outside of im@s, and maybe you'll learn a little about how the business world works, and maybe a little about my perspective.

I don't really talk about some of the skills I keep hidden up my sleeve, but well, I figured if I'm going to talk about things, I'll have to reveal some of them.

I have training as an accountant, and I can do bookkeeping for any small or medium sized business. I can't legally provide tax advice in Australia only because that requires 3 years working under a certified accountant before I can claim to be a CPA.

Most of my knowledge does transfer internationally, because most accounting standards are just that.

Because of all of that training (and various other experiences) I tend to have a very critical eye about how things work.

For example, I tend to have some very strange hobbies (or at least strange in the sense that you'd call them hobbies) such as keeping track of the total amount of proven financial fraud (as in stuff that gets proven in court cases) as well as the amount of prosecuted fraud (namely the stuff that's in ongoing investigations) that has happened since January 2nd, 2001, as a calculated average on a per day basis (assuming the costs of said financial fraud are distributed over 10 years).

I also calculate an estimate based on various sources.

The proven column so far...
At 2001, it was about 20 million a day.
At 2007, it was about 50 million a day.
At present? About 350 million a day averaged over 10 years.

The 'in trial' is roughly 7 times that, and the 'in investigation' is roughly 22 times the 'in trial' number. (The number fluctuates, but it's accelerating rapidly due to a few things.)

Some people find the number terrifying (For an idea, Bank of America was literally stealing about 300k houses literally from under the feet of people at one point, and that was TAME compared to some of the documents I've seen) but I just find it amusing because well, people get up in arms over people stealing a dollar or being ripped off for a game, but don't bat an eyelid when someone's grandmother gets their house stolen from them.

You have to keep in mind that the money doesn't disappear. You can trace where the money went, and if you look closely enough, where it came from, and it's very much theft, and it's definitely coming out of your pocket.

It's just that well, we live in an age where people don't look very closely at anything at all, and those that do get hurt very severely, at various levels.

Of course, if you ever wondered given how I tend to do things why I haven't just quit yet, well, if you can laugh at the biggest single daylight robbery and keep track of the pace of it for fun, and laugh at it after you nearly got killed a few times, you'll laugh at pretty much anything.

That and I also have what I call the uncollectable debts tally - People have made bets with me about various things  that they really believed was right (and mostly because if the other side was correct, it would significantly destroy how they see the world), and that if I could prove them wrong in the specified timeframe, they'd pay up.

Of course, they never seem to pay up when I hand the evidence to them.

It's at roughly $47000 since I started making predictions in 2007, with another $12000 in the next 12 months, and $250000 that is scheduled in 3 years.

I expect to be proven right as they come up, but I also expect to never be able to collect a dollar. In some cases, it's because they know they joined in, in some other cases, it's because they're in no position to pay, and in a couple of cases, it's because well, they're no longer with us due to a reason related around said bet.

So what can you learn from all the above?

Facts, the truth and reality really don't matter. People will believe what they want to, and the only thing you can do is laugh, and hope you learn from their mistakes.

That and maybe 'Before taking a point of view, be very sure that you know where opposing points of view can come from, just in case.' if for no other reason to prevent some enterprising woman to offer to take an opposing side and curse you with consequences.

Nakiame:

--- Quote from: Setsuna on September 30, 2015, 06:45:27 pm ---I was paying 110/month for a 1.4mbit up line.
--- End quote ---
110$ a month for 1.4mbit?? Thats insane! Or do you live in a rural area?

Setsuna:

--- Quote from: Nakiame on September 30, 2015, 08:43:31 pm ---110$ a month for 1.4mbit?? Thats insane! Or do you live in a rural area?

--- End quote ---

No, I live in suburban Sydney, Australia.

It's 1.4mbit up, by the way. The full line is 12/1.4 (Well, was, because it's dependent on the quality of the copper line)

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