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Monday, November 21, 2005

You can't pay parking tickets online

Remember how I got (3) parking tickets last week?

I just went online to pay them.

CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge says the parking ticket #'s I entered are invalid.

Not true.

The ticket #'s are valid, they just haven't been keyed onto Hollerith punch cards at the city data processing center yet.

D'oh.

I wrote out a check and mailed the payment.

BOSTON
The City of Boston RMV website let me pay online, and gave me a trascation #, but an email I just got told me that the transaction did not go through:
Citation Number (M1234567) does not exist on the RMV's computer
for one of the following reasons:
* The Citation number you entered is incorrect. Please verify that the
number you entered is correct. If the number was incorrect please
resubmit or
* Your Citation number has not been entered onto the RMV's computer.
Please contact the Telephone Center immediately to have the citation
information and payment entered by a telephone center representative
.

If you have questions, please contact the Telephone Center at 617-351-4500
(within 617/781/339/857) or 1-800-858-3926 (within 351/413/508/774/978)
from 9:00am to 5:00pm, Monday - Friday, except holidays.

We welcome your feedback!
D'oh!

Can't I just skip the phone call and mail in the payment?

Why did they accept payment online?

Their phone system is inefficient too.

It's a maze of voice mail prompts with a final on-hold destination where you are experiencing heavy call volume.

Even though you say so, my call doesn't seem so important to you.

10 Minutes Later:
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

After listening to a recording for over 10 minutes to tell me that I am important, a live operator came on the line:

Operator: Massachusetts blah blah blah, can I help you?

Me: Yes. I just paid a ticket online and then received an email telling me that the ticket # was invalid and to call.

Operator: Can you say that again?

Me: Yes. I just paid a ticket online and then received an email telling me that the ticket # was invalid and to call.

Operator: What is the citation #?

Me: M1234567

Operator: That ticket has not been entered into the system yet, you need to either mail it in or stop by to pay it.

Me: OK. Bye.

So WHY did their email to me say:
Please contact the Telephone Center immediately to have the citation information and payment entered by a telephone center representative

WHY wasn't she listening to me when she asked how she could help me?

WHY can't tickets be entered into an online sytem in a timely manner?

WHY can't police officers accept credit cards on the scene?

WHY?