And the Cluster$*%^# begins again...

When I got the mail yesterday afternoon, I was amazed to find two letters from the California DMV. We had only registered our vehicles on Saturday at 4:00. How could they have mailed us something pertaining to it by Monday?

Turns out, it wasn't regarding our new registrations. Instead, they were Notices of Intent to Suspend (our prior registrations) because of a lack of insurance.

See, the DMV would have received notice when we canceled our previous California insurance, which we did after we secured insurance in Texas.

However, they also should have received the form I sent in, within 10 days, as required, notifying them that our vehicles were insured in another state.

So I took on the always exciting task of calling the California DMV. After wading through the automated menu I was able to zero-out to get to a representative, all of whom were busy. One thing I can give DMV credit for, though, is having a system that will let you enter your phone number to get called back rather than waiting on hold. I was able to take a shower while waiting for a call back.

The conversation I had with the representative was pretty interesting.

She confirmed that the registration on the Dodge had, in fact, been canceled, so we could disregard that issue.

Then she said that our Honda registration was still valid.

So I explained the whole situation to her--about registering in Texas and now needing to re-register here--and asked if, since our previous registration was still valid and paid up through July, it was possible to just reinstate it...or whatever the right term would be since apparently it was never UNinstated.

She seemed confused for a while, and it turns out that's because she showed that we had already paid for the new registration, which has not yet been issued pending that letter from Texas about the title.

Then she went to talk to her supervisor. She came back and said that, yes, the whole transaction should have cost $6, not the $300 or so (plus smog check) that we have paid to re-register the Pilot. She also said that if our Texas registration said on it "Non-Negotiable" or something similar, we should not need a letter about the title, either.

She suggested we call AAA to see if they had submitted the paperwork yet. If not, they should be able to reverse it. If they have, there's some way to apply for a refund, apparently.

So now I'm debating whether it's worth $294 to deal with dragging the kids back to AAA or standing in line at the DMV. It probably isn't, but it's the principle involved...