DMV Debacles

So it's been about one year since I moved from Newport News to Raleigh. I had heard horror stories about the DMV in North Carolina. It's not fun in any state, but in this one, it's a disaster. The state is growing and the staffing just isn't there. 

Well, the time had come to get my new license after a year of living in North Carolina. My Virginia license expires this year, at then end of July, which is my birthday. Now I had been able to set a DMV appointment for August 22. Just one problem. I have travel plans now during the second weekend in August. And as part of that travel, I have to rent a car. And if my driver's license is expired, I can't rent said car. That means I have to do a DMV walk in.

Now there are many DMVs in our fine state. On weekdays, they do appointments only from 7-12 and them walk-ins from 12-5. Then a few select DMVs have walk in hours from 8-12. So since my job let's me work half days on Friday, I thought let me just try this. Let me go over to the DMV right after work. 
5:40 am. Well I stood outside the office in line for 3 damn hours and I never got inside. Complete fail.

So then, I decided to try that coming Saturday. And I decided I would get there super early. Early before the sun even thought about coming up. I woke up at 5 am, had my yogurt and trail mix, and drove the ten minutes east to the Avent Ferry Shopping Center. 

By 5:30 am, the line was already forming. this time, I had a lawn chair, I had two books, a headset, a phone charger. I was ready. Stationary, barely moving for 2 and a half hours. That's just sitting, reading, watching videos, not really doing much of anything. Just wanting to get my damn license. But most of all, you try to not look at the clock. Because that only slows time down. 

Around 7 am, the DMV official guy started counting customers. I was #37. By the time the building opened, there were over 280 customers on line! 

So around 8:10, I got to the door. I had my documents ready in my forest green folder. Virginia driver's license, passport, voter's card, SS card, utility bill, and an insurance document. Everything I needed. Until the good ol' boy official asked for my proof of insurance. All I had was proof of liability insurance which was based in Virginia. Nowhere on the DMV website was it expressed I needed North Carolina car insurance. Not to mention it had to be printed. Couldn't go to a phone app. It had to be printed. 

And the truth is I never changed the insurance from Virginia, which I should have probably done. So what was I going to do? Argue? Yell? Cajole? Cry? Threaten? It wasn't going to make a difference, I left, and drove straight to the plasma bank to donate. Got some deliveries in, I made a little bit of money. But the task remained undone. 

Fast forward two days to Monday, June 9. I realized I had to print my insurance card since State Farm does not mail them automatically anymore. You can print them or request they be mailed. Since I had issues printing them, I called the office in Virginia to ask how I could have proof of coverage. And that's when I found out my insurance had to be based in North Carolina to get the North Carolina driver's license. 

And it was time for another phone call, this time to the State Farm office who handles my renter's insurance. The current plan is in eight days, on Tuesday, I'll speak to the office again and I'll make a payment if needed. I'm not sure if I'll need to because I just paid for my car insurance from May-November in Virginia. So I guess I'm putting their billing department to work. I hope the money I paid can just be applied to North Carolina insurance to save a few steps. And from there, they can send me the cards and statement of declarations. Then on Thursday and Friday, I have my two days off for Juneteenth and I can go to the DMV then for the license. And then from there, it's time to change the license plate, title, and registration. It's like the Holy Trinity of car torture.

So fast forward to Juneteenth. The Thursday I had off. I decided to take a chance and drive to a small town, taking the chance that I would have a shorter line to deal with. An hour north of where I live is Oxford, definitely not a major town. When I arrived at 11 am, there were only about 8 people outside. And with appointments starting at 12 pm and going until 5 pm, I felt pretty optimistic that I might get in. So there I was outside on a little dirt patch in a decent amount of heat, but thankfully, in the shade as well. It took till 1 pm to get inside the building. And we had been told from 1-3, there would be 3 people working, but other than that, it would be 2 people from 11-1 and again from 3-5. 

I remember sitting in that narrow hallway, there were a lot of bugs flying around! And it was also interesting there was a DMV TV station on the monitor, which was he most generic stuff possible. Sports standings for Carolina teams, recipes, weather reports, 30 second cartoons, etc. 

We had to check in when we entered the building. We had to explain why we were there and we were given a number, in my case, it was H264, or something like that. I do remember the H, anyway. So it took 2 hours, but shortly after 3 pm, I got in. I walked to Station #2 and it took about 30 minutes for me to get my stuff done. But I walked out with my 60 day temporary driver's certificate. It was a very relieving feeling. I mean I knew I was going to get it done that weekend, but to know I'd crossed that barrier was a major feeling of relief.

So then it was a waiting game for my license to arrive in the mail. I was told 2 weeks, but 9 days later, it was a Friday, there was the DMV envelope was there in my mailbox. And inside was my long awaited driver's license. Backside of it had my face underneath a horse. Not sure why North Carolina finds that appropriate, but ok. Not only that, but in NC, your hair color is listed on the license. I never had that in Virginia. And they decided to list my hair as black, which it never was. But hey, it's better than "None."

So then I knew I had to update the title, registration, and license plates. And those offices are a much shorter wait, but the hours are more limited. They're never open on Saturday, plus they're only open from 8:30-5. So I would have to go on my work break. So I went the next Tuesday afternoon to the Cary office with my license, title, and insurance. Maybe 7 or 8 people were ahead of me but I got to the booth in about 20 minutes. I couldn't hear everything clearly, there was a lot of noise around, plus the plexiglass shield, muffled the sound up. But apparently, I was going to be charged $4--.67. I couldn't hear the second and third numbers, but I clearly heard the first, followed by the word "hundred." Now for plates, title, and registration, I can understand it costing a little bit, but this much?! And apparently, they charge more if you use a card to pay. I was ready to pay, but they also wanted $8 in cash. Why I had to pay $8 in cash but $400 plus on the card it makes very little sense. But as it turns out, I only had $5 in cash. And I knew I didn't have the time to drive 10 minutes to BOA, get cash, drive back, and go through the process. So I simply said I would come back the next day. But later that night, I hit up my ATM for $500 in cash. I was sure I'd get security alerts that I had withdrawn too much money. 

Thankfully, I got through that without a hitch. I waited about another week since the local office was taking a 4 ay weekend for the 4th of July. I returned on Tuesday; I figured I should wait a day after they opened. Well I showed up on Tuesday afternoon, the line was about 25 people. I got everything taken care of for a mere $458! And then I went online, surrendered my Virginia plates, and that was the end of the saga.