So, Geoff Paddock is one of the people who don't get their reminders to renew their license plates. He forgets and is issued a ticket. He complains to the BMV and is told, well, it was one of our computer glitches, and it's just a courtesy anyway, so quit yer whinin'. Paddock isn't buying it:
“But it's more than a courtesy. License fees are a tax, and the least the state can do is to mail notices in a timely manner.”
We know that in our personal lives if we do somebody a favor long enough, it begins to be seen as an obligation, and we're stuck doing it forever. Same thing on the macro level -- if a courtesty is done long enough, it begins to be seen as a duty. I know I'm that way with people who have a claim on my money. I don't keep track of anything -- I get a bill, I write a check. If the bill is late, the check is late. I was tardy in making my fall property tax payment last year because I forgot it was due. The county puts the payment stubs for both the spring and fall payments in the same billing envelope, and we're supposed to remember to hunt the thing up several months later.
The need for a reminder doesn't make Paddock or me right, of course. What's due is due, whether we're nudged or not.
Comments
Apologist for the BMV fiasco now?
Every year, in October, I have to renew my license plates. The only thing that has changed in that time is that I used to have the entire month and now I have until October 15. I know this. I daresay that Mr. Paddock has lived in Indiana longer than I have (21 years). Well, duh. I have a hard time working up any empathy for stories like this.
With us, it's APRIL....and I'm religiously fanatical about making SURE we get renewed in plenty of time, reminders notwithstanding. Same goes for bills, insurance, etc.
To me, ANYONE that owns or drives a car has a (here comes THAT word again) RESPONSIBILITY to KNOW what is due, and when.
(That's why we ASK QUESTIONS when we don't know things.)
Some get it...and some don't.
Sorry Goeff...no sympathy here either.
(make a list of "due dates" & put it on the FRIDGE)
B.G.