Back in March (March 8, to be exact) I walked out to my car, prepared to run some errands and clutching the stickers to update my license plates. I really hoped I wouldn’t see a ticket on my windshield, since the tabs were overdue. Alas, staring back at me from behind the windshield wiper, was the bright-ass orange of a Chicago parking violation. I groaned, but knew I had it coming. I had been confused about when I needed to renew the plates and let it slide entirely too long.
When I got home that afternoon, I sucked it up, went online and paid the $50 fine. I moved on with life, attending a friend’s concert and getting stared at by a creepy train guy. Life went on. Until yesterday.
I got home, checked the mail and found an envelope addressed to me from the city’s department of revenue. Inside was a final notice for a ticket given out on March 6 for expired plates. And now it’s costing me $100.
Um, what? Didn’t I pay that? I checked my bank account and saw that yes, the $50 did clear my account on March 10. Nothing annoys me more than getting something like this–a bill you know you paid–and it’s too late in the day to do anything about it, what with working and all. Actually, that’s not true, it’s more annoying to get it on a Friday and have this hanging over you all weekend. Actually, there are more annoying things in the world. Like Ann Coulter.
Anywho, this morning I get to work and proceed to have the following conversation.
Me: “Hi, I got a final notice for a ticket that I already paid.”
City Worker Extraordinaire: “What’s the ticket number?…”Ok what happened is that you actually got two tickets, one on the 4th, which you paid. You paid it so quickly it didn’t run through the system and isn’t showing up when you search for it online. The other was on the 6th and that is the one that isn’t paid.”
Me: “Um, ok. But I only had one ticket on my car, that’s why I only paid one.”
CWE: “Maybe the other one blew off or something. That’s why you get the letters.”
ME: “Ok, but how come the other one was $50 and this one is $100?”
CEW: “Cause of the late fee.”
Me: “But I never got the ticket. I never got one of these letters. I mean, you can see that I paid the other ticket within a week; I called as soon as I got this letter. If I knew I had to the ticket, I would have paid it.”
CWE: “No, we sent three letters on…”
Me: “But I never got them.”
CWE: “I’m sorry. It’s not our policy to waive the fee.”
Me: “But I didn’t know I had a ticket!”
CWE: “Sorry, that’s just our policy. If you want, I can have a supervisor call to explain it to you.”
Me; “I don’t need to have it explained to me. I understand the policy. I’m not going to spend 15 minutes on the phone with your supervisor to have him or her tell me what you just did. If no one is going to waive the fee just forget about it.”
CWE:”Ok, thanks. Have a good day.”
So yeah. Grrr! I’m out $100. Which I kind of needed to paint my new apartment. I don’t really want to live with the baby blue walls it currently has. So I guess I’m just out $100.
Sigh. What can a girl do? Make sure her license plate doesn’t expire. That’s a good first step.
Yeah…I’m going through the EXACT.SAME.THING. That’s EERIE. And I’m still trying to figure out HOW to renew my plates because I’m apparently a DUNCE. Gaahhhhh!
grrr!! that is SO FRUSTRATING!!!
I don’t think they boot you until you have 3 unpaid tickets…. so if you are feeling lucky, then roll the dice. c u friday for paint-a-thon 2008
Yeah, um, that sucks. Sorry! Since you got royally farked this time around, you clearly are due for some good karma.
That’s a bum rap. Though, you may want to do a little investigating. I could’ve sworn I heard a story on the news this week about a cop who wrote hundreds of tickets, turned the “stubs” into the police department for processing, but never put the horrid orange tickets on cars. Police found piles of the orange things in his home on an unrelated search. Oh my!
Here’s the story: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6141517
That is so irritating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ugh how frustrating. I’m sorry! As for your walls, it could be worse. They could be rusty orange or poo brown
Ew.
That blows! “Explain it to you” I hate that line.
oh, how awful!!! i’m so sorry. i hate how powerless we are against The Man.
I loathe Chicago’s horrible ticketing system. I have gotten oodles of street cleaning tickets when I leave my house on the daily before 9 am. Therefore I must have been given a ticket before 9am. GRRRRR..
One time something similar happened to us at O’Hare. We were picking up a friend, and were not supposed to park by the curb. The traffic person came to tell us to move, and we tried to, but no one would let us out, so she gave us a ticket.
Then, we followed the tickets instructions to fight it, and sent it off. We didn’t hear about it for a long time, until finally, we got another ticket, for 3x as much, because we failed to pay the first one. When we called to complain, they said the same thing - they sent us letters telling us they declined our attest to it, and we needed to pay it. We never got the letters. I think this is an effin’ scam.
Sorry to vent!
grrr, i’d be annoyed also.
one of my coworkers just went through a huge ticket hassle and spent 3 hours running around trying to solve it. so glad i do not have a car.
[...] I’ll let her tell it. Here’s Cheryl’s story. [...]