So I’ve got a little Toyota pickup that sits in the driveway for the most part. The registration went out in Sept and at the time a brake light was out. I got around to getting it fixed and inspected in November and I renewed the registration Dec 6th. I was issued an 11 sticker, I guess because that’s when it was inspected. I slap the sticker on the windshield and file the paperwork with my tax papers.
The next day I’m on my way home from my son’s basketball game, driving the Toyota since it hasn’t been on the road in a while. I’m in the right lane and I see flashing lights ahead, I signal and move over one lane and check my speed, all good. The trooper kills his lights then pulls out and follows behind me, the next thing I know his lights are flashing again and he’s pulling me over. I’m thinking hmm, I wonder if that brake light is out again.
The trooper comes to the window and proceeds to tell me that he stopped me for an expired registration. Oh, no sir, that can’t be, I just renewed it the other day (I really couldn’t remember what day I did it, I just knew it was that week, old age is a *****!). I showed him the sticker and I think he was puzzled about it being “11” and me insisting that I had just registered it. He asked if I had my receipt, “no sir, it’s at the house”. The first time I ever stick that sticker on the same day I got it and it bites me in the butt! Had I not stuck it on I’d still have the receipt in the truck. He then tells me he’s going to “have” to write me up and I’ll just have to go to the court house and they’ll dismiss it. Well that’s kind of a pain in the *** for me.
I take a long lunch and bring all of the paperwork in. The clerk asks if I paid the penalty for getting a ticket when I registered it. No ma’am, I registered it the day BEFORE I got the ticket. Oh, did you not have the window sticker? Oh, yes ma’am, it was in place. And he still wrote you a ticket? Yes ma’am, he said it wasn’t updated in the system. Hmm, I think the judge will dismiss it but you may have to pay a $22 dismissal fee. That’s a state fee and we can’t waive it. Let me make copies of all of your paperwork and I’ll see what she says and call you next week.
So I get the call... we can dismiss the ticket but you’ll have to pay the dismissal fee. You won’t have to come back here, you can just pay it over the phone with a credit card. There’s a $5.95 convenience fee for using a card. You can come back here to pay it if you don’t want to use a card, but we don’t take cash or personal checks, you’ll have to bring a money order or cashier’s check.
So not only do I have to pay $22 to dismiss a ticket that I shouldn’t have been written I have to pay $5.95 to use a credit card or take more time off work to go get and pay for a money order or cashier’s check and take it to the court house. Personally I think that’s a crock of ****! In this day and age “systems” are updated instantly. The lady that takes care of our fleet vehicles says she goes to renew registration as soon as the trucks are inspected and they’ve already got them updated, same day and at times within an hour. I think somebody dropped the ball updating my registration. But even at that there should be a way to drop fees when a ticket is not justified. I could see if I was driving with an expired registration or maybe even if I didn’t have the sticker on my windshield, but I did everything I was supposed to do as I was supposed to do it!
Rant over. Thanks!
The next day I’m on my way home from my son’s basketball game, driving the Toyota since it hasn’t been on the road in a while. I’m in the right lane and I see flashing lights ahead, I signal and move over one lane and check my speed, all good. The trooper kills his lights then pulls out and follows behind me, the next thing I know his lights are flashing again and he’s pulling me over. I’m thinking hmm, I wonder if that brake light is out again.
The trooper comes to the window and proceeds to tell me that he stopped me for an expired registration. Oh, no sir, that can’t be, I just renewed it the other day (I really couldn’t remember what day I did it, I just knew it was that week, old age is a *****!). I showed him the sticker and I think he was puzzled about it being “11” and me insisting that I had just registered it. He asked if I had my receipt, “no sir, it’s at the house”. The first time I ever stick that sticker on the same day I got it and it bites me in the butt! Had I not stuck it on I’d still have the receipt in the truck. He then tells me he’s going to “have” to write me up and I’ll just have to go to the court house and they’ll dismiss it. Well that’s kind of a pain in the *** for me.
I take a long lunch and bring all of the paperwork in. The clerk asks if I paid the penalty for getting a ticket when I registered it. No ma’am, I registered it the day BEFORE I got the ticket. Oh, did you not have the window sticker? Oh, yes ma’am, it was in place. And he still wrote you a ticket? Yes ma’am, he said it wasn’t updated in the system. Hmm, I think the judge will dismiss it but you may have to pay a $22 dismissal fee. That’s a state fee and we can’t waive it. Let me make copies of all of your paperwork and I’ll see what she says and call you next week.
So I get the call... we can dismiss the ticket but you’ll have to pay the dismissal fee. You won’t have to come back here, you can just pay it over the phone with a credit card. There’s a $5.95 convenience fee for using a card. You can come back here to pay it if you don’t want to use a card, but we don’t take cash or personal checks, you’ll have to bring a money order or cashier’s check.
So not only do I have to pay $22 to dismiss a ticket that I shouldn’t have been written I have to pay $5.95 to use a credit card or take more time off work to go get and pay for a money order or cashier’s check and take it to the court house. Personally I think that’s a crock of ****! In this day and age “systems” are updated instantly. The lady that takes care of our fleet vehicles says she goes to renew registration as soon as the trucks are inspected and they’ve already got them updated, same day and at times within an hour. I think somebody dropped the ball updating my registration. But even at that there should be a way to drop fees when a ticket is not justified. I could see if I was driving with an expired registration or maybe even if I didn’t have the sticker on my windshield, but I did everything I was supposed to do as I was supposed to do it!
Rant over. Thanks!
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