Posted: 4/28/2011 7:36:04 AM EDT
... apparantly have been changed. 
My wife and I bought a new 2010 Chevy Malibu from the local GM dealer, on April 21st, 2010. Because we kept her old car to sell on our own, and it had 3 months left on the registration, we opted for a brand new plate on her new Malibu. She assumed her registration expired on the last day of April 2011 (stickers on plate are "11" & "APR"). She went online to renew with her credit card, last weekend, thinking she still had a week left. Instead of her plate expiring on April 30th, last day of the month like they've always done in the past, she was hit with a $10 late charge, because her plate expired on the 21st, not the 30th, and her renewal was processed on the 25th. WTF????
Neither of us looked at the date on the postcard renewal notice... it does say April 21st in fine print. When did this change??? The fee for a car plate goes up from $45 to $75... that isn't enough and they start getting nit-picky about a few days? |
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It would've been nice if they would've put some kind of easily discernable notice on the renewal card that the date of expiration was no longer the last day of the month. Simply printing the date in bold type would've been something to catch your attention. The renewal card looks the same as always, with the exception of the small printed new date of expiration. I've been getting 3 or 4 of these cards per year for the last 21 years of living in WI, and they always expired at the month's end. Never been 'late' before. I don't read them anymore, other than to check which vehicle they're for and the amount I need to send in.
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It would've been nice if they would've put some kind of easily discernable notice on the renewal card that the date of expiration was no longer the last day of the month. Simply printing the date in bold type would've been something to catch your attention. The renewal card looks the same as always, with the exception of the small printed new date of expiration. I've been getting 3 or 4 of these cards per year for the last 21 years of living in WI, and they always expired at the month's end. Never been 'late' before. I don't read them anymore, other than to check which vehicle they're for and the amount I need to send in. Lived here all my life and it has to my knowledge always been to the end of the month. Perhaps they should make the stickers have exact Exp. dates on them. Make it tougher for law enforcement and see how fast it gets changed. |
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Quoted: It would've been nice if they would've put some kind of easily discernable notice on the renewal card that the date of expiration was no longer the last day of the month. Simply printing the date in bold type would've been something to catch your attention. The renewal card looks the same as always, with the exception of the small printed new date of expiration. I've been getting 3 or 4 of these cards per year for the last 21 years of living in WI, and they always expired at the month's end. Never been 'late' before. I don't read them anymore, other than to check which vehicle they're for and the amount I need to send in. That would be stupid to print it in bold. That would decrease the (desired) spike in revenue they are collecting in late fees.  Yet another thing that needs review and repair in government. The DMV is a major project in and of itself being such a target rich environment. Should be easy though, somehow I doubt we'll see the circus roll into the halls of a DMV office with plastic drum buckets to defend their operation. |
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Quoted: Quoted: It would've been nice if they would've put some kind of easily discernable notice on the renewal card that the date of expiration was no longer the last day of the month. Simply printing the date in bold type would've been something to catch your attention. The renewal card looks the same as always, with the exception of the small printed new date of expiration. I've been getting 3 or 4 of these cards per year for the last 21 years of living in WI, and they always expired at the month's end. Never been 'late' before. I don't read them anymore, other than to check which vehicle they're for and the amount I need to send in. Lived here all my life and it has to my knowledge always been to the end of the month. Perhaps they should make the stickers have exact Exp. dates on them. Make it tougher for law enforcement and see how fast it gets changed. How does that make it any tougher for law enforcement. I don't normally go by the stickers anyhow, I run the plate on teh computer or through dispatch. |
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I just had to renew my plates yesterday, and remove the lien from my truck (finally paid off).
Something definitly needs to be done about the DMV. 50 minute wait is nuts. One person working....one counter open. On the plus side, I got to witness an old lady cursing out the lone DMV counter worker. It was quite comical.....one of the customers told her to shut up and sit down. |
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It would've been nice if they would've put some kind of easily discernable notice on the renewal card that the date of expiration was no longer the last day of the month. Simply printing the date in bold type would've been something to catch your attention. The renewal card looks the same as always, with the exception of the small printed new date of expiration. I've been getting 3 or 4 of these cards per year for the last 21 years of living in WI, and they always expired at the month's end. Never been 'late' before. I don't read them anymore, other than to check which vehicle they're for and the amount I need to send in. Lived here all my life and it has to my knowledge always been to the end of the month. Perhaps they should make the stickers have exact Exp. dates on them. Make it tougher for law enforcement and see how fast it gets changed. How does that make it any tougher for law enforcement. I don't normally go by the stickers anyhow, I run the plate on teh computer or through dispatch. Sorry I guess you guys actually looked at plates for expired tags. Didn't know you just ran everyone you came across. If thats the case why have stickers at all? At least the theives wouldnt steal the corners of the plates then. Edit: spelling |
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If thats the case why have stickers at all? At least the theives wouldnt steel the corners of the plates then. Agreed. In ND, the stickers list the license plate number, and specific expiration date. You can still steal the sticker, but it'll have someone else's info on it. |
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If thats the case why have stickers at all? At least the theives wouldnt steel the corners of the plates then. Agreed. In ND, the stickers list the license plate number, and specific expiration date. You can still steal the sticker, but it'll have someone else's info on it. The stickers have to be there for someons benefit. It certainly isn't there as a reminder that I need to renew them. That's why they send me a renewal notice. So who's benefit are they for other than the police? |
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Something definitly needs to be done about the DMV. 50 minute wait is nuts. One person working....one counter open. . In Green Bay it is still 50+ minutes alot of times and they have a bunch of counters open. You can always renew them on line. Around here some payday loan places also do renewals. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: If thats the case why have stickers at all? At least the theives wouldnt steel the corners of the plates then. Agreed. In ND, the stickers list the license plate number, and specific expiration date. You can still steal the sticker, but it'll have someone else's info on it. The stickers have to be there for someons benefit. It certainly isn't there as a reminder that I need to renew them. That's why they send me a renewal notice. So who's benefit are they for other than the police? I didn't say I didn't look at them, but for example say they changed the sticker to Say April 21 2011 in some way shape or form. If I seen a sticker that said April 2011 I would just run the tag to see if it was valid or not. |
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Something definitly needs to be done about the DMV. 50 minute wait is nuts. One person working....one counter open. . In Green Bay it is still 50+ minutes alot of times and they have a bunch of counters open. You can always renew them on line. Around here some payday loan places also do renewals. I had to remove the lien from my title. Vehicle was purchased in ND, and rather than sent a letter or a WI release form, they just signed over the ND title to me, despite the title already having been transferred to WI. So I figured it best to wait in line, vs turn into a several month mail bounce back and forth. They got it all ironed out, and I got out to my truck, and realized the lien was still on the title.  Luckily they didn't make me wait in line a second time.
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: If thats the case why have stickers at all? At least the theives wouldnt steel the corners of the plates then. Agreed. In ND, the stickers list the license plate number, and specific expiration date. You can still steal the sticker, but it'll have someone else's info on it. The stickers have to be there for someons benefit. It certainly isn't there as a reminder that I need to renew them. That's why they send me a renewal notice. So who's benefit are they for other than the police? I think we could do without the stickers and the front plate, but it is my understanding via the media that the majority of police want them both... Hmm. I guess if we are going to have random days of expiration, the little tag should have that date and something unique to kill the theft. But is it worth the costs? I say no. There are a lot of cops who run most every plate they come across these days (if they can type and drive that is). Having said that, license plate recognition technology has come a long way –– the Milwaukee Sheriff has a couple of units installed for "testing". It is used at MKE airport as well. In Chicago, they run your plate when you pull in their parking and if you have outstanding tickets, you will find your vehicle booted upon return from vacation... The technology works pretty well. In the case of LE, it doesn't have to be 100% accurate –– just fast. You can glance down and see if the hit on a plate actually matches or did a B instead of an 8 before you light it up. Given you can literally have four cameras on the vehicle covering for corners, the scan rate goes up from a hundred a shift to thousands and thousands checked. The real magic comes in to the recording/GPS tagging/data mining aspect. We won't start down the road of that topic.  It is only a matter of time before your VIN is encoded and used as the unique vehicle AVI tag (think IPass) for the vehicle anyway. |
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The DMV doesn't even take debit or credit cards, talk about behind the times... But they conveniently have an ATM located in most offices, with a surcharge
They also take credit cards over the internet. Makes no sense to not have them in the office. They are taking half a million dollars and upgrading their website soon, and hopefully adding credit and debit card processing. Be nice to do more of that stuff online. Must be one heck of a website for half a million... |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: The DMV doesn't even take debit or credit cards, talk about behind the times... But they conveniently have an ATM located in most offices, with a surcharge They also take credit cards over the internet. Makes no sense to not have them in the office. They are taking half a million dollars and upgrading their website soon, and hopefully adding credit and debit card processing. Be nice to do more of that stuff online. Must be one heck of a website for half a million... The State of Wisconsin –– regardless of party in power –– can't develop, specify, deploy, manage or otherwise not screw up a software project to save themselves –– oh, did I include stay on budget? Every time... hundreds of thousands to millions down the drain.  |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: A bit OT: does the VIN have to be visible? Define "visible" Not obstructed. 342.30(1g) (1g) No person may remove, alter or obliterate or intentionally make it impossible to read, as required under sub. (2), an identification number. This subsection does not apply to the obliteration of an identification number which occurs in the process of crushing a vehicle or vehicle part for scrap. 342.30(2) (2) Except as provided in this subsection, an identification number assigned by the department to a vehicle shall be permanently affixed to a location on the vehicle that is readily visible when observed from outside the vehicle, as specified by the department by rule. Identification numbers assigned for cycles shall be stamped on the left side, near the top of the engine casting just below the cylinder barrel. Such stamping or affixing shall be done under the supervision of a dealer, distributor or manufacturer registered under s. 341.51 or under the supervision of a peace officer. The person supervising the stamping or affixing shall make a report thereof to the department. 342.30(2m)(a) (a) A traffic officer or person authorized to enforce nonmoving traffic violations may use reasonable means to gain access to a vehicle if that vehicle's identification number cannot be read as required under sub. (2). |
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The DMV doesn't even take debit or credit cards, talk about behind the times... But they conveniently have an ATM located in most offices, with a surcharge
They also take credit cards over the internet. Makes no sense to not have them in the office. They are taking half a million dollars and upgrading their website soon, and hopefully adding credit and debit card processing. Be nice to do more of that stuff online. Must be one heck of a website for half a million... The State of Wisconsin –– regardless of party in power –– can't develop, specify, deploy, manage or otherwise not screw up a software project to save themselves –– oh, did I include stay on budget? Every time... hundreds of thousands to millions down the drain.
Definitely. They'll spend 500k and have a website I would've done for 5k or 10k. It'll be a joke. |