Despite all their protestations that they’ve got their act together, it appears that the DVLA are still balls’ing up people’s licences…
I had bike, car, PCV and HGV Class2 categories on my licence. Did my Class1 a few months ago. They didn’t apply the correct category entitlements to my licence properly. I sent it back and complained. So what do they do?.. Send it back to me with the correct PCV and HGV entitlements, but took away my trailer entitlement for cars, my C1+E category for light lorries and my D1+E category for minibuses! Was licenced to drive an artic but couldn’t tow a little trailer of garden rubbish to the local tip (if I had a garden)!
Back on to them, got my local MP to make representations on my behalf, and it’s finally been sorted out two month later - they’re claiming that their f**k-up with my licence is a rare case and due to them changing their systems… they amended my licence manually. The question remains, if it was a system problem as they claim, how many other people have lost these lesser used entitlements and not noticed it.
I just got mine back for a provisional Cat D,C and they have given me a provisional D1 on my paper licence and full on plastic.
It is a well know fact they screw up on a very regular basis.
I had photocopies, the lot. If it had cost me work, I’d have put my solicitor onto the case for loss of earnings. Now I’ve got all the categories I ever need to get, I’ll never be sending them my licence again. Next time I’ll just say I lost it and pay the fee for a replacement.
My local MP today sent me a copy of the letter they sent to her in which they admitted it was a system error, so clearly I’m not the only person affected.
Just before leaving for a 5000 mile trip around Europe (I’m writing this from the Adriatic coast near Venice), I got a letter from the DVLA informing me that my car (purchased a couple of months ago) was no longer mine.
It took me three hours on the phone (in roaming, I was in Paris at the time) to get them to admit it was a mistake – they had had a “data entry error” with another car of a similar numberplate apparently.
They wanted me to send in my V5 logbook to confirm that I hadn’t sold the car – I refused on the basis that they were institutionally incompetent and likely to lose it, and offered to present the V5 logbook to them if they applied to me in person at my home address…
Years ago I bought an Astra off my mum. Kept it 2 years and then traded it in for a new motor. DVLA got in touch to say that they were reporting me for the offence of having registered the car as mine on the day I bought it, having apparently also registered me as then selling the car later that same day, and had therefore been driving around for 2 years in a car not registered to anyone - an offence. The DVLA guy I spoke to on the phone was an arrogant prick. I told him I wouldn’t be paying any fine to which he said the matter would end up going to court where I would undoubtably face a much bigger fine blah blah blah. “No problem” said I. “I don’t think you appreciate that it’s a pretty serious offence. You seem to be very complacent about it” says arrogant prick. After a bit more verbal ping-pong I pointed out that it was a DVLA error and that the car had in fact been registered to me. He said it definitely hadn’t and that it wasn’t possible for such a mistake to occur. To which I politely pointed out that if the car wasn’t registered to anyone then how come the old bill knew it was me that they had to send a speeding ticket to during the time he claimed the car wasn’t registered to anyone. “Ehhhh… ehhhhh… we’ll ehhhh… need to ehhhhh… check that out”. He then hung up without saying anything more and I never did hear back about that prosecution. Shame as I was looking forward to my day in court.
Had a more recent series of events 3 years ago where different DVLA Enforcement Agencies and the police hassled me for a full year about a variety of parking and driving offences… arrogant letters, fines, threats of court action etc… for a car that they had already acknowledged (in writing) that I’d sold a number of months prior to these offences occuring.
I kind of gather that the DVLA are not too popular around here?
I still have a first DVLA issue paper licence, got to be 30 odd years old now. It’s in a pretty sorry state now having spent months in my back jeans pocket with my passport in Spain. Had to offer it to collect a courtesy car and my daughter was embarrassed by the state of the licence and asked why don’t I get a new one? I said “Because I don’t trust them”.
The motor trader chipped in with “Quite right. They can’t even register new cars correctly. We have to send back about 10% of all documents we get back from them.”
What a bunch of to$$ers.
Just don’t get me started on them selling personal detail to all and sundry in contravention of the Data Protection Acts.
I didnt think this was still going on! When I passed by DAS in 2007, I made sure that all paperwork was copied / scanned before sending off to the DVLA - Now that my licence is due for a photograph renewal in 2013, I will again be taking scans (others on a broken laptop) before sending anything. Not patronising here, but has everyone checked when they need to renew their licence because of the photo (I dont look any different to be honest!)
i read about this in a bike mag and they said it happens a lot. also sometimes the DVLA wont accept photocopies or scans of the licence. their solution was to apply for any changes etc on line. that way you wait til your new licence comes and then you send them your old one. if theyve cocked up youve still got your old one as proof. btw i have not tested this myself as ive still got my old paper one and i love it and im keeping it!!
Quote from the letter the DVLA letter to my local MP…
“I am sorry that Mr---- has had to return his driving licence to us again. I can certainly appreciate the frustration and inconvenience he has been caused over this matter. I have investigated his case and the discrepancies on Mr ----‘s driving licence resulted from a system issue when we were upgrading some of the lesser categories. Mr ---- has my assurances that the information on his driving licence, in particular the start dates relating to the categories held, are correctly recorded on his licence history and on the test-pass of the driver record. I hope I can reassure you that this is an exceptional case and we are currently in the process of implementing a solution into our system that will ensure an incident of this nature does not happen in the future.”
So it’s clear from the DVLA’s reply that it’s a “system issue” and that they’re “in the process of implementing a solution into our system” to enure this stuff doesn’t happen again, but yet they claim the f**k-up with my licence is an “exceptional case”. Don’t know about you, but in my language that’s a contradiction! :hehe:
