Goddamn motor vehicle registry

I went to the RTA on Saturday to get my license transferred interstate, and at the same time get my new car transferred into my name, by transferring a rather large sum of cash into their name. Can’t be done. I haven’t bought the appropriate proof of address. That’s ok. Next time I come back bring proof of address, and we’ll transfer the license, and use that as proof of address to transfer the car.

Turn up at about 10 this morning. There aren’t as many people as Saturday. Still quite a few, but at least I can find a seat. The numbers are being called up quickly too. “I’m glad I’ve done my make up, this should go pretty smoothly”. HA!

Three numbers get called in a row, all at the same desk. My number is the last of them. Hooray. I only had to wait 20 minutes. But the person at that desk was pushing the button, and yelling the number, then pushing the button again to bring up the next number. So by the time I get there, (and I’m not slow), there is already someone there. OK. I’ll just wait. More numbers are getting called this entire time. I approach another service window. The person there says she’ll serve the people she just called up, and then deal with me. I can handle that. Minor hiccup. The original lady finishes serving. I’ll go over there. She hasn’t called anybody up. That’s a good sign.

When she turns back from talking to the person next to her, I tell her that my number was missed. The transaction starts with her demanding what I want. It continues on with her taking my licence and telling me that I’m on a P2, even though my license says it’s an open, and she tells me I’m wrong for trying to point this out. I’ve held a Victorian license previously. When I am unable to present it because its standard policy to surrender a license when you move interstate, she grabs a piece of paper, fills it out and walks off. Leaving me standing there like a spare dick at a wedding.

She comes back, and with no explanation of what she’d just wandered off to do, she picks up the next piece of paperwork. The proof of address is in the form itself. She picks it up, and tears of a note that was stapled to the bill. That note needed to be attached to the bill for a very important reason. When I interrupt her to ask when she expects a response, she just says it’ll be back by tomorrow. How silly of me to ask that. I’m working for the next 11 days solid. So I can only guess where that piece of paper is going to be by the time I get back there.

She then turns to the person next to her and starts helping them serve their customer. How rude is that! She turns her attention back to my paperwork, and quotes a number at me. I have no idea that she’s even talking to me right there. She quotes the number again. I register she’s talking to me, but I have no idea what she’s talking about. She looks at me, and the penny drops. How nice of her to say ‘That’ll be $###, how would you like to pay?’ I tell her I want it on the plastic, on savings. She just quotes the number at me again. I pick up the bank card and hold it up saying ‘SAVINGS’. Ok. She pushes the eftpos machine at me. Screw that. I push my card at her. She can fucking swipe it by now. She swipes the card, and wanders off with my license and electricity bill. Doesn’t even tell me to enter my pin. When she gets back she leans over and helps serve another persons customer AGAIN! Seeing red by now. When the payment is processed she prints a receipt, and pushes it at me through the window. She doesn’t even say goodbye or have a nice day. I lean over the counter and say, voice all honey like ‘have a nice day’, just to get at her, and she doesn’t even acknowledge me.

I walked out of there extremely unhappy with her. And went to Australia post to pay a bill. Walk in there and the line is to the door. GRRR. I’m about ready to hit the person in front of me from sheer frustration. But the line advances quickly and within less than 5 minutes I’m being served. The lady serving me didn’t smile at me, and she wasn’t overly chatty, but she was polite. She didn’t worry that I tried to exceed my EFTPOS limit. Can I do a split payment? No worries. When the transaction was done she waited for me to get organized, put my paperwork in my bag, and turn away before calling the next person up. Australia post gets a pretty bad rap sometimes, but I’ve never had any problems with them. And compared to the RTA they’re perfect.

One bit that really got to me about the way that biotch handled that case – I was talking to the guy on Saturday, and he looked at the issue dates and all on my license. And he told me all I needed was a proof of address. He acknowledged that it was an open license, and he saw the issue date.