… and use your fucking brains people!

I’m afraid this won’t make any sense to you in case you’re reading the English version of the site (head over to the German version), however, there’s a hoax going round on Facebook where German people are asking all their friends to unsubscribe from their feed. They don’t do so consciously, they just read it somewhere else and fell victim to this “joke”. Somebody told them they had to click a particular field so they won’t share the status updates of their friends.

Obviously, this is utter bullshit; even though people keep claiming that Facebook isn’t really huge when it comes to privacy (not without reason), you don’t automatically share a story by a friend that you liked with the rest of YOUR friends. Unless people want their status updates to be visible to everybody, they’re only visible for their friends. So please people, don’t believe every rumor you’ve come across while surfing the web…

In a way, summer vacation started today! If you’ve been reading some of my recent articles or been following up some of my posts on Facebook and the WoW TCG forums (like the forum of the Bootcamp L.E.), chances are you already know what I’m talking about: 3 of my friends (Christian, Ronny and Schmalle) and I will take a trip to Rimini together in a camper van! We’ll leave Leipzig tomorrow afternoon and be on the road for pretty much the rest of the day. We should arrive Rimini sometime Thursday afternoon after spending the night somewhere in Southern Bavaria in the camper van.

Why Rimini, you might ask? Well, turns out the European Continental Championship of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game will take place the upcoming weekend there. Naturally, we’ll all try our luck in the main event and why not spend some more days there, enjoying the sun and company of good friends?! I’m rather excited and can’t wait for the tournament to begin! On the one hand, I’m a little afraid I might scrub out early again, but I’m hopeful that my preparation will suffice and help me to advance to day 2 with a comfortable record.

On Saturday, we’ll be drafting. I love drafting and tend to think of myself as a rather competitive limited player, however, I wasn’t doing that well in the drafts parts of past events (save the iPod draft side events – I can’t complain about my record there). Let’s just wait and see how it will turn out this time, in any case, I’m hopeful.

Being the crazy fools we are, we decided to provide you with a coverage of our trip (some might remember an epic trip to Budapest which was featured in similar fashion)! We’ll start with that as early as tomorrow, when a first opening blurp will go live on www.BootcampLE.de. Be sure to check it out and leave some comments!

What else is there to say? Well, my business is doing OK, now that most of the hassles with German bureaucracy have been taken care of. I’m still waiting for a final decision regarding health care, but I guess I’ll do fine as long as I don’t get sick. So keep your fingers crossed!
Fabian found a nice appartment in Berlin and might take it, so we should soon be able to work on some projects together and I expect business to take off then.

So yeah, all in all, I’m doing OK. Sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to do some of the work as I’m constantly at home; I still haven’t found a great solution for that particular challenge. If you can come up with some good ideas, be sure to pass them on.
On the relationship front, I’m doing great. Wincy is simply amazing, it’s just she doesn’t like some particular traits of this country too much (well, we share that passion in a way), so she can be a little grumpy at times. I still consider leaving the country together with her, but I don’t want to do so just now. First, I want to see if my own business can turn into a success and bring in enough money to make a living. If that won’t work out, I guess it will finally be time to leave Germany for good.

In a nutshell: I’ve been able to leave some bullshit behind (German bureaucracy) and there are exciting times ahead. First a vacation in Italy, then a trip to Dortmund to catch up with some old friends and then a trip to Madrid for the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Qualifier – European Championship. Who knows, maybe I’ll even start picking up a tan again with all that time in South European countries?! Let me know what you think and wish me well.

A few days ago I was ranting about eBay’s Customer Support. My problem in a nutshell: I tried to sign up for the eBay Partner Network, it wasn’t possible and all I received after contacting the customer support several times was auto-generated bullshit.

I’m certain that most of my dear regular readers are expecting a follow-up article with even more ranting at this point (see several articles about The PayPal Scam for reference…), however, I got some very good news in store for you: eBay really turned things around!

Kristina, who first commented on my blog post, got in touch with me via e-mail and was able to clear up the mess. It turned out that something during the registration process went wrong and once I tried a different e-mail address (I got a number of options…), I was able to finally sign up. I have no idea what will happen to the account I originally tried to sign up with, but I’ll leave it up to eBay to decide.

While the domains I submitted have been set to “invalid” (again), the first hits were tracked. So I’m rather hopeful and I might have already solved the issue by submitting the domains once more, but this time with “www” in front of them (I’m working with redirects via .htaccess to avoid duplicate content; that means if you’re trying to access “soulwarrior.net“, you’ll end up on “www.soulwarrior.net” instead). Maybe this is causing errors on eBay’s end, who knows…

Anyway, I want to thank eBay and more specifically Kristina for listening, taking the time to take a closer look and coming up with a solution for my problem. That’s certainly the way to go and will make me want to use eBay more again!

You should do so, too, so check out the advertisements on the right hand side of the page.

There’s this thing called the “eBay Partner Network”. It’s quite cool – you run some advertisements for eBay on your website and hope for people to click them. If they head over to eBay and purchase some stuff there, you’ll get paid as well.

This sounds extremely smart and I’m certain some of you might have stopped reading already, googling the Partner Network site and trying to sign up. Let me tell you that you might be on your way to quite some desperation, as I’m currently trying to accomplish the very same thing, however, it’s not meant to be.

As it turned out, eBay’s sign up process isn’t as streamlined as you think it would be. Yes, you can register on the site easily; in fact, you can even connect your account there to your regular eBay account with some possible benefits (don’t ask me about them). “All you need to do” is letting them know which domains you would like to use to run their ads, upload a text-file to the servers of the respective servers and have them check everything and give you a go. If you ever set up Google Analytics for a website, you’ll be very familiar with the process.

However, there’s a simple catch: eBay isn’t Google. eBay doesn’t know perfect automation. eBay doesn’t have helpful help sites. And more than anything else, eBay doesn’t have a fucking customer support.

The “domain activation site” of the eBay Partner Network told me that my sites are “invalid”. It doesn’t give me an explanation WHY they are considered to be “invalid”. There’s no section in their FAQs telling you when the status of a site will be considered “invalid”. So I did what every foolish webmaster in his right mind would have done: I sent them an e-mail. Or rather tried to. I used their contact form and all I got in response was this:

Alright, the site’s down for a short while. So I tried a few minutes later. Same message. I tried an hour later. Same message. I tried the next day. Still the same bullshit.

Great, so I decided to phone them. Unfortunately, you can’t phone the eBay Partner Network. You can only phone the normal eBay Customer Support. Alright, sounds like the next best thing and it’s the same company after all, so what could possibly go wrong?!

Turned out they can’t do shit over the phone (well, they can charge you money for calling them, but that’s not really what you were looking for, was it?). Their advice was to “send an e-mail”. I explained that it’s not possible in the respective section. I got redirected to the “normal eBay Customer Support forms”. I was told to let them know about a “technical problem” and that they could help me out once I sent an e-mail. Well, OK; I sent an e-mail. I waited. I waited another day. I waited a little longer. And after 5 quick days that passed in a hurry (in “internet time”, this can be considered a full year!), I finally received a reply, referring me back to the support of the eBay Partner Network. Well, thank you for this useful piece of advice…

I didn’t quite know what to reply… after a while, I figured it would be best to let them know _again_ that the support form of the Partner Network isn’t working for me and that I would appreciate if they could simply forward the e-mail to their colleagues. I now got told that I reported a technical issue that has something to do with a “third party contractor”. Unfortunately, eBay can’t help me out as the “respective third party contractor” needs to take care of the problem. I think it’s rather fitting to quote the Miz at this point: “REALLY? … REALLY???“

I honestly don’t know how to proceed. The possibilities seem endless; telling them to fucking read my e-mails, fuck themselves or fuck the “third party contractor” (which is simply another eBay company) all sound rather appealing to me at this point. Any suggestions?

Update: Granted, it took me ages. However, the Google Map I initially promised was created today. Hope it will help some of you guys! See you in Paris!

My first few travel experiences to France haven’t been too positive, however, they gradually became more enjoyable. There are a number of ways to increase your chances of having a pleasant stay in the country (even if you happen to be German like me). This little travel guide is my way of sharing my experiences with you, to help you finding your way around Paris and enjoying the trip a bit more.

Getting to and fro Charles de Gaulle airport

Fortunately, it’s rather easy to find your way from the Charles de Gaulle airport to the city center. Simply head for the “RER” signs as these will lead you to the express trains that head towards the city center. The ticket for a journey to the city center is around 9,- €. The easiest and sometimes ONLY way to pay (if you want to avoid standing in line for hours) is via credit card, so have one handy when you reach the train station inside the airport.

Most of the times I’ve travelled to Paris, I had to change at “Paris Nord”. Keep in mind that this station will be listed as “Gare Du Nord” on some train maps, so don’t go crazy if you can’t find “Paris Nord” on them.

Once you’re in “Gare Du Nord”, you’ll most likely have to switch to a subway line. Every line has its own color and number, so simply follow the signs to make your way to the correct track. Never put your train ticket away! Most of the times you have to switch from train to subway or even from one subway line to another, you’ll need your train ticket to make your way to the new track.

Interacting with the French:

The French are extremely fond of their language, culture and cuisine. If you approach a French citizen and start a conversation in another language, they’ll sometimes feel “insulted” as you’re poisoning their ears with your foreign bullshit. The easiest way to avoid this trap is starting every conversation in French.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you have to speak 3 sentences in French before switching to English, but a simple “Bonjour” can already work wonders. Look very sorry for not being able to express more of your thoughts in French and continue with basic English. Keep your sentences short and precise (I’m rather miserable when it comes to that). Last but not least: Be nice and keep in mind that you’re a guest in their country (I recommend always doing this when you’re on holiday in another country). This is a winning combo that will get you quite far in Paris.

Let me share my favorite “dealing with the French” story with you: A friend of mine went to a bakery in the morning and tried to order a baguette with what he remembered of his French classes back from his days in school. He came up with some form of a “Good morning” and tried to start the conversation by being nice and asking how the clerk was doing. The woman couldn’t quite make out what he was saying and even when he tried to say: “I want to buy a baguette“, she seemed rather clueless.

At the same time, a French guy came in. He didn’t greet the woman, he didn’t smile, he pointed to a baguette, simply said the word, he was handed it over, paid and disappeared without saying another word.

Don’t always try too hard. It can work against you.

soul’s Pro advice:

• I highly recommend the “MetrO” app that is available for iPhones (and maybe Android phones, but I don’t own one, so do your own research please). The app can show you the fastest way around Paris and also works in flight mode (simply download the city map before making your trip). Therefore, you won’t have to pay the ridiculous roaming costs and still have access to all the train connections at your fingertips.

• Book. Your. Flights. Now.

  It’s not a huge deal to make your way from Charles de Gaulle airport to ANY place in the city center. Don’t wait for Konami to announce the exact details of the location, you can always book your hotel later.

• When trying to find your way with the help of technology, keep in mind that there’s another train station with “Charles De Gaulle” in the name. It should be “Charles de Gaulle-Etoile” or something like that. This is NOWHERE NEAR “Aéroport Charles de Gaulle”, so make sure you’re looking up the correct connection.

• Print out the tube map and mark the most important spots (airport (upper right corner), location of your hotel, event venue and train stations where you’ll need to switch between lines). Even if your phone breaks down, you won’t be lost completely.

• If you’re the type, check out the city. There’s quite a lot to see for people who are into “touri-stuff” (I personally despise it and don’t care for seeing sights like the Eiffel tower, etc. – I’ll do so when I turn 40. Or 50. Or 80.)

Alright, that’s it already. I hope this guide will be of some use to you and we’ll see each other at the YCS Paris. Be sure to stop by, say hi and let me know what you thought about this guide.

P.S.: I’ll also create a Google Map with all the important information in it once the location has been announced, so be sure to check back to the site.

I know a million people who are huge Japan fans. Pretty much all of them are most likely in shock by now, at least if they’ve taken a look at what’s happening in the far east. If you haven’t found the time so far, please check out the BBC coverage with lots and lots of impressive and shocking pictures of the catastrophe.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has now also reacted and stressed that Japan is one of the first countries to rush to help whenever something horrible happens in the world (find the exact quote on the BBC website). He promised that the UN will do whatever they can to support the Japanese people.

In other words: This is the chance for the rest of the world to give Japan something back and I sincerely hope that things will be under control soon. Like I said, the pictures are shocking and impressive at the same time. I don’t know a single person I would like to see in this horrible situation.

The news just came in that it’s possible a Tsunami will hit the US West Coast (Seattle was mentioned). I really hope my US friends will all be safe and they won’t have to go through the same shit that the Japanese people have to deal with just now.

My fight with PayPal is more or less over. Here’s a very brief summary of what happened so far:

• I sold some Loot on eBay
• The same guy bought most of it and payed via PayPal
• He scammed me – as that’s fucking easy thanks to PayPal
• As PayPal’s too stupid to collect the money and can’t get a hold of the buyer, they’re charging me for it – makes sense from a business perspective, after all!
• PayPal gave me back some of my money…
• …only to revoke that action as well a little later
• They didn’t do shit, did not listen to reason and threatened me with a Schufa record and a collection agency

Long story short: I paid. I THEN phoned an attorney who told me that they would never do anything about it as the amount (1.600 €) won’t be worth the extra trouble of suing me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t claim my money back (I HAD to transfer it via bank transfer, they would not use direct debit as this way I would have been able to revoke the transaction – their specialty), so I pretty much lost what I used to make in a month in my last job…

“Fortunately”, PayPal is giving you plenty of advice what to do when you’re not pleased with their “service”. Let me quote the important part for you (the e-mail was in German):

“Dies ist unsere abschließende Stellungnahme in dieser Sache. Sollten Sie mit dieser abschließenden Stellungnahme von PayPal nicht einverstanden sein, können Sie sich an folgende Stellen wenden um eine offizielle Beschwerde gegen PayPal vorzubringen:

- Europäisches Verbraucherzentrum Deutschland – Kiel Andreas-Gayk-Str. 15 D – 24103 Kiel

- Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) 110, Route d’Arlon, L-2991 Luxembourg

- UK Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

Sie haben außerdem innerhalb der nächsten 6 Monate die Möglichkeit, den Service des Ombudsmannes für Finanzfragen in Großbritannien zu nutzen. Informationen dazu finden Sie unter: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

In a nutshell: This is our final response, if you still feel like complaining go to one of these guys: [...]. Another scammed eBay seller recommended using the Financial Ombudsman. I received my reply today, go check it out by clicking on the picture on the right.

I have to say: PayPal didn’t disappoint and really redefines the meaning of customer support!

A friend of mine pointed me to the Scott Pilgrim Avatar Creator today and I don’t want to keep it from you. Go check it out right away and create a fancy version of yourself in the funny Scott Pilgrim look!

To give you a better idea of what you might look like in the Scott Pilgrim look, I created quite a cool (if I may say so) version of myself – check it out on the right side and click it for higher resolution!

There seems to be no end in sight for my problems with PayPal. Here’s a quick summary of what happened so far:

• First, I got told that some transactions were revoked – in case you don’t care to read the original post, here’s a very brief summary: You can make sure that a seller receives a notification from PayPal, telling him that he’s received a payment. However, no money will EVER leave your bank account, so in other words: PayPal makes it extremely easy to pull off a huge scam.
• Then, PayPal told me that 2 of the 3 transactions in question were actually fine (Blog Entry), so I at least got some of the money, that should have belonged to me in the first place, back.
• Or so I thought… just now, PayPal changed their mind once more and revoked ALL transactions from the 2 affected eBay buyers. Yes, that includes the 2 that were fine just one week ago (naturally, I have to prove again that I actually sent out the articles. Although I already did so just one week ago).

To put things in a better perspective: I received some of those payments 7 weeks ago! That means if you receive money via PayPal, you have to fear for 7 – 10 weeks that the buyer might pull the described stunt and you will ultimately not receive a cent.

Further, PayPal’s “seller protection” works this way: If this happens, the seller needs to pay PayPal the money that they “lost” (in fact, they didn’t lose ANY money – all they did was telling me that I received money, however, they just pulled that back, so it’s basically like I sent out the articles I sold on eBay for free). Additionally, PayPal freezes the account and asks the seller to send them all kinds of bullshit, e.g. a copy of my ID, as well as forces them to change it to a “business account”, so some more rules might apply and they will have an even easier time trying to rip me of my money.

I honestly don’t know what to do, but I consider looking for legal support. I don’t want to “bail out” PayPal for their inability to collect the money that they promised me. All I can do for you at the moment is recommending a Google search for “PayPal Scam” and read over some of those websites. I know it’s hard to believe, but as my example proves, almost all of it is the sad truth…

I can provide you with an update regarding the PayPal Scam: PayPal is done investigating some amounts and they returned the money that belonged to me in the first place. Well, thanks. I still think the company is on the same level with organized crime, but that’s still better than me chasing my money.

While searching for more background information regarding this topic, I came across several websites that deal with PayPal issues. Most notably, no-paypal.de [dash] a German website with quite a lot of useful information regarding PayPal. Some of their contents are rather eye-opening. You wouldn’t believe what an ex-eBay Manager went through to make sure he would be protected by PayPal’s seller protection. “Fast and easy” isn’t the slogan that would apply to the measures he’s taken.

Anyway, for the time being, I’m happy that I only have to chase 250,- € and not 750,- €. Let’s see how that’ll work out…