DMV Nonsense, Updated!

Thanks to Glenn and Nova-san for your DMV comments! If I was less afraid of the DMV, I probably would have taken your advice.

After worrying over it a little longer, I decided to call my insurance company, Progressive, and see if they had any advice. Previous calls to the DMV have taught me that I’ll get very little except attitude, fees, and ‘if you want to talk to someone about that, you got to call this other number, which will undoubtedly not work.’

I called Progressive and was on hold for less than five minutes. ‘Bob’ answered (I always feel like people are making up these names) and I explained the situation to him. Very courteous, cheerful, and willing to help, Bob actually called the DC DMV for me while I offered to wait on hold. After a few minutes, he came back to say they’d given him the usual run-around, and he was about to call another number. A few more minutes of hold and he came back to tell me who he’d talked to there, what number he’d called, and that he was about to fax them proof that I never had a lapse in my insurance. The DMV woman, Sharon, had given him a different number to call for me to see if I had any fees (when I called later, I found it was a collections agency and each person I talked to was totally confused and had no record for me, so I guess that’s a good thing). Bob also advised me on what to do next: mail them my tags, a photocopy of my own insurance records (never hurts to duplicate), and a letter explaining that he had already faxed proof over.

I had to make copies of it, so the whole package (along with a copy of the letter they sent me, since it has my old address and tag number on it) will be mailed Priority Certified tomorrow morning. Hopefully, this will be a little quicker than the last thing I sent Priority, which the post office helpfully certified went from Columbus to Indianapolis via Boston and New Hampshire (yes, it took more days to arrive than it should have taken hours).

I’ll let you know how this works out on the DMV end (because I know this is a totally fascinating story for anyone who’s not me). But I wanted to include this update to give more credit to Progressive, who once again impressed me with their very helpful service! Is it weird to feel a little spoiled by your insurance company? Maybe, but Bob made sure I had all my questions answered and did everything I asked him to and more.

In other news, congratulations to Jane for publishing some of your awesome photos!