The Registry of Motor Vehicles. In the good old days one would have to go to the actual building to get annoyed. Luckily, the RMV in Massachusetts has leapt forward into the new millennium with a series of high tech interfaces that can equal, if not surpass that frustration level.
This afternoon (July 31 – you’ll see why the date is important in a minute) we got the registration renewal notice for our car in the mail. Outlined for us were 4 ways that we could renew: 1) On-line, 2) Mail, 3) Phone, or 4) In Person. We chose the online renewal, which was surprisingly easy to do. Shortly after pressing the “Submit” button, we got the following email back:
Registration Number (XXXXXX) was not able to be renewed
through the Internet. The amount you entered was
incorrect. Your correct fee is $41.00.
Please submit a new online request with this renewal fee.
This seemed odd because it clearly said on the registration form that fee was $50. Now, I would have hoped that the RMV might have had a system that recognized that $41 is less than $50, and just assumed that if we were OK with paying $50, we’d be happy, thrilled even, to pay $41. But that is another issue.
In any event, I called up the help line around 4:45 PM and got through to a person at 5:02 PM who told me that the fee is really $41 for TODAY ONLY! I inquired as to whether there was a sale going on. No, I was told, the fee goes up to $50 on August 1. I thanked her, and quickly got back on line to try to renew the registry. By this point, they had closed the renew by web option for “Maintenance”. So at 5:05 I called the telephone service and got through the registration process only to find that I had been immediately transported to August 1st in RMVland and now had to pay the full $50. Talk about jet lag…
