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Entry tags:
in which Fox's patience is exhausted
First, a little background. I moved, as you know, on July 26 (or August 1, depending how you count). I picked up the new car on July 30. The dealership said Oh, we handle the registration for you, and I thought, great!, because that would save me one aspect of DMV fun time (the one we all hate the most, which is no doubt why the dealerships handle it). But it turns out that because I didn't have a Maryland driver's license yet, they can't just hand me license plates and send me out the door with the car; they give me a temporary tag and temporary registration and tell me they'll send me hard tags, which I'll receive within a couple of weeks. I think, okay, I'll get those tags, and then the following Saturday I'll go on down to the DMV with the registration and the title and I'll get my MD license and fill in the form to replace the random-issue tags with specialty plates. No problem.
Fast forward two weeks. I have heard nothing. I send an e-mail to the guy who sold me the car, saying "Haven't heard anything, is there an ETA on the tags and title?" And then that evening, before I've heard back, I get home and find a package-delivery notice. It's too late to pick up the package from the office, but I assume it is my tags. Then the next morning I get an e-mail from the dealership guy, saying "We can't send you the tags until you fax us a copy of your MD driver's license." The package turns out to be a license plate frame I'd ordered and they hadn't had in stock, but re: the tags, I say "Wait, what?, because you and your colleague said you'd send me the tags because you couldn't give them to me on the spot", etc. Couple rounds of that, in which I point out that if I'd known it couldn't happen until I had the MD license, I'd have gone to the DMV ages ago, and he says he's sorry for the confusion, it turns out the process used to be as they described it to me but the title clerk (who wasn't there when I picked up the car, because it was evening) tells them now they can't do it that way. I grumble something about how I wish someone had contacted me to tell me this, and proceed with plans to go to the DMV asap, because he says blah blah so sorry for the confusion but as soon as I fax in the license they'll cut the tags and FedEx them to me the same day.
I go to the DMV first thing this morning and get my MD license. When I get to work, there's a message from the guy and also from the title clerk. I call her back, and she is also apologetic and etc., and says I should fax the driver's license to her and the sales guy both. She gives me her fax number, I get his off the website (because he hadn't told me what it was), the one to her goes through, the one to him rings and rings and is never answered. I leave a message telling him this, and he calls to say that fax number hasn't work since the dealership switched over to new management (several weeks, if not months, ago), and this is the correct number. I send the fax again, with a cover note asking (not for the only time) for the tags to be sent overnight for Saturday delivery. A moment later I send an e-mail saying Oh, I should also have asked in that note, just to confirm, the title will be in the package with the tags, right?
A couple of hours later, I get an e-mail in response to that oh-by-the-way: the fax came through, but the license number is illegible, can I tell him what it is please, and also, since I just got the license today it won't be in the system until Monday, so he won't be able to cut the tags until then. (So much for "same day".) I send back the number, acknowledge the Monday thing, and ask again about the title, along with a request to at least give me the tag, sticker, and title numbers, because my insurance agent is going to need this information asap.
The next thing I hear from him is that he has cut the tags and I will be receiving them on Monday, and the title will come in six weeks, maybe sooner. ~blink~ They'll be ready on Monday, or I'll have them on Monday?, I say, because if they're ready today, can you send them overnight for Saturday delivery, please, and also, what about the title number, at least. He says they're already packed up and sent out, so Monday it is, and tells me the title number.
Which is kind of when I'd bloody well had it, and sent the following response, cc'd to the sales manager:
At least in the time it took me to vent about this to my college roommate, the sales guy did respond with the tag and sticker numbers. Finally. So that's something.
Fast forward two weeks. I have heard nothing. I send an e-mail to the guy who sold me the car, saying "Haven't heard anything, is there an ETA on the tags and title?" And then that evening, before I've heard back, I get home and find a package-delivery notice. It's too late to pick up the package from the office, but I assume it is my tags. Then the next morning I get an e-mail from the dealership guy, saying "We can't send you the tags until you fax us a copy of your MD driver's license." The package turns out to be a license plate frame I'd ordered and they hadn't had in stock, but re: the tags, I say "Wait, what?, because you and your colleague said you'd send me the tags because you couldn't give them to me on the spot", etc. Couple rounds of that, in which I point out that if I'd known it couldn't happen until I had the MD license, I'd have gone to the DMV ages ago, and he says he's sorry for the confusion, it turns out the process used to be as they described it to me but the title clerk (who wasn't there when I picked up the car, because it was evening) tells them now they can't do it that way. I grumble something about how I wish someone had contacted me to tell me this, and proceed with plans to go to the DMV asap, because he says blah blah so sorry for the confusion but as soon as I fax in the license they'll cut the tags and FedEx them to me the same day.
I go to the DMV first thing this morning and get my MD license. When I get to work, there's a message from the guy and also from the title clerk. I call her back, and she is also apologetic and etc., and says I should fax the driver's license to her and the sales guy both. She gives me her fax number, I get his off the website (because he hadn't told me what it was), the one to her goes through, the one to him rings and rings and is never answered. I leave a message telling him this, and he calls to say that fax number hasn't work since the dealership switched over to new management (several weeks, if not months, ago), and this is the correct number. I send the fax again, with a cover note asking (not for the only time) for the tags to be sent overnight for Saturday delivery. A moment later I send an e-mail saying Oh, I should also have asked in that note, just to confirm, the title will be in the package with the tags, right?
A couple of hours later, I get an e-mail in response to that oh-by-the-way: the fax came through, but the license number is illegible, can I tell him what it is please, and also, since I just got the license today it won't be in the system until Monday, so he won't be able to cut the tags until then. (So much for "same day".) I send back the number, acknowledge the Monday thing, and ask again about the title, along with a request to at least give me the tag, sticker, and title numbers, because my insurance agent is going to need this information asap.
The next thing I hear from him is that he has cut the tags and I will be receiving them on Monday, and the title will come in six weeks, maybe sooner. ~blink~ They'll be ready on Monday, or I'll have them on Monday?, I say, because if they're ready today, can you send them overnight for Saturday delivery, please, and also, what about the title number, at least. He says they're already packed up and sent out, so Monday it is, and tells me the title number.
Which is kind of when I'd bloody well had it, and sent the following response, cc'd to the sales manager:
Fine. Thank you. But how hard would it have been to check the "Saturday delivery" box, when I'd asked for this no fewer than three times? I'm sorry to be harsh, but this has been an incredibly frustrating 48 hours dealing with this, which is especially disappointing after everything else to do with buying the car went smoothly and hitch-free. I mean, what if I hadn't asked about the tags and title this week? When would I have found out that you guys had been mistaken about sending them to me even though I didn't have the MD license yet? At the end of September, when the temporary registration expired? Today I had at least three estimates of when the tags would be ready -- same day, Monday, oh, they're on their way. I shouldn't have had to ask twice if the title would be included and twice for the title number. I'm sure that because the things are already packed up and sent out there's no way you can tell me the license number and sticker number, which I also asked for one of those times. Do you see how any one of these things would be no big deal but when it's one after another after another (including the out-of-date fax number on the website, which I know isn't your department, but if it's been since "the switchover", that's a while, isn't it?) it just makes a person think maybe the dealership isn't quite as on top of things as they'd like you to believe? Seriously.Look, one mistake is a mistake. I imagine it must not be very often that they have people try to register a car in one state but come to them with a driver's license from another state, so not knowing the policy w/r/t titling a car in that situation makes sense. I'd have liked someone to be on the ball with letting me know about the mix-up, but the mix-up itself was a good-faith error and I can overlook it. But everything since the good-faith mix-up has been ADD buck-passing, and if the dude was hoping that failing to answer the question (look, if the Saturday-delivery is not an option because you're not allowed, say so and that'll be better; I'll demand that the manager explain why not, since it was your [plural] screw-up in the first place, but at least you won't be ignoring my question) until it was too late would cause me to shrug and say Oh well, too late now, well, too bad, buddy, because I've been quite patient and reasonable and now it's time to bring in your boss.
Looking forward to receiving the tags and the title and being through with this whole process.
At least in the time it took me to vent about this to my college roommate, the sales guy did respond with the tag and sticker numbers. Finally. So that's something.