It's never good when you get a letter from the DMV

[DWard51]

Went out to the mailbox today and found a letter from the GA DDS (Driver Services). Figured it was my license as I renewed it online last week. Nope, no such luck. Instead it's a notification they are cancelling my license! WTF!!!!!!!

So, after calling GA DDS, I find out that NY DMV has somehow determined I'm suspended in NY. Mind you I have lived my entire life in GA and the last time I set foot in NY was on vacation about 30 years ago. Never had a ticket there, no accidents, etc.... so you get the picture. GA gives me the phone number for DMV in NY and their case number.

So after spending the next 3 hours on hold listening to some Bahama elevator music, I have yet to be able to talk to anyone about this and find out WTF is going on. 3 times the Customer Service number finally gets me a live person who says "I need to transfer you to records", and every time they do, click.... disconnected!!!!!!! I did ask if there was a direct number, and of course there was not.

So now I'm wondering how much money this is going to cost me to fix some screw up a faceless bureaucrat in NY has made. I'm suspecting I'm also going to find out my identity has been stolen as a little extra cherry icing on this cake.

SO this is my WTF post for the day......

[Tailgating is my game]

Living in NY for a good part of my life........They are crazy at the DMV.....Ct is about 2% better

[stalag]

Went out to the mailbox today and found a letter from the GA DDS (Driver Services). Figured it was my license as I renewed it online last week. Nope, no such luck. Instead it's a notification they are cancelling my license! WTF!!!!!!!

So, after calling GA DDS, I find out that NY DMV has somehow determined I'm suspended in NY. Mind you I have lived my entire life in GA and the last time I set foot in NY was on vacation about 30 years ago. Never had a ticket there, no accidents, etc.... so you get the picture. GA gives me the phone number for DMV in NY and their case number.

So after spending the next 3 hours on hold listening to some Bahama elevator music, I have yet to be able to talk to anyone about this and find out WTF is going on. 3 times the Customer Service number finally gets me a live person who says "I need to transfer you to records", and every time they do, click.... disconnected!!!!!!! I did ask if there was a direct number, and of course there was not.

So now I'm wondering how much money this is going to cost me to fix some screw up a faceless bureaucrat in NY has made. I'm suspecting I'm also going to find out my identity has been stolen as a little extra cherry icing on this cake.

SO this is my WTF post for the day......

This smacks of identity theft.  Run your credit reports from the big three agencies.  Chances are you may need a lawyer before this is over.

[muebe]

Sounds like there is more to this then a simple mistake. You might be a victim of identity theft. Can you contact the NY DMV through e-mail to get an answer?

[akruckus]

I brother in law wasn't able to get a driver's license in NY because of a speeding ticket from 8 years ago.  It took him 3 weeks for them to say just pay the fine and it will go away, he paid the fine and had to wait another week for it to go away and for him to get an appointment to go again.

[DWard51]

This smacks of identity theft.  Run your credit reports from the big three agencies.  Chances are you may need a lawyer before this is over.

One good thing is our credit is frozen in all 3 bureaus and I do get regular copies.  Doubtful they have made any financial headway with my ID, but apparently giving it to the Police verbally is something else.

[Jaxon]

Can you drive down here to Byron on the 30th for the big cookout?
We'd like to meet you and you'll like most of the folks...maybe all of 'em.
Did I mention we'll be cooking a pig

[DWard51]

Depends.  The cancellation is on the 28th unless NY fixes it.  I'm at their mercy now.  I may not be driving anywhere.

I had to send them a faxed letter with copies of my identity documents.  They are "researching" to see if I'm not the same person.  They admit that they only have a first & last name and a dob with a NY address.  I've never lived in NY, never gotten a ticket, and never been in an accident in NY.  Hell, the last time I even drove through NY was in 1980 and that was on the way to visit relatives in Vermont and we did not even enter Manhattan, much less Harlem.  So basically anybody with my first and last name and dob in North America can have the license suspended because some other person verbally gave that info (probably not even their real name).  I don't think it is ID theft as I found 3 other people with my first & last name and dob who lived in NY in the past 20 years.  2 of them are deceased. 

That system is messed up IMO.  They should have some level of proof before punching your license like that and stressing you out.  I have no idea what I'm going to do if some NY DMV employee decides they don't care and refuses to declare I'm not their person.  This could get expensive real fast with legal fees fighting this in NY.

[Saber 4]

Massachusetts DMV is even worse, I had one of our constituents who is a disabled vet PTSD who had to drive to Dallas 3 times a week for treatment and he couldn't renew his Texas DL because his car was given a red light camera ticket in 1984 in a Boston suburb. We spent two days trying to get a human on the phone. In Texas every agency has a Govt Liaison to help legislative staffers solve problems so I called Massachusetts House and Senate offices to find out if they could help or give me a number to their Govt Liaison person. Of course they had never heard of such a person and gave us the same number we had been calling. When we finally did get a human we had to fax a form then overnight a payment to one office, then get a fax from that office and send it to another department along with another overnighted payment to get a release faxed to us that we could turn in to the Texas DMV. Once we had that form it took ten minutes to get his license restored.

Needless to say I hate big government agencies that forget who they are there to serve and who pays their salaries.

[DWard51]

Well, I think I have a resolution. 

I called GA DDS and they are now saying that NY DMV has sent them a fax verifying the suspension in NY does not apply to me and I am not the same person.  I had previously paid for my GA renewal (which is what started this computer automated fiasco), but that payment is no longer linked to my renewal since it was denied on the original NY NDR flag. So I'm going to the local branch office of GA DDS next week to renew in person and get a copy of what NY sent to keep in my files.  NY was supposed to mail me a copy, but I in the camp of a "document in the hand is worth 200 in the mail".

Fingers crossed and now back to my regular stressor of the week, my daughter's wedding tomorrow........

[akruckus]

Good luck and congrats on the wedding