A Convoluted Mess

I did not pick up my new serger yesterday after all. So many people wanted to buy one after the Mystery Make class last weekend that the store sold out. The store owner made an appropriate judgment call and sold the in-stock machines to people who didn’t yet have sergers. She did not think I would mind waiting until she got the next shipment because I have multiple machines. And it’s not like I don’t have plenty of other projects to work on.

I’ll describe to you what I did instead, as it’s a perfect example of the idiocy of bureaucracy and what happens when the government gets so unwieldy that it’s at risk of toppling over from its own bloat:

The husband bought his new work truck on February 25. The bank had given us the loan paperwork as well as a check made out to Flathead County for the dealer to send in with the title paperwork. We expected that the dealer would file the paperwork, the county would send us a postcard saying it was in Kalispell, and I would go in and finish the filing and pick up plates for the truck.

Nope.

A few weeks after we bought the truck, we heard from the dealer that they tried to do that and and were told that they now have to go through a company called MVD Express, located in Billings, to complete the filing. They could no longer deal directly with the county.

More weeks pass. We hear nothing. The husband is now driving around on expired temporary tags.

The other day, we got a FedEx envelope from MVD Express in Billings. The envelope contained all the paperwork from the dealer and a hand-scribbled note at the bottom of the dealer letterhead saying that we have to fill out the “MVI” form and send it back to complete the filing. That’s it. There was no indication to whom the hand-scribbled note was addressed, and because it was on the dealer letterhead, I couldn’t figure out if it was written by the dealer or this outfit in Billings.

I tried calling the county. They won’t even answer the phone, and in fact, the call disconnects if you press anything other than the numbers in the automated menu.

I called MVD Express. I got some woman who snippily informed me that it wasn’t form “MVI” but form “MV1” that I needed to fill out and send back. I snippily informed her back that perhaps next time, they could write a proper cover letter instead of hand scribbling a note. She then said that either I could fill out the form and send it back to Billings for processing, or I could take a chance and take all the paperwork to the county and see if they would complete it.

By this time, the husband was beside himself. We still haven’t heard from the insurance company on the settlement and he is running out of patience. He talked to a friend of his who also bought a work truck recently and went through the same thing. Apparently, because Montana has no sales tax, the state has been overrun with people who form an LLC here to buy equipment so they don’t have to pay the sales tax. As a result, the state hired this company in Billings to process all LLC equipment purchases requiring titles. The husband’s friend did say that he was able to take his paperwork in to the county and they completed the filing for him. He suggested I go there, talk to the person at the information desk, and see what they advised.

So many people have moved to Montana in the past couple of years that the county outgrew its old vehicle department. A few weeks ago, they moved the office to a new location. The new location is nice, but past experience indicated that I’d probably have to take a number and wait in a long line to actually file the paperwork.

I got to the office at 9:30 am and took a number, just in case. My number was D45. They were on C67. I overheard the young man standing in front of me ask how long the wait was, and the woman at the information desk told him it would be at least 2-3 hours.

[This young man reeked so strongly of marijuana that I thought I’d probably walk out of there high myself, and I was standing 6 feet away from him. I don’t care what you do on your own time as long as you don’t force me to participate.]

Fortunately (I guess), the county has now instituted a notification system. I was able to scan a QR code with my phone which linked to the county DMV website where they kept a running list of the numbers currently being served. The woman at the information desk looked at my paperwork and said she thought they could finish the filing there because we were locals. She also noted that they had just received the paperwork for the two trailers the husband bought last week to replace the dump trailer that was destroyed in the accident. I asked her if I could take care of all three simultaneously, and she said, “No, we have a limit of two transactions per window, so you’ll have to wait and take another number at least 10 numbers after the one you currently have and do them as two separate transactions.”

Oh, the absurdity.

I went and ran my errands while keeping one eye on the DMV website to make sure I didn’t miss my number. There is no way to determine how quickly your number will come up. I got back to the DMV office a little after 1 pm and went to the lobby to wait.

About 20 minutes later, they called my number. I went to the window, explained the situation, and handed all the paperwork to the woman behind the glass. She started to go through it, looked something up on her computer, and then said to me, “I can’t process this because your company is not listed with the Montana Secretary of State.” I responded that it had to be, because I paid the $20 fee to update the listing last month, as I do every April. She insisted we weren’t a legitimate company. I insisted we were. When she asked, “When did you move from Whitefish to your current location?” I said, “Are you sure you have the correct company? We’ve been at our current address since 1994.” She turned the monitor around and I saw that she had pulled up a company with a similar name. I asked her to search on our full company name and lo and behold—the listing popped up.

[She was very apologetic and I attempted to be gracious about it.]

After another ten minutes—now four hours after I first took a number—and more apologies, I left with the plates. I was told that they would e-mail me the information for the trailer titles and that I could process those transactions online so I don’t have to go through this again.

Your laugh for the day:

And because I need to have a thumbnail pic for my Facebook link, here is the next pattern I plan to cut out and make:

This will be done in the black rayon blend sweatshirt fabric that Joanns started carrying this spring.