lowquality.net

Virginia DMV has the most retarded policy. In order to do anything online you need a PIN. This is all well and good, but they only distribute the PIN via First Class Mail. This means if I want to change my address online, I need to have them send me a PIN– to the wrong fucking house!! Their only explanation is that “email is not a secure form of communication.”

I think the security issue is a semantic argument. Why would anyone want to change my address with DMV, what would the motivation be there? Identity theft? Perhaps.. but don’t you think identity theft is more likely when you have DMV intentionally sending a security PIN to the WRONG MAILBOX!?!

I am sure you asking, “Justin, why are you changing your address with DMV now, didn’t your family move back in 2005?”

Well, yes that is true. It seems that once a year I am reminded by a police officer (and when I say reminded, I mean pulled over) that my tags are expired. I know that it is my responsibility to make sure I update my registration, but DMV has the wrong address on record and keeps sending my renewal notifications to my old house, so I never get them. Back in 2006 I went to Norfolk City Hall to pay an overdue personal property tax (overdue for the same reason, wrong address on file) and take care of this. The city updated my address (they also changed my name to Jason) and the “DMV Express” line in that building said they’d take care of DMV’s record too.

I never filled out a change of address form.
They never gave me one.
They said they’d change it.

So last night I get another friendly reminder from a VB police officer that doesn’t have anything better to do. I don’t think he would have noticed me if I wasn’t blasting Refused with the window down. I was alone, driving at the speed limit, and totally sober. I did nothing wrong, but he decided to follow me and look for a reason to pull me over. It’s that rock and roll music. This time in the friendly reminder was in the form of a ticket. I know this is my own fault, but, seriously, who thinks about renewing their registration? You get the thing in the mail, you fill it out, pay 30 bucks and you get a new sticker.

To, perhaps, overextend my foolishness, I also went online and realized that you can renew your registration without a PIN number. Since, I wasn’t sure DMV had the wrong address, I continued with the transaction, expecting some kind of confirmation screen that says “This is the address we will be sending your registration to.” I think most people expect this when performing online transactions. I never saw such a screen, and I can only assume my new stickers are being sent to the rednecks at my old house who are still using the curtains we left in my old room. I guess they can put the stickers on that broken down Caravan in the driveway. I feel very safe now.

Just out of curiosity, I went on Massachusetts’ DMV site and saw that the change of address form was super easy to fill out. You need all of your information: Driver’s License Number, VIN, title number. If someone has all of that then they stole your car, your license, and they intend to drive it legally. Not likely. This method seems convenient and as logically secure as could be expected. New York’s DMV does something similar. No PIN for an address change.

One thing I believe about internet solutions, is that if the system fails to work for the least savvy user, it doesn’t work at all. It’s not a solution. True, email is not a secure method of communication. Neither is the internet. The packets being sent from my router, to my service provider to the DMV website have a number of opportunities to be captured and unencrypted. It might be difficult, but it can be done. If someone really wanted to know my information, they could do it. I agree that managed to make some foolish oversights through this debacle, but I doubt I am the only one to do so and I doubt I am the only person to smack my computer with bananas and make monkey noises when using VA DMV’s stupid website.

So now I have printed out a Change of Address form, and I have a confirmation receipt that I renewed my registration– but I won’t get that because it’s going to be sent to the wrong address. If I get pulled over I’ll bet that his computer will tell him I am renewed, that might be fun.