You weren’t to know it but if you found me to be cranky, a bit short or if you received a sharp response to an email then it actually had nothing to do with you.
I apologise…
Isn’t life like that? Often what you experience in an interaction with someone at any moment in time may not have anything to do with you, but everything to do with something else that might have happened.
In my case it was my car tax.
The Warden
I wondered why a parking warden was patrolling Ballincollig village when there was no paid parking, maybe it was to do with a time limit?
When I returned to the car there was a slip on my car – I was being fined for not displaying an up to date car tax disc!!
Sure enough, it was out by months.
I was sure I had paid it – when that notification email comes in I’ll pay it there and then or else there is a real risk that I will forget.
When I came home I checked my emails and sure enough I had paid my car tax in December with weeks to go before it was due. Once it was paid I would have forgotten about it until the disc arrived by post and then I would place it in the disc display of the car.
I clearly had never received it, and maybe with it being a December transaction it could easily have got lost in the Christmas postal chaos.
National Motor Tax Office
I rang the number listed for the motor tax people, listened for the different options and eventually I was in a queue – you are number 8 in the queue. 5 minutes later I was still at number 8. An hour later I finally spoke to an operator and explained how I never received my tax disc and as a result I was now in receipt of a fine from Cork City Council Parking division.
She told me what I needed to do:
- Fill out an RF134 form
- Get it signed by the Gardaí
- Post it to the local motor tax office with a letter
- Write to the fines people appealing the fine demonstrating that I had in fact paid my car tax on time
“Hold on. Why do I need to go to all of that bother and do all of that running around because you never posted me the disc I paid for?” I asked
“I know it’s really frustrating, but that’s the system” was the reply I received.
Brilliant…
An Gardaí
Ballincollig with a large population has a large very modern, fancy Garda station but much to my surprise it was closed when I popped down and I would have to wait until 2pm on the day I called for it to open. I popped into the shopping centre for a cuppa and a sandwich instead of heading home and waited until 2pm.
The station was still closed and I waited with another lad “That place never opens on time“.
I rang the buzzer and knocked on the door, nothing. I went around to their car park where there was another buzzer, lots of cars parked up but no one answering.
I range the phone number four times and eventually it was answered – God love anyone who had an emergency – the woman who answered the phone told me they were short staffed and I should go to the station in Togher.
I explained to her that I had been waiting for 45 minutes and simply needed to get a form signed. She asked me to wait and let me into the station and signed the form.
She explained to me the dire situation with staffing. Hmmm, this is not good.
There is no such problem with the Cork City Council Parking department – when I came home the fine had efficiently arrived in the post!!
It reminded me of my poor buddy who received a parking fine for his car that he had reported stolen a few days previous. Thieves do not display parking discs and the Garda stolen car system and parking fine system don’t talk to each other!
At least now I had my RF134 form and the confirmation payment email – surely that was enough to successfully appeal the fine?
Motor Tax Office
This will make you giggle.
Armed with the RF134 form and an explanatory letter I popped around to the Motor Tax office with my envelope.
I kid you not – there was no post box outside, nor a letter box BUT there was a notice on the entrance door that said “for your convenience we have located the post box inside“!!
How is that for my convenience??!!
I went to a post box.
Cork City Council Parking Division
I sent off the confirmation email about payment with a letter of explanation with my “appeal” letter.
In the meantime my tax disc arrived from the Motor Tax Office.
A few days later I received a letter to say my appeal was under review. Could I forward a copy of the RF134 form (I wouldn’t expect people to ordinarily keep a copy but I did take a photo of it) and a copy of the tax disc.
This was encouraging and even better I had the option of emailing them.
I sent my email with the relevant copies and with brutal efficiency I received a reply.
My appeal was not successful BECAUSE the RF134 form was dated after the fine.
Ah come on!! The only reason I knew the tax disc was out of date was the receipt of a fine. This was the whole point.
“A current tax disc” was not on display. That is the rule. (however they do make an exception if the RF134 is dated differently).
BUT …in the manual days you went to the motor tax office, you paid the fee, they handed you a disc and you put it on display.
Surely, the whole point is that you pay your car tax and that is why fines exist?
Even better the email to me pointed out that there was a time limit for paying or else the fine would increase from €60 to €90.
As angry as I was there was no point arguing any further.
According to the documentation you could pay online,
I logged on (in the most cranky mood ever) and popped in my details, the reference number and the car reg.
“Ticket not found, please try again“
and again, and again, and again, Brilliant, their system isn’t working.
I tried their phone payment system today and it worked and ….to my surprise the Cork City Parking Fines system works so well that my fine had been upgraded to €90 !!
I emailed and rang their office to look for a refund of €30.
I explained – It was not my fault that their system was down and as a result had now paid €30 extra.
“Well no one else had a problem paying” I was told (lovely!)
“The reason you got that response was because you had paid already” I was then told (her rationale for the computer system not working)
“Why would I try to pay on the online system if I had paid by phone” I asked
The efficient Parking Fines Department sent me an email saying of course…there was nothing that they could do!!
My money is hard earned and handing it over like this is unfair.
Lessons to be learned?
- Our Gardaí are understaffed
- The legislation hasn’t changed in line with changes in systems
- Cork City Council Parking Fines department are super efficient
- Cork City Council Parking Fines department and fairly uncompromising and unsympathetic
- We were probably better off when we paid our car tax manually and when the rules did end up catching people out who hadn’t taxed their vehicles.
And the biggest lesson of all …try not to to be a bear with everyone else in the meantime.
Apologies to Dee, a couple of my work colleagues and the two dogs, it was nothing to do with you!
Greg
Greg Canty is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland
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