How many people dread visits to their state's department of motor vehicles? It usually does not rank too much higher than getting your teeth drilled or listening to Celine Dion songs.
I was shocked when I got a hand-written letter from the Montana Department of Motor Vehicles. Yes. I got a real hand written note. Here's the back story:
As most people, I had a loan for my truck, and that truck was registered in California. This is usually not a big deal, except when you move to a new state. The state of Montana wouldn't let me register the truck in Montana without a Montana title, and Bank of America kept telling me that I couldn't have the title because I hadn't fully paid for the truck. It was besides the point that I was asking for THEM to title the truck in Montana. It took me about 7 months and almost 2 dozen letters to their title department before they finally got the point of what I was trying to do.
In the intervening 7 months, my Californian registration expired. Fortunately, the 6 police officers that pulled me over during that time completely understood my situation, and usually laughed when they realized that I had managed to insert one untrustworthy corporation and one untrustworthy state institution in one 5 minute long story. They usually pitied me, and let me move on with the warning that 'next time the truck could get impounded'.
After the 5th pull-over, I decided that I needed to do something about this. While on my way to the Court house to get the truck registered in some way, I was pulled over for the 6th time. This time, the police officer laughed at me when he learned that I was about two blocks away fromy destination : the department of motor vehicles. He let me go on my way, but he followed me for a bit to see if my story was true.
After telling my story to the clerk behind the counter, she chuckled, and related to me that this is indeed a tricky situation. What she did was astounding. She provided me with a Montana title on the vehicle. Well, she didn't give it to me, but she made one, and then allowed me to register the truck on that title. Of course this was pending Bank of America actually getting the California title to her office so that they could correctly title the truck in Montana.
So, in February 07, the truck had two titles. One held by Bank of America for what they thought was a Californian vehicle, and one in Montana for what is now a Montana vehicle. It wasn't until November of 2007, 7 months after I had paid off the truck, that Bank of America actually sent me the letter of release of the title. They also, finally, sent the title to the Montana Department of Motor Vehicles.
When they got the title, The Montana Department of Motor Vehicles pulled a random note card from their stacks, crossed out whatever it was for, and wrote a hand written note in the margins asking me to come down and get the title work finished off.
Wow... an actual hand written note.
Oh, and the entire process took about 10 minutes, and 8 minutes of that was waiting in the hall outside the 'title department'.
There is also a humorous part to this story. When I went to the department of justice (not the department of motor vehicles?) to get my Montana driver's license, I was greeted by the complete lack of anybody else in the office. It was 8 am on a Friday morning, and there wasn't a single other person getting a driver's license. Anybody from Southern California may drop over at this. I was in and out in about 5 minutes.
Also, I received the license about 5 days later. They didn't deposit the check for 3 weeks.