Get this

The registration for the Excursion, Saturn and travel trailer are all due in March and April. Allen gets the renewal notices and promptly sends in payment for all three at the end of February. We got tags for the Excursion and the trailer, but not the Saturn.

He calls the MVD to find out what happens, and is told to call another number. He calls that number and gets a busy signal. He tries again; busy signal.

Today, he calls the original number and is given yet another number. He gets voice mail. Finally, he tries one more time and gets a live (do not mistake live for intelligent, here) person. He explains that he sent checks for all 3 vehicles, but only received the tags for 2. He asks if they ever received the check for the Saturn, if it was cancelled, if it was lost, or if they have any record. No, they say. We have no record of the check at all. He requests another form to be sent, they won't do that. They verify the address that the check should go to and then tell him he will be paying a LATE FEE because they didn't get the check in time (or lost it as we've been warned they would do). Allen says he can give them a copy of the check he's written previously to prove he did get it done way before the date. No good. He may have written the check at the end of February, but that doesn't mean he really mailed it. He tells the woman that he clearly paid for his other registrations (why would he suddenly try to jerk them around now?) and has another check written the same day that never made it to them, apparently, but that he did send all 3 checks within a weeks time. He says any judge will support his case and that he'd like to speak with her manager. Ok, she says. He's put on hold.

I'm sure you know how this turned out. (She never came back to the line. We waited 15 minutes.) Moral of the story: the motor vehicle department is as corrupt as the politicians in this state but a whole lot stupider. (Yes, it's a word.)