Useless DVLA - Rant

[PTR200Jag]

Just where do these people get off that run the DVLA and make the changes that affect everyone but that they can't actually control the processes?

I bought my Jaguar on the 8th December 2014...
I was "forced" to tax it under the new rules paying from the 1st December with the seller losing the three weeks tax to the end of December.

As the car was originally taxed until into 2015 the seller was entitled to a refund but only of the full remaining months.

Today I finally got my V5C under my name. so far so good.... BUT then I saw on the first page the previous owners name (previous registered keeper) but after the name MY ADDRESS !! and the number of previous keepers has jumped by one too from the expected, previous, plus one, the seller.

This will require nothing less than a conversation with the DVLA as they cannot seem to answer questions, sent via email, except with a standard letter that answers NOTHING that you have asked about!

If I get asked to return the V5C by the DVLA it will not be happening as I have NO confidence in their ability to deal with the real world and guarantee it would be "lost" with a request fr £25 for a new one! Cynic,moi?, mais oui

In the same mail I get ANOTHER letter... from the DVLA, named to the previous owner but with my abode address ... I open it,
yes you've guessed it's the cheque for the refund of the previous owners road tax

Are these idiots for real?

I could write a complete book on the stupidity of the DVLA and their systems just from my experience in the last year or so, I reckon there will be others on here to back me up on that !

[J44EAG]

This is normal ..... it makes no difference how clearly you inform them of any changes, and yes, it appears to be getting worse.

Others on this BB site may remember a rot ridden XJR I eventually sold to a Polish based buyer. It left my charge at the end of July with tax disc to the end of August. I informed the DVLA that the car has been exported with tax still current. Come early October I received a notice of an £80 fine for not having put the vehicle on SORN for September and a demand for the one month road tax apparently due. I wrote to the DVLA enclosing hard copy prints of my ebay sales dealings together with pictures of the car being put on a car transported destined for Eastern Europe.

A letter arrived back from the DVLA saying they "had turned a blind eye" due to me not informing them of change of owner, tax failure and SORN notification irregularities. I could not believe this because I had only the day before that letter received a V5C in the name of the Polish buyer with my UK address on it! Could it be the same clerk who dealt with your V5C?

The public service sector will never admit it is wrong even when evidence to the contrary is present. It relies on obfuscation, confusion and denial to exasperate people in the knowledge that by so doing will discourage people from kicking up further. If those public sector employees were to be subsequently enter the private sector, they would be in for a very rude awakening and most of them would not hold onto there positions for more than five minutes.

Nothing new. It will never change.

Mike

[JeffV]

We bought our 2007 XKR last October, still awaiting new V5 despite chasing them numerous times and I don't what will happen when we want to put our personal number plate on

[PTR200Jag]

Trouble is, as you say Mike, it is getting worse than it was and now we have lost the local DVLA offices it is impossible to talk to anyone sane enough to get a proper answer out of them... the computer, it say no....

As far as the number plate goes, JeffV, I too am dreading what will happen and will hold off for a while at least... I need to get the previous owners association with my current address off the V5C.


These problems need a club liason / national vehicle mags / MP approach to kick the DVLA into fixing this sort of thing, there is no doubt I, and many others, could give them at least half a dozen things wrong with the DVLA to get them started on!
I will be passing information to as many sources as I can get too as we, the real world people, need to get control of the asylum.

[PTR200Jag]

Well, the DVLA have just got the gold gong, I have received the previous owners notification / confirmation of sale and to say he is no longer responsible for the vehicle...... sent it back as "not known at this address with no stamp on.

Re the original problem:
Conversation with DVLA went along the lines of ... yes we have made a mistake... can you send the V5c back with a covering letter explaining the problem....

err, hold on a minute, I have just explained the problem, you admitted you have made a mistake and you want ME to send the V5 back, with a letter explaining everything I have just told you... apart from the time I have wasted telephoning Swansea you want ME to PAY to send it back because of your mistake.....with the very real possibility that you will lose the paperwork like you did for a refund of tax on my car last year?

No, don't think so,
ends phone call.

Am I "boverered", naw, stuff V5 in drawer, not MY problem, DVLA.

[J44EAG]

Best to swallow dented pride and indignation. The DVLA don`t take prisoners.

Suggest you do a covering letter with copies of anything you have which is correct and send by Recorded Delivery.

I know what a balls ache this can be and that you have done things as they should be but you have to remember you are dealing with a low common denominator which despite that, has unlimited resources to ensure you never win. That is because they are the Government and the Government is always right! It doesn`t need or have common quality control procedures as is common in the private sector.

If you were to ask a Government Official for the reasons they do not have quality control, you may reliably expect that their answer is because they are the Government so they don`t need it.... I learned that lesson many years ago!

Mike

[PTR200Jag]

Best to swallow dented pride and indignation. The DVLA don`t take prisoners.

Mike

At this stage my "pride" isn't dented ! it just makes me kick harder......

I actually don't give ***t about the "Government" and their so called democracy, its a dictatorship in all but name and if we don't take a stand somewhere we will be run over by their so called "elected" members of whatever colour of party.

This is not the first run in with the DVLA I have had, and it won't be the last, and although I have lost some I have also had some good wins against the system, just need to talk to someone there with a higher "common denominator " !!

[Orkney]

Hi PTR,
I'm really not sure how we proceed with these mistakes from DVLA. They seem to have made something of a dogs breakfast of your change of ownership. I think I would do as they say, send them a letter to try to get it put straight and then follow that up with an invoice for the costs you have incurred because of THEIR mistake.
I too have jumped through various fire hoops over a motorcycle which should now be 'Historic' tax class. Many phone calls to DVLA asking how I should go about changing the class eventually sent me on a 40 mile round trip wild goose chase to the Post Office. I was then told that they can't do it and I will have to apply to DVLA!
I think that this might be an MP job. Like you I am totally p'd off with these morons. A Lady here in Orkney had to resit both of her tests a couple of years ago when these idiots lost her licence at renewal time and then said they had no record of her.
A word of warning to all on these BB'S - WRITE DOWN YOUR DRIVER NUMBER NOW!! Always make copies of anything you send to DVLA, they regularly lose stuff and although they will not accept copies themselves, I bet a good Solicitor would make good use of them.

Ian

[mirach]

dvla have been slightly shy of useless for years but definitely getting worse here is my little muse;
I am in the motor trade with premises on a private ind est
I purchase a pug 306 diesel with a blown engine (taken as a p/x)
couple of months later I put on ebay ,sells for £120
the day of collection I arrive at work to find it clamped
I phone up to explain their mistake ,to be told I am not a bona-fide garage
I then email dvla complaints who then tell me they can clamp cars on private land
I then disagree and they reply with" the car was clamped because it has been seen being used on the public highway without road tax" "without a cambelt either" I say
I then spoke to a friend who happens to be a barrister who suggested that I notify them ,that due to my vehicle being clamped illegally. I have today put an additional lock on their clamp for which there will be a charge of £100 to release if paid within 24hrs rising to £200 after this time. there will also be a charge of £12 per day thereafter for the said lock and storage.
to this came NO REPLY AT ALL!
6 months later someone "stole" the car with the clamp and weighed it in
the moral here is; not only are they completely incompetent they are also blatant liars!

[PTR200Jag]

Brilliant Mirach !!

Great to see someone else taking action against these Bar Stewards.

I still want to know how the DVLA are getting away with the double charge on the road tax during the sale and purchase of a vehicle.
Why do they not operate on a 365 day a year charging system? everyone else does, the councils, utility companies and the insurance companies... funnily enough the MoT is based on the days too... what is it with the DVLA that they get away with being out of step with the real world.

If the DVLA were a proper accountable business then they would have been dragged through the courts for FRAUD.

If I sell something to you, take your money and then sell the same item to someone else and take their money too, its FRAUD.

Better than that what are the DVLA selling exactly? The right to drive on the roads that they do NOT own OR maintain... so once again they are selling something they do not even own !!

DOUBLE FRAUD !! its about time someone with some clout in the legal system took them on at their own game and show them up for what they are.

[steve_m]

And what if you own more than one car? You have to pay the road fund even though it is plainly impossible to drive more than one car at a time!

[Orkney]

Unfortunately, Steve M,
You have inadvertently hit the nail on the head by calling it 'Road Fund'. It ceased to be that many years ago when they unilaterally decided to change the name to Vehicle Excise Duty. They now use it for any purpose they see fit, propping up other failing quangos and the like. And as for you PTR, fancy suggesting finding someone with clout in the legal system! It is in that very same system where the whole problem lies.
Must go now, I've already used up one of my 3 rants for today and it's only just after 9am!!

[MyQuest]

Rule 1. The DVLA are NEVER wrong.
Rule 2. If the DVLA ARE wrong, refer to Rule 1....

Mike West

[steve_m]

DVLA: Do Very Little Acceptable.

[PTR200Jag]

Rule 1. The DVLA are NEVER wrong.
Rule 2. If the DVLA ARE wrong, refer to Rule 1....

Mike West