I’m selling my car – or trying to. There’s someone interested and he makes an offer. Before we close the deal I go to my files to find my Title so we can make the exchange and it’s not there. The ensuing two hour search turns up nothing. The next day I head out to the Registry with the paperwork I downloaded from the web for a copy of my title, 90 minutes before I have to start giving lessons for the day .
After waiting as long as I can, I have to leave before my number is called. 90 minutes is not enough time to do anything at the Registry. Next day, after just over 2 hours of waiting I finally get called to window 4. That sucked but I’m happy to be getting this behind me so I can sell the car.
I find out when I get to the window that they cannot give me the title because there is a lien on it. WHAT? A lien, from a bank that I never ever did business with. HUH?
“You have to get a lien release letter from the bank and bring it back, there’s nothing I can do for you now.” BUT? I UH… HOW? I mean… “Is there anything else I can help you with?” (Don’t you love that question?)
I call this bank I never heard of and they never heard of me or my car. So I call the bank I originally had the loan with and they don’t have a lien on the car so they can’t help me. Another four or five phone calls and finally, four days into this someone from the mystery bank agrees there isn’t a lien on the car they never had a lien on to begin with and sends me a letter by mail – because a fax wouldn’t suffice since the letter needs to be notarized.
Week 2 . OK, so now I’m all set and heading back to the Registry having carved out two and a half hours of my day. This time the wait is short, just a little over an hour. I get to window 7, (lucky number?) and hand over the hard earned paperwork.
“I don’t know if anyone has told you this (what???), but this is an electronic record and I can’t do anything with this paperwork.” It took every ounce of my being not to lose it but I must have looked like one of those cartoon characters where the steam blows the top of his head off and his eye pop out of their sockets, because the guy took a couple of steps back and I think was reaching under the counter for the panic button. My response started “I don’t know if anyone told you this but… and I as calmly as possible explain the situation.
The guy was nice and took control of the matter getting on the phone with the bank, then his boss, then his sister in law to tell her he would be late for dinner, then the President … ok, I don’t know who he called but after a few calls he is able to remove the electronic record and turns to me… “Ok, we’re all set. That will be $25 please.” I take out the cash and he starts typing away at the computer with a vengeance. After a handful of thought filled pauses followed by more rapid and vigorous typing he declared, “You’re all set, here’s your receipt. The title will be mailed to your address on file.”
“You mean you don’t give me the title here?”
“No, we can’t hand out Titles here, they have to be mailed. At least we got that lien thing straightened out. Next…..”
So I still haven’t sold my car and I don’t know how much longer this guy can wait. I really wish there was a way to get back the time I have to spend on this kind of crap.