17 June 2010, 6:29 pm
Hello. I realize others on here have asked a similar question but I have literally gone through 2 years of financial hardship due to an error made by the California DMV. I have been patient with them but it's simply unfair and I want to do what ever it takes to right their wrong. I came back to California in 2007 after living for a few years in Arizona (I was in the Military). Upon returning I registered my vehicle at the Norco branch DMV. The following year in 2008 I returned to register my vehicle and all went fine.... or so I thought. A few months before my car was up for the 2009 registration I was pulled over by an officer who was "profiling" my car. I have an all black car with dark tint in the back so at night I often get "pulled over". When they realized I was just a girl in my pajamas getting carl's jr they didn't really bother with pursuing the stop. They just told me it was because they could not see in my car. The officer checked my information and ran my plates... here came the problem. They informed me that my plates were coming up for a lady that lived in Moreno Valley (where I have never lived) and that they were last registered in 2005. I showed the officer my current 2008 registration and a valid ID so he let me leave but told me that I needed to go to the DMV the next day and get this fixed.... -and that is how the nightmare began... I did indeed go to the DMV (Riverside Main) the next day where I was passed back and forth between 3 different people before the supervisor got involved. The supervisor decided to call the main office in Sacramento and I finally received my answer. Here is what happened: In 2007 there was an error with my registration. It was not noticed until it was received in Sacramento. They were supposed to issue notice for the correction but no notice was ever issued (their words not mine). After a few months my information just disappeared completely from their system(her exact words "your information was lost"). There is a few months lag in the transfer of information between the DMV headquarters and the local DMV so by the time I went to renew in 2008 they had not yet been informed that there was and issue with my current registration. -- Back to the supervisor at the DMV. She informed me that I would have to do what she referred to as a "repack". A repack pretty much meant that any information I had in the system I had to get again before I could register my car again. Here was the first list of things I was required to get: -Proof of ownership or lease from the dealership where I purchased my car. (Relatively easy) -Another Smog Check ($36.00) -Vehicle Inspection (they did that there) -Proof that my vehicle was no longer registered in the state of AZ (sounds easy but no... After countless calls, emails and letters I finally receive a return call from the AZ DMV headquarters. Since I was registered in a small town their DMV is privately owned and keeps it's own records so I needed to contact them. They were easy to get a hold of but did not have a form for what the CA DMV required so they typed a statement and sent it to me. For some reason it took 2 months for this whole DMV process + about 14 days for them to mail my statement.) Keep in mind that this entire time I am required to return to the DMV every 30 days and wait in an hour - 2 hour line to renew my 30 day permit. While waiting for AZ to contact me I was pulled over by about 3 officers who realized my tags were expired. 2 of the officers realized my temp tags after pulling me over and went on their way. The 3rd... not a very nice guy. I feel he was frustrated by my dark windows inconveniencing him so he gave me a fix it ticket for my registration even though everything was valid. Once I received the statement from the AZ DMV I returned to the CA DMV to finish everything. The lady who was helping me processed all of my paperwork and was even nice enough to tell meI now owed fees for this whole mess (about $200) so I paid my fees and she handed me back a stack of papers on top of it were 2 typed sentences of things I still needed: -Signature from my EX husband -Form from Arizona DMV stating I did not have a registration with them the second one was even highlighted like I was some kind of idiot that did not do it right the first time. I showed her the letter from the AZ DMV and also that on my owner statement from Toyota it clearly stated "my name" OR "my ex husband" and I even pointed out my previous registrations were in my name alone. 1st she said that they did not accept the letter in the form that the AZ DMV had sent it in and she even accused me of typing it myself. 2nd she said the word OR on the vehicle means nothing to the DMV and that if both names were present on the Toyota agreement rather it said "and" or "or" both signatures were required. I told her that I did... Read More »
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