Recently, I had the worst customer experience I have had in my entire life…even worse than anything we had in France. That was with Rogers trying to change our cellphones from month to month to a pay as you go plan. There were times when I thought I would have to check myself into hospital for stress.
The person involved is a "Vickie" from the California DMV, Department of Motor Vehicles. Now, most people in Canada, ourselves included, wouldn't think you'd get much customer service from a government agency that has no reason to help you particularly…especially if you're a Canadian and you have an odd situation. They call all the shots.
Background. We bought a car in the US last year and store it in our garage in PS. The car licence renewal is not tied to insurance like it is in B.C. so you renew separately with DMV. We have a very small mailbox in PS and like most Canadian snowbirds, leave a note to the postman not to leave mail so anything that comes is "return to sender". Our car licence renewal is in Aug so that is the only piece of mail we need to get. We had our car insurance people help us fill out the "change of address" form so this would come to us in Vancouver.
When it didn't come I became concerned since we wouldn't be able to drive our car legally without it. I figured I'd get some complete run around when I phoned DMV. I almost immediately got a person, the wonderful "Vickie" and she informed me the change of address hadn't happened and that I owed over $200 in penalties already because I hadn't renewed in time. She immediately cancelled those penalties, assured me the sticker and registration would arrive in time since she would deal with it immediately the cheque arrived. She gave me all the correct things to do including taking my phone number in case there was a problem and also to make sure I put on the envelope "ATTN Vickie".
So, the sticker and registration arrived today in Vancouver….thank you, thank you, Vickie!
I will be writing a letter of commendation to the DMV and probably a letter to the editor of the Sacremento newspaper where the state DMV offices are and the city where she works.
Wow…the worst and the best all in one week!
Now, I don't want to rave on too much and actually things in Canada are better than they were. But in 1977, when we returned from a year doing graduate studies in Eugene, Oregon, we decided to go out for breakfast a few days later. We went to The Empress, which was the best hotel in Victoria at the time. We waited over an hour to get our breakfast, you had to trip a server to get another cup of coffee, the eggs were cold when it did arrive, and it was about 4x as much as you'd pay in the US.
Jim and I looked at each other and reflected…ah right…we're back in Canada now. Welcome home. Service, value…non existent.
And while I'm on a rant….which I allow myself very rarely on my blog because I know people don't want to read that. I hate the anti-Americanism I see in Canada. People who are intelligent and would never make a racist or homophobic comment, feel they can make the most outrageous negative generalizations about Americans. So…enough said.
