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 computerD'oh!
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!
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?