Wapsi Square Forum

That’s probably exactly what had happened - someone claimed your apartment was theirs and rented it out. They’ve long since paid, but AirBnB may give them their money back and ban the “owner.”

Do you happen to have a way to get in touch with them? I’d stongly recommend they contact AirBnB directly instead of their host to begin the recovery process (to prevent the host from being tipped off that they’ve been made and make them less likely to vanish), then only stay at “Superhost” places (these are more strictly regulated, more closely watched, and they are required to maintain a 5 star rating), and to book at least two months in advance.

I’ve yet to have a bad experience. In fact, each is better than the last... but then again, my google-fu is strong and I know how to spot shady shit.

That reminds me -- there's a lovely bridge in New York they aren't using very much. They're selling it at a discount. Interested?

Waiting on my new debit card to arrive in the mail, because the one I have expires next month. I probably won't be able to use the one I have at all starting Sunday, because there's no specific day in the expiration date, which means I'll have to do something about my phone payment instead of letting the auto pay handle it.

I may have to ask the folks at my bank why the person who sends out the cards doesn't think it might be a good idea to send out people's cards early enough that they'll have the new one before the old one expires, so they don't have to keep setting aside time to go to the bank every couple of days.

Alkarii wrote:Waiting on my new debit card to arrive in the mail, because the one I have expires next month. I probably won't be able to use the one I have at all starting Sunday, because there's no specific day in the expiration date, which means I'll have to do something about my phone payment instead of letting the auto pay handle it.

If I recall correctly, an expiration date of 7/18 means "Good through the end of July, not good in August." If there's no specific day-of-the-month, then "last calendar day of the month" is implied.

So, unless your bank is doing something very unusual, you probably have plenty of safety margin.

Ah, okay. It's been a while since I've actually had a card expire, because of all the data breaches that kept happening, resulting in the bank sending me a new card.

GlytchMeister wrote:That’s probably exactly what had happened - someone claimed your apartment was theirs and rented it out. They’ve long since paid, but AirBnB may give them their money back and ban the “owner.”

That's what I hope happens. I feel bad for those guys and their families, who were most likely acting in good faith, and expecting a place to stay, only to be told, at 11pm, while their family is still in the taxi, no less, that they've been had, there's no such place to rent...

GlytchMeister wrote:Do you happen to have a way to get in touch with them? I’d stongly recommend they contact AirBnB directly instead of their host to begin the recovery process (to prevent the host from being tipped off that they’ve been made and make them less likely to vanish), then only stay at “Superhost” places (these are more strictly regulated, more closely watched, and they are required to maintain a 5 star rating), and to book at least two months in advance.

I hadn't thought of that. I did not ask them for their contact info. I did not think i could be of any help... They tried calling the "host", and only got a voice mail... I hope they found somewhere else to stay. And that they manage to get their money back.

GlytchMeister wrote:I’ve yet to have a bad experience. In fact, each is better than the last... but then again, my google-fu is strong and I know how to spot shady shit.

Consider yourself fortunate. Sometimes, it's the cleanest looking ones that turn out to be the most nefarious...

Like they say: There's always a bad apple in the bunch..

I ended up spending way more money than I originally planned yesterday. I'd sent out a larger than usual car payment, which was planned, but I'd also gone out and bought a bunch of things, including the Rosetta Stone course for German, because I'd always wanted to learn it. Much cheaper than it used to be, though.

Well, yesterday's second instalment of my move went much smoother than the first... Although I was worried a bit, about how many people would actually show up, and when... but that mostly got worked out Friday afternoon and evening.

I got my 6 X 12 closed trailer on time. While my helpers had not arrived yet, I set out to finish clearing out the balcony/storeroom, and was able to see that it was filed with a lot of empty boxes (at one point, I was keeping boxes for bought electronics, such as screens, printers, etc). I would not need those. I also found much that I had forgotten I had, and had subsequently replaced, so I didn't need to take those with me either. Some of that stuff was in poor shape anyway. Garbage pile! There were a few items to give away, though.

My first two helpers arrived soon after, and we set out to box what was left to box (stuff that was on a counter, the content of the bathroom, and the content of a cabinet I had used to store hardware type stuff. That was quickly done. By the time we started loading the trailer and my own truck, the last helper came.

We hurried, as I had to return the trailer by noon, or face $200/our late fees (seeing as July 1 is the official moving day in Québec, by virtue of a law, and all leases are set to that date, this weekend is the most high season of moving, with prices going up accordingly...)

I ended up leaving a few small items on the floor, for lack of time, which I will return for today (fortunately, no one is moving in, as the landlord wants to make some renovations...) and we just dumped all the stuff in my new home's living room or back veranda, to make unloading faster. I returned the trailer 9 minutes late, but was not charged for it.

As mentioned, I will now have to go today to pick up the to-give items, as well as the small stuff that was left behind for lack of time.

Still, a success, as far as I'm concerned.

Of course, I now have to sort it all out, in my home... But it's still much better than the one time I moved and could not get a big enough truck, so we had to make multiple trips, and the next renter was there to move in at the same time, and balling out my wife in the meantime... They could see we did not have the proper size truck, but had no empathy whatsoever.

lake_wrangler wrote:We hurried, as I had to return the trailer by noon, or face $200/our late fees (seeing as July 1 is the official moving day in Québec, by virtue of a law, and all leases are set to that date, this weekend is the most high season of moving, with prices going up accordingly...).

Hunh... I never heard of a jurisdiction in which residential leases were time-locked in that way. Must make it difficult for employers and employers both... difficult to change jobs or offer employees an in-company transfer at any other time of the year, as a lot of the potential housing would be unavailable.

I presume that your legislature has at least warned the LIGO researchers that their gravitational telescopes will be unreliable that day? A year's worth of moving-box activity in a day must create a whole bunch of gravitational noise. "No, Bob, that signal isn't from neutron stars colliding... just old and new tenants colliding. Here, listen to it and you'll see... instead of a rising chirp, you'll just hear diesel engines and cussing."

Dave wrote:Here, listen to it and you'll see... instead of a rising chirp, you'll just hear diesel engines and cussing."

A most accurate description of moving if there ever was one

I've heard the reason several times, already, and I forget why. But I do remember that it used to be May 1, and was later moved to July 1, so as to cause fewer problems with kids moving to a new school just before year end.

Québec is the only province in Canada with such a regulated end-of-lease date. There are ways around it, such as sub-letting your apartment for the rest of the lease, but other than that, breaking a lease is hard to do.

Ironically, the date picked by the government of Québec also happens to be Canada Day, celebrating the signing of the confederation of the country, on July 1, 1867, at which time it ceased to be a colony of England, and became its own country. So while the rest of the provinces celebrate the country, Québec moves. (Those who know much about the Québec separatist movement will see the humor here...)

Of course, such a high season for moving wreaks havoc on rental prices, and moving companies make most of their money during that time. I used to work for a moving company, back in 2003. Back then, a truck with a driver and two helpers would cost $85/hour off season, and $160/hour during the high season!

Other companies would charge a certain cost per day on truck rental, but charge the same price for a four hour period, during the high season...

It's a cut-throat industry, and civility often takes a back seat to impatience, during that time.

I'm glad I'm done with it.

Last time I had to hire a truck, it was to dispose of an old refrigerator. I returned it in less than an hour. Also I received it with half a tank of gas, and returned it with half a tank of gas, without buying any gas. But I still had to pay for half a day, because they don't rent by the hour.

this is a test

I, in July 2018, am finishing reading a magazine, in French, which came out in Dec. 2017 (I've only started reading it about two months ago, during breaks at work), about the "recently released" Ubuntu 16.04...

The magazine covers a lot of stuff which I already knew, about Ubuntu and Linux in general, but there were a few pearls of information which I will want to review again later, next to my computer.

The magazine itself, however, is a disappointment if I've ever seen one: it is a translation of some other English magazine, and not only is it stuffed with typos and grammar mistakes, it even has, in several places, left some of the English text in place!

It is still informational, and some of those pearls of information should prove to be useful. Besides, I should be upgrading to 16.04 soon... I currently use Ubuntu Studio 14.04, and have never had time to do the upgrade, although the system is kind enough to remind me at every boot up, as well as whenever I do the software upgrades, that there is a "new" version available, namely 16.04. At least, it doesn't want me to jump straight to 18.04...

Ubuntu Studio 16.04 is pretty decent- it's what I use day to day.

I took a quick swing at the 'then' brand new 18.04 when it came out but it had problems running on 'everything', so I rolled back to 16.04. (As a matter of fact I can't exactly recall what the trouble was. hmmm...)

Any way, you'll do fine w/ 16.04; it's stable and still has legs...

Oh, I know. I'm not worried. I just never seem to have the time to spend on upgrading...

I just mostly found amusing the timeline I laid out in my post, concerning the "recently released" 16.04, and how long it took for that magazine to come out with its translation of whatever original magazine it was, or how long it took for me to get it.

Happy Birthday Dave!

GlytchMeister wrote:Happy Birthday Dave!

Thanks, GlytchMeister! Another year gone, a few (or many) more hairs turned gray or gone entirely. I've got a lot to be thankful for, though.