DVLA - PRAAAAAIIIIIISE THEM!

[Felly Magic]

I just SORN'd a car online, took all of about 2 minutes. So meh

[HMC]

Ive chopped and changed cars this last year like nobodys business. So far (dont want to tempt fate as one sale and 2 purchases are being processed) each time the paperwork has come through swifty and the DD tax thing has worked well. The online tax thing is great - takes a couple of minutes max and breaks the payment down, saves on having to faff about and send off for a refund that then used to take ages to get. I imported a car last year and that happened without a hitch and swiftly too. Also the online keeper change thing is great as the new v5 only takes a few days to arrive and from the sellers perpectiuve you can have e mail comfirmation of the time of the paperwork transaction which should make it easier to contest parking fines etc (been there, done that) that new keepers seem to pick up the day I sell them the car. I IZ DVLA APOLOGIST

[HillmanImp]

They have recently fucked things right up for me resulting in a fine. Slightly shocked by this, I went and checked my other cars and narrowly avoided another. 

 

When I got the Jag off JohnK, I taxed it almost immediately. However for a reason best known to them, it didn't register on their system probably something to do worth the plate changing over from his private one, I am not sure?

 

Few weeks ago I get a letter saying that the car has been untaxed and that I need to pay a fine which after checking my bank statements, I begrudgingly paid as they were right, the car had not been taxed. However, this was the first communication about this and it was a complete surprise. 

 

This made me check the other cars and it transpired that they had recently cancelled my direct debit for the Visa too and it was also untaxed. Not a word from them telling me they had done this. I rang them up and they said that they just do that if a car is not MOT'd they will cancel the DD and it looks like it's up to me to notice this and make it SORN (I have been meaning to get round to mending the Visa and take it for the occasional blez up and down the road to keep it fresh so just left it taxed). 

 

All these fancy computerised systems but I don't get an automatic warning that something has gone wrong and the tax has been automatically cancelled but Dooovla get one and if you are not aware of a problem, they go ahead and issue you a fine without warning. 

 

So the moral of the story is, if you do tax your car make sure the payments come out and don't just rely on Dooovla getting it right as they probably won't and won't warn you if there's been a bollocks up at your end too, they will just bum your wallet.

[doobietoo]

-1,000,001  they are still a bunch of useless muppets.... I taxed my PT online, it showed up as taxed then no payment was taken by DD and all of a sudden I was untaxed and I got a "last chance letter" good job I keep the confirmation email in the car as  if stopped the rossers would have taken the car away. How many people will lose their cars because the DVLA cannot even get the basics right.... They did however manage to take a payment they were not entitled to on my old car..... which they have yet to return a month later..... they are about as useful as a lesbian at a stag do...

[sheffcortinacentre]

i'm still waiting on 2 red logbooks (from when some where "misplaced") even though I've been told several time they're sending them.

luckly I still have the blue ones.

[garbaldy]

Hillmanimp

When I tax on line I get an email as proof so surely the fine could be quashed.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Hillmanimp

When I tax on line I get an email as proof so surely the fine could be quashed.

 

Indeed. I've a car taxed from midnight (1/1/16) but in a SUPERB SHOW OF DVLA SUPREMACY it is showing on the system as taxed already!

[dollywobbler]

I can't fault them. Yet. We'll see what happens with the Volvo. I'm not going to cancel the direct debit just to see if their procedures actually work at all.

[nigel bickle]

I fall off their system, often. I have numerous ongoing " issues" with DVLA, most intensely aggravating.

 

I'll not cite examples, I would just get angry; but consider myself very fortunate to be able to legally export cars to nearby Yurop, (which I've been forced to do several times recently) to avoid forcible internment.

[Lord Sterling]

because....LEAN...thee idea of a tiny public sector, with most services privatised or run like they are a privatised for-profit service (to give you maximum VALUE FOR MONEY!)...

+ 1

 

In the course of my working life, I have found myself I have found myself working in the civil service a few times. This is exactly correct, the way of working before had been to help and serve the general public, but the civil service having been inspired by the business practicesmof the private sector have slowly introduced the private sector way of working and obtaining results.

 

Personally I've had very little trouble with the DVLA so far. Only incident I recall was there being threatening demand letters of tax or fine for a car I sold a months prior. I eventually found an email address for some high-up manager/chief or summat and fired off an email explaining that the vehicle in question had been sold. An investigation was held and I heard nothing since, this was way back in early 2009.

 

At the end of the day, these kinds of places involve human and electronic intervention both of which are not infallible so can and will go wrong sometimes, the effects which may make for a galling time for the end customer, but unfortunately it happens. When a service delivers what you want people tend to jump at every opportunity to praise them. Really the only time they should be praised is when they go above and beyond (sorry to use 'professional' phrases here) to get you the result you want.

[Pillock]

I think Hirst and Nigel have nailed it - the DVLA is made for, and works well for, Mr and Mrs Average who buy a car once every one or two years, they tax it when they buy it, perhaps put their private plate on it, and just drive it around.

It doesn't work when you're importing chod from the other side of the world, re-registering cars that have been off the road since 1975, or selling a car on before you've even got the V5 from buying it. I don't suppose they could come up with all these scenarios when they were acceptance-testing the system, and it would probably cost twice as much to get it 100% perfect as it did to get it 95% perfect.

[Andrew353w]

+ 1

 

In the course of my working life, I have found myself I have found myself working in the civil service a few times. This is exactly correct, the way of working before had been to help and serve the general public, but the civil service having been inspired by the business practicesmof the private sector have slowly introduced the private sector way of working and obtaining results.

 

+1 to what he says! I've done 25+ years in the civil service and only 4 to go before retirement, during which I've seen business practices creep in & destroy what the civil service is-or rather was! It is (or should be) in the first instance a SERVICE for the public. I'm all for being efficient and hard working (on-one can really object to that) but when I'm constantly bombarded with messages about the "business need" in my "sector" I do wonder what's going on... Oh, and I'm no longer allowed to refer to myself a s a "civil servant" any more.. 

 

[Rant over]

 

That said, my frequent dealings with DVLA have been 100% successful!

[JohnDeere]

It's bloody difficult, near impossible, to tax a car online if you(r partner) has lost the reminder with the code. The website makes it look like you can, but you get stuck in a loop. Luckily drawers were searched and code turned up. And that's for £0 roadtax, but you can't put that onto a "free" direct debit so still have to do it annually.

 

But the DVLA website is a joy compared with National Savings. It has just taken me two weeks of pain to open a savings account, something that took 45 seconds on Tesco bank.

[Pillock]

I've taxed from the V5 before I'm sure....

[Richard]

If they are trying to streamline the operation I would suggest that adding the extra complication of non-transferable tax maybe isn't the right way to go about it.

[pilninggas]

If they are trying to streamline the operation I would suggest that adding the extra complication of non-transferable tax maybe isn't the right way to go about it.

 

A measure - as alluded throughout this thread - to get more money from folk like us, who churn through vehicles for all sorts of legitimate reasons, and nothing to do with tax evasion as the divvyLA and the politicians would have you believe.

 

On a sidenote I bought a Suzuki Gamma yesterday - I just insured it with Carole Nash and it is already showing on the MIDdatabase, which is superb as at one time it took at least 24 hours, but often upto 5 working days. No squeaky bum tomorrow, when I go out on it (well apart from the fact it has awful rubber on it!)

[rantingYoof]

If they are trying to streamline the operation I would suggest that adding the extra complication of non-transferable tax maybe isn't the right way to go about it.

"LEAN" practices are supposed to help make a production line more efficient, however if a public sector service is being forced by way of reduced funding to adopt good profit-making business practices - as opposed being funded appropriately so as to make it easier for people to go through the necessary transactions when buying/selling - the adoption of such a scheme makes perfect sense.

 

I mean, making all participants in a vehicular transaction lose out financially to your own benefit is GENIUS if you are someone like Donald Trump or Alan Sugar. Bonus is that there is no alternative service for the customer to switch to, and it's something they absolutely cannot avoid, so the customer is over the barrel, and they have the whip. Or pointy cactus.

 

Of course, there should be a single public service run for the benefit of the people. However this gives a Government a good excuse to, at some point in the future, introduce "competition" by way of allowing for third party private companies to offer to take the process out of your hands and sort everything out for you.

 

While I have to hold my hands up to admitting to being a wee bit of a pinko lefty socialist type (Lexus purchases notwithstanding, natch) I'm not one of those "NO PRIVATE SECTOR!! PROFIT IS EVIL! RARRRGH" types.

 

But what's happening with the DVLA is just creeping privatisation of what should be a service that is purely run for the benefit of its customers. Under this particularly blue flavour of Government it's going to be something that is seen more frequently in more and more places.

[Des]

Quite a few years ago I sold a car, took a deposit, buyer to collect next day, went to dig out the V5, gone, proper lost, I suppressed panic and phoned DVLA  at around 3PM to get the ball rolling on a new document, this was when postie used to do his rounds twice a day and the replacement V5 hit my doormat at 7AM next day, at no charge.

Whatever happens, the DVLA can never be as good as they were in the past. 

[mrcitroen]

DVLA owe me money. I put the BX on sorn and the still took the DD. spoke to a guy there and this happens plenty. Best to cancel the DD before sorn.

 

Told me a cheque would be with me in8 weeks. 8 weeks have come and gone, so another phone call when they open next week.

[Partridge]

If it wasn't for the direct debit option, I'd not be able to afford my 800 last year. It's way easier being able to do everything online - I think they're pretty good.

[Skizzer]

I'm massively amused at the idea that the government used to be brilliant at customer service 'until the bloody Tories got in'.

 

I've dealt with the DVLA quite a lot this year, and all has been very smooth and straightforward.  My recent experience is that they're friendly and helpful on the phone and get stuff done, in contrast to the don't-care jobsworths I've dealt with in the past in various of the old local offices.  I don't do tax by DD though, and it certainly looks like that needs more work to get the new processes properly sorted.

 

As far as 'lean' goes, if somebody has told you it means 'get it off your desk/phone as fast as possible regardless of the outcome' then they're doing it very, very wrong.

[Captain Slow]

If it wasn't for the direct debit option, I'd not be able to afford my 800 last year. It's way easier being able to do everything online - I think they're pretty good.

 

...Hang on...

 

Sam, you have to my knowledge had considerable issues this year as a direct result of how the DVLA do things online.

 

Am I not right in remembering that until recently you were paying 2 lots of tax on XOG because you SORNed it in June, retaxed it in August, they hadn't stopped taking payments and let you set a second payment up on the same car?

 

And am I not right in remembering you were also paying tax on the green one when it had been SORNed for 4 months? The DVLA has stung you for about £200 because of the new system mate - that's not good, it's criminal.

 

 

 

 

The DVLA online system works if you keep an eye on things very carefully. It isn't a fit and forget system like they tell you it is.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I've had no particular issues with the DVLA this (last) year but it'll be a cold day in hell before I trust them with my bank details.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I'm massively amused at the idea that the government used to be brilliant at customer service 'until the bloody Tories got in'.

 

I've dealt with the DVLA quite a lot this year, and all has been very smooth and straightforward.  My recent experience is that they're friendly and helpful on the phone and get stuff done, in contrast to the don't-care jobsworths I've dealt with in the past in various of the old local offices.  I don't do tax by DD though, and it certainly looks like that needs more work to get the new processes properly sorted.

 

As far as 'lean' goes, if somebody has told you it means 'get it off your desk/phone as fast as possible regardless of the outcome' then they're doing it very, very wrong.

 

 

The Tories defo didn't introduce tax exemption, and labour defo didn't axe it.

 

 

Nasty Tories.

Wonderful Labour. 

 

 

As I said - DVLA is not perfect. But it's a shit load better than it was. The last set of Labour clowns did nothing with this huge, uncontrollable behemoth and it's various sub offices. The current lot are slowly dragging it into the current century and all I can see are improvements.

 

Is anyone really suggesting the old DVLA didn't fuck things up?

[strangeangel]

My experience of the DVLA is the same as it has always been - that they are a largely useless, outsourced call centre.

 

That their incompetence has worked in my favour on the odd occasion is neither here nor there; it's still  incompetence. The notion that the 'service' they offer now is any better than, say, five years ago is the stuff of fantasy. Frankly, you'd have to be puddled to think anything of the sort.

[garbaldy]

Is anyone really suggesting the old DVLA didn't fuck things up?

I have never had a problem with them on anything vehicle related but was one of the unfortunate who had to resit my bike test.

[Richard]

Why did you have to resit your bike test?

[garbaldy]

Why did you have to resit your bike test?

Past it in 89 and it disappeared of my licence on the move to placcy card

[wuvvum]

My experience of the DVLA is the same as it has always been - that they are a largely useless, outsourced call centre.

Every time I've had reason to call them, the person on the other end has definitely been Welsh.

[strangeangel]

Every time I've had reason to call them, the person on the other end has definitely been Welsh.

I was referring to the fact that Capita often try to pass themselves off as a government agency when they are, in fact, just contractors with none of the statutory powers they wish they had access to.