Not Happy, DMV

[Jay 2K Winger]

Generally, my experiences with the Department of Motor Vehicles here in Virginia has been uneventful. Sure, the wait-times can be annoying sometimes, and it's frustrating when you have to leave and then come back and wait some more because there's something else you need to do before you can do whatever, but none of that was really aggravating to me.

Until today.

My car's registration expires at the end of December. Basically, today. I knew it was coming up, but I'd forgotten about it until I unearthed the renewal form from some unopened mail (most of it was paper copies of my phone bills, etc. which are paid automatically) last weekend.

I tried to go online to the DMV's website to renew online, but every time I tried, it kicked back an error stating it couldn't be processed. I tried this in multiple web browsers, just in case (Firefox returned an XML error), but it kept happening.

So I tried to call their phone line to do it that way, but once I input my title number and other identifying information, it told me it could not help me and I would have to do it in-person.

It's awfully convenient that renewing in-person costs an additional $5...

So today, being the last day of December, I decided I'd see if I could go to the DMV and take care of it there. Knowing that it's New Year's Eve, I checked online to see if the nearest DMV was even open. Business hours said that they'd be open from 8AM to 5PM. There was even a little applet in there that said the current wait time was something like 3-something minutes.

Awesome! So I get in my car and drive over to the DMV, getting there just after 12 noon.

And. They're. Fucking. CLOSED.

Now I'm going to have to go back on Jan. 2nd before I head out to MAGFest so I can get my car registration renewed, and I'm going to have to pay an additional $10 for my registration being overdue.

Thanks a lot, DMV. I'm not happy about this.

[Aethian]

Ours here if you try to renew on the last day your SOL. If you do it the day before you might get away with it... The reasoning? They need to mail out the new tag and you might not get it in time.

[Sapphire Silk]

Ours here if you try to renew on the last day your SOL. If you do it the day before you might get away with it... The reasoning? They need to mail out the new tag and you might not get it in time.

Wow. That's insane.

Here, if I remember to send in the form on time I get my new tag sticker mailed to me. If I don't (I usually wait to the last minute) I go to the Tag and Title office to pay in person. They hand me the sticker for my tag that day.

The only part that sucks is next time I renew I'll have to pay the property tax on my car at the same time I renew my tags. That'll cost me about $400 bucks.

[Jay 2K Winger]

See, if I'd been able to renew it online or on the phone, they'd have mailed out the new stickers for my license plate, and I could have printed out a receipt/form that proves I renewed and am waiting for my new stickers. I could have kept that in my car with my registration and shown it to any cop that pulled me over.

[Argabarga]

One thing I love about my state DMV, especially because I'm a mega-procastinator, you can renew it at ANY time VIA the DMV website with a credit card, get a receipt emailed, and get to print out a temp registration from your own printer that's good for 30 days as long as you sign it and you can use that to do anything including present it as needed to police or a garage to get state inspection done, then when you get the real sticker in the mail 5-10 business days later, you put it on and toss the temp.

Now, this all naturally requires you have a working internet connection and printer, and adobe since the temp is a .PDF file, but, assuming the Gods are not vengeful, it all works.

I've only encountered a time when I wanted to use the site and it was down ONCE, and it was back the next day.

[Jay 2K Winger]

ALL THAT FOR NOTHING!!!

Went to the DMV, waited for more than an hour before my number was called. Get to the counter and find out I CAN'T renew today because there's a HOLD on my registration. I'd forgotten to pay the property tax on my car, and until that is paid, I can't pay to renew the registration.

And NO, I CAN'T pay it at the DMV. Despite it being my CAR tax.

So I had to go home, pay for the tax and the hold fee from the Tax Authority site, and now I have to wait another day or two for their systems to talk to the DMV's systems, and hopefully THEN I can renew online and never have to set foot in the DMV again.

I did snap a little at the poor clerk, complaining that the online and phone systems didn't TELL me this, and thus spare everyone involved the trouble of my coming down to waste my and their time for NOTHING. I immediately apologized to her and said "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at the system. It's not your fault." And then I stormed out of the DMV before I lost my temper in public.

[wolfie]

One thing I love about my state DMV, especially because I'm a mega-procastinator, you can renew it at ANY time VIA the DMV website

Good thing, because if you procrastinate too long (i.e. let it expire), and the cops see it, I have it on good authority that the tow companies in your state don't take any B.S. excuses.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I've never been late on renewing my registration, but my last car only had to be inspected every other year, so without the automatic connection in my head of "registration renewal = inspection time" I totally forgot about the inspection...until I got pulled over 3 months later. I guess I seemed sufficiently surprised when the cop told me why he pulled me over, and my license and registration were current so he just told me to get it done. I promised to go the next day (which was Saturday, conveniently) and he let me go.

My current car, which I got in September 2012, won't need to be inspected until 2017. My lease will be up before then.

[Cia]

ALL THAT FOR NOTHING!!!

Went to the DMV, waited for more than an hour before my number was called. Get to the counter and find out I CAN'T renew today because there's a HOLD on my registration. I'd forgotten to pay the property tax on my car, and until that is paid, I can't pay to renew the registration.

And NO, I CAN'T pay it at the DMV. Despite it being my CAR tax.

So I had to go home, pay for the tax and the hold fee from the Tax Authority site, and now I have to wait another day or two for their systems to talk to the DMV's systems, and hopefully THEN I can renew online and never have to set foot in the DMV again.

I did snap a little at the poor clerk, complaining that the online and phone systems didn't TELL me this, and thus spare everyone involved the trouble of my coming down to waste my and their time for NOTHING. I immediately apologized to her and said "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at the system. It's not your fault." And then I stormed out of the DMV before I lost my temper in public.

Wait - Virginia makes you pay property tax on your car every year? What in the fudge is that all about?

[Argabarga]

Good thing, because if you procrastinate too long (i.e. let it expire), and the cops see it, I have it on good authority that the tow companies in your state don't take any B.S. excuses.

Oh I know they don't, I've towed more than a few vehicles on police request for just that, wouldn't THAT be a bitterly ironic pill to swallow?

If your inspection/emission is out of date, they'll just fine you.

Reg out of date? Pull over, surrender plate, get towed, and you're walkin' home.

Harrisburg doesn't care if the car is safe as much as they want their MONEY dammit!

[protege]

Harrisburg doesn't care if the car is safe as much as they want their MONEY dammit!

At least with one of my vehicles, Harrisburg can bugger off. Classic plates don't have to be renewed every year. One fee (paid some 30 years ago), and they don't expire. Granted, $40 to renew isn't too bad, but still. I don't mind the inspection fees either--they do help keep a lot of the shitboxes off the roads.

But, enforcement of the inspection stickers is pretty lax. I mean, before I got rid of my Mazda, it had failed state inspection twice It wasn't going to pass unless I dumped a crapton of cash into it. Yet, the new car I was buying wasn't going to arrive for about 2 weeks. Meaning, I had to drive around with expired inspection stickers on it. Hefty fine if I got caught! But, because I wasn't doing anything stupid, the cops didn't even bother with it.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Well, I tried the DMV website again today, and I'm still getting the "unable to process" error message. Which means I'll have to go to the DMV again to find out why I can't renew/update my registration again. All I can say is, there had better not be any "hold" on my account this time. Because I'm not in the mood to put up with having to jump through any more bureaucratic hoops today.

[MadMike]

Reg out of date? Pull over, surrender plate, get towed, and you're walkin' home.

My son got really lucky then. He let his registration expire, and got pulled over. The cop told him he was supposed to have the car towed, but "didn't feel like dealing with it tonight." He gave my son a ride back home and left. I picked him up later, and he drove the car back to his place, with me driving directly in front of him so no one could see that the sticker was expired. The next day, I drove him to PENNDOT and got the thing renewed.

I don't think they even fined him. I think they just gave him a warning, and all he had to do was show up at the station with proof that he had it renewed.

[That Guy]

Ours here if you try to renew on the last day your SOL. If you do it the day before you might get away with it... The reasoning? They need to mail out the new tag and you might not get it in time.

One of the nice things about Australia is that most of the States have removed the requirment to have tags / rego stickers as a cost cutting measure. Not so great when you want to know if the rental car is registered before you go for drive, but it saves a lot of time trying to get the old stickers of the window.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Went to the DMV to take care of this whole mess again today. No line when I got there about 2pm. The lady behind the desk checked the computer to see if I still had any car tax to pay-- and I produced the receipt I got from the Dept of Tax Administration just in case-- and it turned out that I still needed emissions inspection on my car.

I pointed out the registration renewal form I'd gotten in the mail said I didn't need it, but it turned out it was an outdated form. I was annoyed, but I confirmed with the lady at the desk, "So, I go get the inspection done and come back with the receipt and I'll be good to go?" She confirmed this, and said to be sure to have the receipt, "because their systems don't always update ours right away."

So I went off to one of my regular gas stations, which has an inspections station. There started the longest wait of my day. I wasn't too bothered, and the inspector came out briefly to let me know he'd get to me as soon as he could, and I assured him it was okay. About 15 minutes later, it was my turn, and I found the current registration renewal form, which I'd stuck in the sun visor in my car, which showed I needed the emissions inspection.

Went inside the gas station and sat to wait for about 10 minutes. Then I paid for my inspection (which I passed), took all that and went back to the DMV. Someone else was behind the desk, and I didn't even need to show the inspection form as I was given my number and told to take a seat.

Not even five minutes later, I'm called up to the counter. A minute or so later, I've paid for my registration, I get my new stickers to put on my tags, and I'm done.



I'd like to believe this thread helped make today's experience less aggravating.