Regretting the Move
Yesterday is the first day I really regretted moving to California. Thanks to the California DMV.I know that all DMVs are bad. I remember hating the one in Alexandria. I always felt sorry for the people who had to wait in line wrapped around the mall in Springfield, waiting to use that one, but nothing I've ever seen matches the incompetence I encountered yesterday.
The first problem was two weeks ago when I went to get my license. That DMV didn't do plate registration, so I had to go to another one. OK.... Whatever. So I was intimidated and finally got around to fixing things and going yesterday. I got there at 9:45.
I waited in line for almost 45 minutes before my number was called. Some lady helps me, tells me since my car is new, I don't need a smog check (a sentiment echoed by the mechanic I took my car to earlier this week when I tried to get my smog check), and she sends me outside to get my vehicle verified.
I go outside, get verified, and then come back. I have to stand in line to wait for another 20 minutes to go to another attendant. She then proceeds to tell me that I have to get a smog check. I told her what the other woman told me and she told me that any car coming into the state needs a smog check. (I wondered if she was looking at the same computer system the first woman looked at.) Ok, so whatever. I agree to go get the smog check. She has everything else done. She tells me that when I get the smog check, come back and it'll just be a manner of giving me the plates.
I go to a little Jiffy Lube-like place up the street to get my smog check, but they can't do it. The computer in my car won't hook up to their computer. I have to go to the dealership to get it done. ARGH! So I drive over to communities to go to the dealership. The dealer then tells me that they don't do smog checks and sends me to another Saturn dealer. (It's 1:00 by this time and I've eaten or drunk nothing all day. And my box of goldfish crackers were in the trunk. I was not a happy man.)
I get to the second Saturn dealership and wait for over an hour to get a smog check done on a 2005 Saturn. You would think they'd know it was okay, but whatever.
I then proceed to go back to the DMV and get back in line and wait for another 25 minutes. (The reason that my second and third waits were shorter was that I got "appointment" numbers. I'd be livid if I made an appointment and had to wait that long.)
I go to the third woman at the DMV. She proceeds to start the entire process over. She starts to challenge me on the smog test. I point her to the paper (even though the test results were electronically submitted to them) and tell her it's good. She then proceeds to look at my paperwork and tell me that since my vehicle was bought in the last 12 years, I have to pay CA sales tax on the entire thing. EXCUSE ME! She looks over at her supervisor (a woman whose mouth was naturally drawn up so tight, you'd think she'd had a lifetime of facelifts) who just nodded. I ask why she's the third person I'd talked to that day and the first to mention this. (She just ignored that question.) So she tells me how much I'm going to have to pay.
She then goes to get some paperwork, comes back, and tells me to write a check for a different (higher) amount. When I ask why, she becomes incredulous and combative. I finally wrote the check because I was going to get nowhere with her. (I needed to have called Jenn G. down on her.)
The whole process was a nightmare. I know that people who work at the DMV have to put up with a lot of crap, but as somebody reminded me last night, those are state jobs, which are not easy to come by, so they had to really want the job. Therefore, they should've been aware and willing to put up with the abuse. Additionally, I was still relatively pleasant all day. I was getting crankier as the day went on and the lack of food was weighing in on my system, but I didn't take it out on them. I really didn't appreciate it being taken back out on me.
I'm so irritated by the whole thing I'm going to call the branch back on Monday and complain. Why am I not calling today? Because the California DMV is so efficient, it's only open on Saturdays once during the entire month. (Explain that one to me.)
Oh, and what time did I leave the DMV? 3:55.
posted by cinegod @ 11:03 AM
3 Comments:
sorry dude, that sucks
What's the deal with having to pay Cali sales tax? Did you buy the car there?
No, I didn't. And that's what I don't get is why I have to pay sales tax on a car I bought in Alexandria in February. Doesn't something seem really fishy about that?
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