My registration needed to be renewed this month. I sent the form and fee to my Insurance Agent, who verified my having insurance and sent the paperwork on to the Registry of Motor Vehicles of the Department of Transportation. In due time I received my new registration certificate, but not the decal for the license plate. My agent informed me I would have to call the Registry.
I did. The phone voice told me I could hold for over an our or make an appointment for a call-back. The earliest time available was two days later. Being impatient, I tried just waiting on hold, but the music and my impatience got the better of me, so I made an appointment for a call back two days hence.
I sat by the phone in fear of missing the call and in anxiety about whether I would be called at all. Promptly on time the phone rang. I verified that I was on the line. I was then placed on HOLD for a few minutes. At last, a pleasant person took my call, took down my license plate number, and promised to mail the decal. I should have it in three days.
There the matter rests.
Having had to call large private firms for help recently (Garmin, my 401K vendor, Netflix) I find the contrast in service pronounced.
Having had to call large private firms for help recently (Garmin, my 401K vendor, Netflix) I find the contrast in service pronounced.
The problem is that the government has (and quite properly too) the monopoly on violence. This puts the citizen already in the inferior position in any confrontation or interchange. In this case, the RMV has a rational system for handling incoming calls but one which differs from the norm, which is to answer the phone within a reasonable time and begin the process right then. Instead, the RMV makes the caller wait on the RMV to call. Put simply, "That Sucks."
And of course, you cannot take your custom elsewhere. So you end up feeling the way you do whenever you deal with officialdom.
And some folks what this in every aspect of their lives? Their food and housing and health care and love making and thinking and praying? No thanks. I'll take the free market, within limits, any day.
And some folks what this in every aspect of their lives? Their food and housing and health care and love making and thinking and praying? No thanks. I'll take the free market, within limits, any day.