"The Registration Ticket"

"Customer Disservice, 24-7", contined...

Late in the evening in mid-July, I was driving home tired in a rain storm from visiting my brother in Fort Lauderdale...then flashing lights were noticed in the rear view mirror!  Darn, I'm being pulled over!

The officer sauntered over.  "Good evening.  Do you know why I pulled you over?" "No." "You were going ten miles over the speed limit.  May I have your registration and driver's license? ...You'll thank me...This is a warning for the speed, but I'm giving you a ticket for the "cut" registration (I had cut the blank trim off of the 8-1/2 x 5-1/2 inch card so that it would fit in my wallet)...You can go to your local Courthouse and pay the ten dollar fee...Nothing will appear on your driver's record."

The next day, July 13, I went to the Courthouse Clerk of the Court office.  The line was long, with an expected waiting time of an hour.  A clerk informed that if I was here to pay a ticket, I could avoid the line by putting a check attached to a signed copy of the ticket in the mailbox at the side of the waiting room, which I did.

Friday, August 22, in the mail was an official looking letter from Palm Beach County.  "Your driver's license is being indefinitely REVOKED for the State of Florida due to non-payment of a ticket."..."Drat, the office would be closed until Monday!"  I checked my credit union statement to discover that the check to the County had been cashed.  "What happened?  Could this be a government clerical error?  Why should I expect any different?" ...And an over-reaction to a trivial issue...attention paid to this in lieu of dealing with important issues...

I returned to the Courthouse on Monday morning, and surprisingly there was no line!  I approached the attending clerk and handed my ticket and evidence of its payment.  I was told that my revocation had been processed through Tallahassee, and that it would take a while with the manager to clear up the situation.  Fifteen minutes later the manager approached with the clerk to relate that there would be a $7 fee to clear up the revocation with Tallahassee after a $12 "late payment fee"!  I reiterated  that the payment had been made four days after the ticket was issued, and therefore was not late.  I was told that did not matter..."You needed to have cleared this up before Palm Beach County had sent the non-payment case to the Court system!"...As far as Palm Beach County was concerned I was late and needed to be fined..."GOOD GRIEF, Charlie Brown, you can't fight City Hall!"