(OT) Rant - Department of Motor Vehicles and other absurdities

(I apologize if I already posted about this. Had some problems with
individual.net the other day. All this happened last Friday. It's a long
rant, and I apologize for that, too.)

/begin rant

My car tags & registration are coming up for renewal in April. It's
registered in Tennessee. (I still have an apartment there.) It occurred to
me I may as well go ahead and register it in SC. But my car title is locked
in a file cabinet in TN and I'd need it to register the car in SC.

So I called the DMV in Tennessee to request a duplicate title. The woman
was extremely rude. (I understand she's a harried and possibly underpaid
government employee, but hey! at least she has a job. Would it have killed
her to be polite?) She cut me off mid-sentence and informed me I can't
possibly have the title to my car because it still has a lien on it. I said
no, I paid the loan off in May, 2004. She came within a fraction of an inch
of calling me a liar. She said (snippily) I couldn't possibly have paid it
off because that's not what her computer shows.

We all know computers are never wrong, don't we? (GIGO - garbage in,
garbage out.) She asked "What bank do you send your payments to?" (Note:
she used the present tense, not past tense.) I sighed. I said I made my
last payment in 2004 and it was financed through the dealership, not my own
bank. I sent the payments to the dealership. She stiffly informed me
there's no way I paid off the loan for the car.

[I ask you, if I still owed money for this car don't you think the
dealership would have come after me by now? My address (in TN) didn't
change from the time I financed it to the time I paid it off. Neither did
my phone number. If I owed them money they'd have been tracking me down...
especially since the final payment was over $6000.]

So I called the dealership. Oh, we don't keep records longer than 3 years.
WHAT?! You have no record of me buying a car from you in 2003 and paying it
off in 2004? Nope, sorry. (In this wonderful world of modern technology,
their computers only go back 3 years?! My god, I was able to track down a
life insurance policy issued in 1947 but these people can't tell me I bought
a car from them in 2003. How utterly ridiculous!)

The woman at the dealership asked me what bank. I again patiently explained
I financed it through them, I didn't get a loan from *my* bank otherwise I'd
be talking to my bank. She said sure, she understood that, but what bank
was the dealership using then? Now how the hell am I supposed to know that?
More importantly, why don't *they* know that?! When I was making payments I
just put my check in the supplied envelope with the payment coupon and
mailed it. I don't remember the address it went to; we're talking 5 years
ago. She suggested I call my insurance company.

So I called my insurance company. They were very helpful, insofar as
possible. They gave me the name of a bank that probably handled the
financing for the dealership at that time. But that bank doesn't seem to
exist anymore. Great, what do I do now? She suggested I call the corporate
offices of the car dealership and explain the problem. huge sigh

Okay, so I called the corporate office of the dealership. You know by this
time I was tired of trying to explain the situation. The woman I spoke with
there said someone from the dealership where I bought my car would have had
to sign the title over to me. They probably forgot to inform the state.
Great, what do I do about that? They don't keep records older than 3 years!
She didn't know what to tell me.

I'll call MY bank tomorrow to see if they can get me a copy of the check I
wrote in 2004 paying off the car. That might give me a clue to work with.
(Hopefully my bank keeps records longer than 3 years! LOL At least it's
still the same bank, wasn't bought out or subject to the bail-out.)

Meanwhile, come April I'll just register the car in TN again. Legally I can
do that; I'm still a resident of TN. But what a huge bureaucratic nightmare
this one seemingly simple thing turned into!

/end rant

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
(I apologize if I already posted about this. Had some problems with
individual.net the other day. All this happened last Friday. It's a long
rant, and I apologize for that, too.)

/begin rant

My car tags & registration are coming up for renewal in April. It's
registered in Tennessee. (I still have an apartment there.) It occurred
to me I may as well go ahead and register it in SC. But my car title is
locked in a file cabinet in TN and I'd need it to register the car in SC.

So I called the DMV in Tennessee to request a duplicate title. The woman
was extremely rude. (I understand she's a harried and possibly underpaid
government employee, but hey! at least she has a job. Would it have
killed her to be polite?) She cut me off mid-sentence and informed me I
can't possibly have the title to my car because it still has a lien on it.
I said no, I paid the loan off in May, 2004. She came within a fraction
of an inch of calling me a liar. She said (snippily) I couldn't possibly
have paid it off because that's not what her computer shows.

We all know computers are never wrong, don't we? (GIGO - garbage in,
garbage out.) She asked "What bank do you send your payments to?" (Note:
she used the present tense, not past tense.) I sighed. I said I made my
last payment in 2004 and it was financed through the dealership, not my
own bank. I sent the payments to the dealership. She stiffly informed me
there's no way I paid off the loan for the car.

[I ask you, if I still owed money for this car don't you think the
dealership would have come after me by now? My address (in TN) didn't
change from the time I financed it to the time I paid it off. Neither did
my phone number. If I owed them money they'd have been tracking me
down... especially since the final payment was over $6000.]

So I called the dealership. Oh, we don't keep records longer than 3
years. WHAT?! You have no record of me buying a car from you in 2003 and
paying it off in 2004? Nope, sorry. (In this wonderful world of modern
technology, their computers only go back 3 years?! My god, I was able to
track down a life insurance policy issued in 1947 but these people can't
tell me I bought a car from them in 2003. How utterly ridiculous!)

The woman at the dealership asked me what bank. I again patiently
explained I financed it through them, I didn't get a loan from *my* bank
otherwise I'd be talking to my bank. She said sure, she understood that,
but what bank was the dealership using then? Now how the hell am I
supposed to know that? More importantly, why don't *they* know that?!
When I was making payments I just put my check in the supplied envelope
with the payment coupon and mailed it. I don't remember the address it
went to; we're talking 5 years ago. She suggested I call my insurance
company.

So I called my insurance company. They were very helpful, insofar as
possible. They gave me the name of a bank that probably handled the
financing for the dealership at that time. But that bank doesn't seem to
exist anymore. Great, what do I do now? She suggested I call the
corporate offices of the car dealership and explain the problem. huge
sigh

Okay, so I called the corporate office of the dealership. You know by
this time I was tired of trying to explain the situation. The woman I
spoke with there said someone from the dealership where I bought my car
would have had to sign the title over to me. They probably forgot to
inform the state. Great, what do I do about that? They don't keep records
older than 3 years! She didn't know what to tell me.

I'll call MY bank tomorrow to see if they can get me a copy of the check I
wrote in 2004 paying off the car. That might give me a clue to work with.
(Hopefully my bank keeps records longer than 3 years! LOL At least it's
still the same bank, wasn't bought out or subject to the bail-out.)

Meanwhile, come April I'll just register the car in TN again. Legally I
can do that; I'm still a resident of TN. But what a huge bureaucratic
nightmare this one seemingly simple thing turned into!

/end rant

Jill \

I am so sorry, Jill. Sending you calming purrs. The one thing about these
giant bureaucracies I really hate-- besides the fact that they screw up all
the time -- is that they are totally incapable of admitting it. They never
back down from their asinine position, whatever it is, and you are left
scrambling or hanging out to dry.


--
Theresa and Dante

Stinky Forever: http://pets.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh

"Kreisleriana" drtATearthlink.net wrote in
m:

I am so sorry, Jill. Sending you calming purrs. The one thing about
these giant bureaucracies I really hate-- besides the fact that they
screw up all the time -- is that they are totally incapable of
admitting it. They never back down from their asinine position,
whatever it is, and you are left scrambling or hanging out to dry.

But think of all the people demanding that the government be responsible
for their pet project, whether it be health care, education, the
environment, or bailing out the economy. The people who will handle that
will be working under exactly the same conditions as the DMV, with all that
"quality" (smirk) that you've come to know and love.

Next time you think "there oughta be a law", think again. Let's NOT let the
government handle it.

"jmcquown" wrote in
:

My car tags & registration are coming up for renewal in April. It's
registered in Tennessee. (I still have an apartment there.) It
occurred to me I may as well go ahead and register it in SC. But my
car title is locked in a file cabinet in TN and I'd need it to
register the car in SC.

If that's how SC handles a neighbor from TN, I dread to think how they'd
treat a Californian like me!

"Nomen Nescio" wrote in message
...
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

From: "jmcquown"

She cut me off mid-sentence and informed me I can't
possibly have the title to my car because it still has a lien on it. I
said
no, I paid the loan off in May, 2004. She came within a fraction of an
inch
of calling me a liar. She said (snippily) I couldn't possibly have paid
it
off because that's not what her computer shows.

It sounds like you never had the lien removed.

I loaned a friend money to buy a car (once, many years ago), and put a
lien on the title (He wasn't a good enough friend to make it an unsecured
loan).
When he paid it off, I had to give him a notarized statement that the loan
was paid,
he took it to the RMV, and the lien was removed from the title.

It's not like this is the first car I've ever bought. I didn't have to do
anything special any other time I bought a car. I paid the car off, got the
title was mailed to me, no muss, no fuss. I didn't have to do anything
extra or special. And this wasn't a private-party sale. I bought the car
new from a car dealership.

As far as the bank goes, the dealership's bank financed the car. They don't
know what friggin bank they used 5 years ago. I'll see if my bank can get
me a copy of the check I wrote to them. It's a start.

Jill

jmcquown wrote:
"Nomen Nescio" wrote in message
...
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

From: "jmcquown"

She cut me off mid-sentence and informed me I can't
possibly have the title to my car because it still has a lien on it.
I said
no, I paid the loan off in May, 2004. She came within a fraction of
an inch
of calling me a liar. She said (snippily) I couldn't possibly have
paid it
off because that's not what her computer shows.

It sounds like you never had the lien removed.

I loaned a friend money to buy a car (once, many years ago), and put a
lien on the title (He wasn't a good enough friend to make it an
unsecured loan).
When he paid it off, I had to give him a notarized statement that the
loan was paid,
he took it to the RMV, and the lien was removed from the title.

It's not like this is the first car I've ever bought. I didn't have to
do anything special any other time I bought a car. I paid the car off,
got the title was mailed to me, no muss, no fuss. I didn't have to do
anything extra or special. And this wasn't a private-party sale. I
bought the car new from a car dealership.

As far as the bank goes, the dealership's bank financed the car. They
don't know what friggin bank they used 5 years ago. I'll see if my bank
can get me a copy of the check I wrote to them. It's a start.

Jill




How long has it been since you checked your apartment? Perhaps a quick
trip is in order and you could also pick up the title while there,

Jill wrote:

I'll see if my bank can get me a copy of
the check I wrote to them. It's a start.

Don't you keep the returned checks or the photo of checks that the bank
should have returned to you? When my bank stopped returning the checks,
they supplied me with a loose leaf binder to keep the photos that are
sent me each month.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')

jmcquown wrote:
(I apologize if I already posted about this. Had some problems with
individual.net the other day. All this happened last Friday. It's a
long rant, and I apologize for that, too.)

/begin rant

My car tags & registration are coming up for renewal in April.snip
Jill



Lots of purrs and hugs,
Polonca and Soncek

"---MIKE---" wrote in message
...
Jill wrote:

I'll see if my bank can get me a copy of
the check I wrote to them. It's a start.

Don't you keep the returned checks or the photo of checks that the
bank
should have returned to you? When my bank stopped returning the
checks,
they supplied me with a loose leaf binder to keep the photos that are
sent me each month.


************

Mine keeps the photos online from just about forever. Whenever I have
nothing else to do, I download a few months worth onto my computer.

I don't hug trees, but I do like them. More important I hate keeping
track of paper records. Spent too many years of my life doing that.

Jo

"MLB" wrote in message
...
jmcquown wrote:
"Nomen Nescio" wrote in message
...
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

From: "jmcquown"

She cut me off mid-sentence and informed me I can't
possibly have the title to my car because it still has a lien on it. I
said
no, I paid the loan off in May, 2004. She came within a fraction of an
inch
of calling me a liar. She said (snippily) I couldn't possibly have
paid it
off because that's not what her computer shows.

It sounds like you never had the lien removed.

I loaned a friend money to buy a car (once, many years ago), and put a
lien on the title (He wasn't a good enough friend to make it an
unsecured loan).
When he paid it off, I had to give him a notarized statement that the
loan was paid,
he took it to the RMV, and the lien was removed from the title.

It's not like this is the first car I've ever bought. I didn't have to
do anything special any other time I bought a car. I paid the car off,
got the title was mailed to me, no muss, no fuss. I didn't have to do
anything extra or special. And this wasn't a private-party sale. I
bought the car new from a car dealership.

As far as the bank goes, the dealership's bank financed the car. They
don't know what friggin bank they used 5 years ago. I'll see if my bank
can get me a copy of the check I wrote to them. It's a start.

Jill




How long has it been since you checked your apartment? Perhaps a quick
trip is in order and you could also pick up the title while there,


I haven't been there since last May. I expected to get back in July but
then wound up in the hospital. Wasn't expecting that! The apartment
manager is keeping an eye on things. But she doesn't have a key to my file
cabinet and she wouldn't know how to figure out my filing system even if she
did have one.