Incompetence

I went to the Maryland MVA today to get the title for my car settled before moving to Virginia and needing to get my car titled and registered there. Initially, I was planning to write about how long it takes to do something fairly simple at the MVA, and how they really should have more than one station open given the number of people waiting. However, while there, I discovered something else to write about, something that makes the MVA's inefficiency pale in comparison.

When I first moved to Frederick, I opened a bank account with Chessie Federal Credit Union, because it was easy and because I didn't need direct deposit or a minimum balance (good since I was basically unemployed and poor). There are a couple of people who work in their Frederick branch who seem okay, although many of its employees are slow and quite obviously find absolutely no joy in their jobs. That's okay, though, I can deal with that - I use ATMs and online banking and rarely have to deal with someone face to face.

However, when I needed to refinance my car loan, I decided to go through them. Big mistake. First, they lost my title. Even though I turned it in to them as soon as it was sent to me (and they had record of this), they kept sending me letters, strongly worded ones, telling me I needed to send them the title. I would call, they would say that they knew I didn't have it but had no control over the content of the letter, and that it was lost somewhere in transit to the MVA. This went on for several months, until finally, the car loan was paid off.

At that point, I got another letter from them, asking again if I had the title, accompanied by a letter releasing the lien on my car. I called to explain that, no, I didn't have the title, and that I had been through this repeatedly with them, at which point they told me that I needed to go to the MVA and request another copy of the title, and at the point use the letter they sent to have the lien information removed from the title.

First question - I know they charged me $20 to get the new title with their name on it as lien holder. Since they didn't manage to accomplish this, and I have to pay the money again, shouldn't I get this money back?

So, here I am today at the MVA, trying to take care of this (yes, at the last moment, I realize this), and whenI get there, I find that not only is there one recorded lien on my car, but two. So not only did they manage to lose the title, but they managed to get their name added without removing the other company!

I called the other company, GMAC, this afternoon to ask them to send me a letter indicating that they had no security interest in my car and that then lien had been satisfied. The problem is, they need to send it to Chessie, since they're the ones who paid it off technically, not me. In my mind, this is not a good solution, because if Chessie can lose the title, they can certainly lose a letter. The guy from GMAC was understanding and tried to be helpful, and suggested calling Chessie and asking them to call GMAC and request the letter be sent directly to me. So, that's what I'll be doing tomorrow.

And hopefully, when all this is done, I can take the Maryland title with the GMAC lien on it, and the GMAC lien release letter, to the Virginia DMV, and use that to get my car titled in Virginia free and clear and in my name only. Otherwise, I'll be granting my dad power of attorney and sending everything to him (including the $20 fee), so he can fix the title in Maryland, before titling in Virginia.

What a mess. There's another reason to pay cash for cars - no need to deal with liens.

Can you tell I'm frustrated? Inefficiency is annoying, but incompetence really ticks me off.