I know the DMV gets a bad rap...sometimes it is deserved, other times it is not. Since our new office opened here in Clovis, I really haven't had any complaints. You make an appointment online and you can be in and out pretty quick. I took my mom there to get her CA ID when she moved here. Then I went a few months ago and renewed my license. Both experiences were pleasant and exactly how it should be at the DMV. But this week was another story...Dave's birthday is coming up and when he looked at his license, it will expire. He never got a notice in the mail like I did to renew mine, so he made his online appointment and decided to get it done early. Tuesday he stayed home from work because he wasn't feeling too well, and he had been taking cold medicines...AND, he was nervous about the eye exam part at the DMV later in the day. He went there, got his number, got called to the window pretty quickly. Passed his eye exam, paid some fees, gave his thumbprint, and then they made him take a quick written test. After all this they gave him his "paper" license and he was done. I was home from work by the time he came back. He had TWO receipts. One for $31 and one for $55. My renewal fee was $31 so I asked him what the $55 was for and he didn't know. She just said pay, and he did. Then when she asked for the $31 he asked what that one was for and she said for the renewal. Well, I guess being on drugs and worrying about the eye test, he didn't ask what the FIRST fee was for. His head was a little muddled. So I looked up online what the different "fees" could be and apparently $55 is a "reissue" fee if your license has been suspended or revoked. Well, his hasn't so I went with him and we went back to get it figured out and hopefully get our $55 back. This time we had to get a number and WAIT. After about 30 minutes we finally got called to a window. After doing some research on the computer, apparently he was issued a ticket in 2006 which he does remember getting (that is a whole other story!) and we remember paying it. She then said that he paid it "late" and the record shows they mailed him a letter in March of 2007 telling him his license was suspended due to not paying on time. Let me tell you...we never got that letter. If we had received a letter saying his license was suspended...WE WOULD HAVE TAKEN CARE OF IT! So I guess he has been driving for 5 years on a suspended license! The criminal. Needless to say, we didn't get our $55 bucks back but at least we know what it was for. All for a ticket we feel he shouldn't have received in the first place. (it was for not having his seatbelt on...but he had put it on and was driving along when the cop pulled him over..said he saw him driving without it) Well, yeah, when he first starts driving he doesn't quite have it on, but finishes putting it on as he pulls out of the parking lot..he's always been slow about getting it on, but he ALWAYS wears it. And I believe since then he puts it on FIRST. So the lesson was learned, but I guess 5 years later if you have to pay $55, you learn there is always a lesson to learn. We are chalking the money up to "stupid tax" (which we try to avoid, but somehow still pay it every now and then) and we will be eating rice and beans for the rest of the week. Thank you our California DMV.
3 comments:
Oh my gosh, the same thing happened to Perry only it was a ticket from Illinois from when he was on his mission. We had paid the ticked (he couldn't get a job with the CHP if we hadn't), but then we had to pay a "reissuing fee" for his license in Illinois. It is some kind of new law that the states can do this. We had to pay $75!!! What a racket!
Oh man. So unfair. Too bad they don't pick on someone else who deserves it.
I never got a letter in the mail to renew my license and I never paid much attention to when it expired. I forgot how I found out it was expired but I drove quite awhile with an expired license!
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