UpToWick

  A few additional factors that contribute to the mental issues/lack of social skills among people working in IT (but in general among office workers) - This sadistic idea of "continuous improvement" required on people, so common especially in American companies. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to improve yourself, but the way it's often presented is that...you're never good enough. Imagine what disaster this does to the subconscious of a person...   - This evil methodology called "Agile" (I would even call it ideology, since it's often applied blindly without any questions), which promotes a culture of stress, micromanaging and buggy software. I've seen teams in different companies that had the following behavior: If a story was not completed during a Sprint (something totally normal and natural...there can be many valid reasons why this happens), they would close the story (so that "officially" they had completed it, and it looked good on the board), and create a new one in the next Sprint, which was basically a continuation of the previous one. Another behavior that I've seen was rushing to code reviewing a few hours before the Sprint ends...colleagues begging to have the CRs approved, not matter if the code was of good quality or not. Because..."it doesn't look good if I don't finish the story". I'm not looking forward to the day that this cancer will spread to software that controls nuclear power plans or airplanes. - This other retarded idea of the "open office", which improves collaboration by 20%, but increases stress by 200%. Apparently now the same companies that were pushing so hard for it are backtracking (and buying overpriced phone boots), and they discovered...surprise surprise...that it reduces productivity.

  Would a "family reunion Visa" (assuming it exists) help?

  When you have to spend your entire life studying (often in your free time or weekends), to stay updated on the latest hyped language/framework/tool, you don't have a lot of time to develop your soft skills...   I wouldn't recommend the IT industry to anybody who wants to have a life. It has become crazy...the rate of change, especially in the areas of Frontend development and DevOps, is unsustainable...by the time you become expert in technology X, it's already outdated in the job market.

Since Friday evening my Mnet connections is not working anymore...there is DSL signal, but it can't establish an IPV4 connection.   The Mnet customer service told me I have to wait until Monday when somebody looks at it...I suppose the concept of "on-call" hasn't yet arrived here.   It's just one of the many example of the crap state of the internet infrastructure, in this country of lawyers and mechanical engineers..   Mobile internet is also worse than many developing countries I've been...

  I'd be curious to know why you hated Switzerland...

Last year I switched Liability Insurance provider.   With my previous one, Asstel, I once opened a claim regarding some damage to rented property. To make it short...after a few weeks told them to close it, because I reported too late and contacting my previous landlady was too much of an hassle. So nothing was paid by them, and the administrative waste of time and money on their side was minimal.   When I signed up with my new insurance provider, I reported this as "Schaden bei vorversicherung im letzen 3 Jahren"...which consequences could this have in case I open a claim with them?

A friend of mine will visit me for a month from China. She'll be staying in my apartment. Last time I did the same in China, staying at her place, I had to register at the closest police station in the first 24h from my arrival, and failure to do so would have caused my Visa next time to be rejected, and possibly also a fine on exit from the middle Kingdom. Years ago they didn't care much (in case you forgot or couldn't register for any reason) but they have become more strict recently.   I'm quite sure she doesn't have to do any Anmeldung here if she stays for only 1 month, but I just want to double check, to avoid trouble next time she applies for a Shenghen Visa.

  I have both a Liability and a Legal Insurance with them. So far I didn't have to use them, but their Customer Service has always been very quick in answering some questions.   I'm always willing to support German companies that have an English-speaking interface and customer service (e.g. N26), since traditional German companies, including MNCs, are stuck in the 20th century and seem to be unable to provide something so simple.

In the last few weeks, long before the 30th September deadline, I've been trying to cancel my membership with a Martial Arts verein. My former Martial Art teacher, who doesn't teach anymore, signed me up with them a couple of years ago.   The Impressum page on their website clearly states - An email address - A Postfach address   I sent them - An email to that email address. The email address actually doesn't exist, and the email returned back to me!   - A registered letter to that Postfach address. It also returned back to me a few days later, because the address apparently is not valid. I don't know if this is another case of them giving out invalid info on their Impressum (is it legal?), or Deutsche Post failing to deliver.   - Using Google, I found their "real" address on a street (no Postfach), and I sent another registered letter to it. This one...they received it on the 4th of Juli, but I'm still waiting for an answer.   - A private Facebook message to their official profile, asking to cancel my membership. They have read the message, but never replied.   What can I do to force them to cancel my membership? If I have to go to Verbraucherzentrale (which I really hope I don't have to, since I've done more than I had to cancel my membership, and I don't want to take a few hours out of work for this), can I also get compensation for all the stress/wasted time they are causing me?   In January 2020 they'll diligently take the next annual membership out of my bank account...if I cancel their Lastschrift, and then keep the proof of my Kundigung (Einlieferungsbelege, screenshot of Facebook Message they never replied to, etc...), am I covered legally?   I can happily share in private the name of this Verein, so you can avoid signing up with their schools.

  They processed Nachforschungsauftrag and found the package. No need to contact their CEO.

  The problem has been sorted. Good suggestion about Twitter...but I won't use them ever again anyway.   DHL doesn't have an email you can complain to. I really think for such a global big company they have a crap customer service. There is massive business opportunity in Germany for a delivery company providing a decent service, since even the few alternatives that exist (Hermes, GIS, etc...) are not much better than DHL.

  No insurance, but it was a Paket, 10 Kg, so I should get compensated up to 2500 EUR if I'm not wrong. It's very annoying to waste time with their non-existent customer service, which doesn't reply to emails. I won't use them ever again.   I'm thinking of looking for the contacts of some SVP/manager of Customer Service, maybe on LinkedIn, and politely tell him how crap his/her company is. In the past this approach has worked with another company to get something fixed, when O2 kept billing me even after I cancelled my contract with them, and their customer service was ignoring my messages.

DHL lost a 100+ EUR air purifier that I sold through eBay...the package is not even traceable anymore on their website since a few days. Before it would show that it was stuck in Augsburg, now the system can't even find a package with that number... I've made 2 Nachforschungsauftrag (in German...because a global company like DHL is too incompetent to provide an English-speaking customer service), but nobody has ever contacted me.   This is just the last of many failures I've witnessed by this incompetent company over the years. Obviously I won't use them EVER again, but is there anything from a legal point of view that can be done against them?

Hi, is there some company assisting foreigners in buying property in Munich? I mean translating the contract, hiring a Gutachter, checking if they are not trying to screw you, explaining the various taxes and fees, etc...   I seem to have found some companies providing a much-needed service like this for Berlin, but so far I haven't found anything in Munich.

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