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After several trips to the license bureau over a few months, I finally have my license plates. Both of them. And they match. And the stickers on them also match. I put the plates on the car as soon as I got home. No more driving on one plate and a piece of paper in the rear window.
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jmaynard had to stop in at the License Bureau today I went along to ask about my license plates once again. Jay's issue was readily taken care of, or at least started off. Then I asked about my plates again. I got to explain what happened yet again as the Wednesday crew and the Tuesday crew seem to have zero overlap.
That might have been for the best. After I explained the situation, they checked their system and found that I had indeed applied for the renewal plates in September, but there wasn't a record of anything after that. That triggered a call to St. Paul to find out what was going on. From the sound of things, the paperwork had arrived in St. Paul but was still unprocessed. I was told that the person who took the call would be "walking it across the hall" to be taken care of as this delay has gone on quite long enough. Hopefully I get a new plate (or plates) in a week or two.
I can only wonder how W9SIO has fared. I hope he has had better luck than I have had so far.
Back in October I had some trouble with a license plate mix-up. I went to the license bureau then to see about straightening things out. The result of that was that I've now been driving on a single plate and a temporary paper placed in the rear window. Such a paper is valid for sixty days.
That was about sixty days ago. Last week I called the license bureau about things and was told that if my plates hadn't arrived by Tuesday to stop in and bring the paper to trade for a new one. The plates have yet to arrive and today's mail was already delivered, so off to the license bureau I went.
I did get a new piece of paper, good for another sixty days. I also got another expression of bewilderment that things had gotten this far along without full resolution. The clerk took down my phone numbers and said the matter will looked into. I expect I will get a call, but I don't expect it to be all that soon.
This noon I stopped in at the local license bureau office to see about getting the license plate situation sorted out. When I showed the plates, the initial reaction was sort of disbelief, wondering how such a thing could happen. This was quickly followed by a concerned bewilderment of what to do. I explained that the while the stickers matched (each has a small number on it) the one plate had the callsign of a fellow in Moorhead. "Oh, you ran the plate already?" I explained that I could check a public database of amateur radio callsigns.
I was asked what sort of vehicle I drove as someone looked up the two plates. Both plates were photocopied. There was more puzzlement about what exactly to do. When another worker came into the office, I got the peculiar question, "Do you want to keep this one?" I explained it wasn't really mine and the callsign was issued to someone else.
Eventually:
* I wound up filling out some of the form for a new set of plates. They weren't sure how to fill all of it out, but would be taking car of that as they figured it out. I hope it works out right and that someone doesn't try to charge me the plate fee again for this.
* I was issued a new piece of paper to display in the rear window, allowing (another) sixty days of running without the exact right new plates.
* I was told to put the one valid plate, which was returned to me, on the rear of the car.
* I was told to remove the front plate, so there'd be no mismatch. (The paper supposedly will cover the absence of the front plate. Minnesota is not a rear plate only state.)
I fully expect to be answering questions from folks about the absence of a front plate. I also expect that among those folks will be a policeman or two. For that reason, I will be keeping the old plates in the car, just in case someone has an idea different from what I was told at the license bureau.
CQ W9SIO DE N9IOG
19 October 2005 19:10I've had my car long enough now the state of Minnesota is issuing new license plates for it. This should be no big deal, other than I have a state-issued piece of paper taped in the rear window showing that I did pay the registration renewal fee and that I am awaiting the new plates while still driving with the old ones. Today the new plates arrived, and tonight I figured I'd get changing the plates out of the way. Then I opened the envelope.
The envelope showed a plate with my callsign, N9IOG, as it should. The plate that was not showing should, of course, have also been N9IOG. It was not. Instead it was W9SIO. That's not my callsign. That callsign belongs to David Arnholt up in Moorhead, MN who was very surprised to get a call telling him I had one of his license plates. One of the plates he's been waiting for for some time from the sound of things. Tomorrow we'll each be making a trip to our local license bureau to try to get this straightened out.
