Bloggerman: 1 DMV: 0

Dude, Bloggerman what’s the deal with no post on Friday and this Sunday post?

Well I’ll tell you young blog reader. I was having a tough Friday and didn’t have time to post but when I got home and checked the mail, my whole outlook got a big shot of smiles in the arm when I got a letter from the DMV.

Wait, you got a letter from the DMV and you’re happy about it? Nothing
good comes from the DMV!

You are usually correct but not in this instance. Let me bring you up to speed:

When we moved to Maryland a back in December of 2006, I had 60 days to register my car. I did so in early January at the DMV. When I went in, I showed the clerk the title to my car, my former state’s registration and my current insurance card. The clerk handed me back a pair of Maryland License plates and a valid registration for one year. Well things changed as you may know in August when the “Toaster” came into my life and I sold the Accord that I had registered with the state in January. I went back to the DMV to turn in the tags and give them a copy of the sales contract so they knew I sold the car. All was well and good with the world until late in December when one of those “nasty grams” from the DMV came in the mail saying that I didn’t have insurance on my accord and that unless I produced a valid insurance policy for the year of 2007 they were going to fine me. Well I ignored the notice thinking they made a mistake, after all I sold the car in August and all the way back in January they had seen my insurance to give me the registration.

Bloggerman, didn’t the DMV check the insurance policy back in January of 2007
when you got your registration?

You’d think that would have been done (common sense) but evidently the state has up to 12 months to check your insurance from the time you submit it. So they’ll give you the registration to drive but won’t know if your insurance is valid (leading, we assume, to a mass of possible “uninsured motorists” on the road!). Anyway I got a second notice in late January of this year saying that they still needed proof of insurance. This time I called the number provided and after being hung up on 3 times by their wonderful automated system, the customer service rep I spoke with said, oh no, even if I sold the car I still had to produce valid insurance. So I called up my insurance company, got the form faxed over showing I was covered during that time period, and mailed it in to the address provided. Case closed.

Was it really closed?

Sadly I spoke too soon, because now comes letters numbered 3 and 4 which both say the same thing and are both dated the same day but are mailed separately. This time, I now have a suspended registration (on a car I haven’t owned in over 5 months) and I owe a $1300 fine for being an uninsured driver. Quick side note here, if you are going to fine somebody for being “uninsured”, you might want to fine them less then what it costs to have insurance, otherwise I (if I really was uninsured) would have gotten insurance, but I digress.

Bloggerman, weren’t you really PO’ed at this point in time?

You bet I was young reader. And those of you who know me, it takes A LOT to get me PO’ed! Ok not really that much, hell if you give me back a scuffed penny I’m likely to go ballistic but that’s not the point here. Now it was time to take some drastic action. After a little digging on the internet (they have that on computers now!), I found the name and work (as well as home) address for the Administrator of the Maryland DMV, John T. Quo. I wrote Mr. Quo a letter explaining that this was the third time I’ve had to contact the DMV about this and all the background into the case. I also explained that this was the last letter he would get from me.

Did it work?

You bet it did! I’m not sure whether it was my subtle reference to legal action if this wasn’t taken care of (Mandamus act baby!) or simply he realized how badly his compliance division screwed this one up but I got a personal letter on Friday from the head of the Compliance division saying that they were terribly sorry and that the Administrator insisted that this matter be cleared up and the case is now (really) closed.

Bloggerman fought the law and the law…..lost!