I usually pay way before the due date, because I would like to get it done with. The lingering thought of having to pay the bill significantly reduces the enjoyment factor of daily life.
Then I noticed the due date. The bill says the due date is on or before July 8th. Hmmm. What is going on here? That is because the day the bill arrived was Saturday, July 9th. That's right. The bill arrived one day after the due date. So I checked the stamp on the envelope.
Mr. Pitney and Mr. Bowes agree that the bill was sent on July 6th! That means that California DMV sent the bill two days before the due date of July 8th. Okay, no problem. I will just pay it. Then there was this schedule of late payment:
Whoa! If my payment is postmarked after July 8th, I have to pay $22 more. Wait, when the bill arrived, my bill was already overdue. The gracious CA DMV allowed me only two days of grace period, and the US Post Office used it, and plus one more day to get the bill to me from Sacramento. This got me thinking.
There are a few options: 1) I could go to the DMV office first thing on Monday, which is my day off. 2) I could call and make an appointment, in order to shrink the waiting time, but then it will take at least one week until the actual appointment date. 3) I can just pay $22 and forget about it.
I feel like going there first thing Monday. because this is one prime example of government bureaucracy's inefficiency and mess-up. Small people have no choice but spending their precious time to redress this bureaucratic BS. And the poor people will have to be there, because $22 is a big chuck of their money. In this case, the poor is getting the screw in multiple ways: the time, the energy, and the expense of transportation.
What do you think I would do? Do you think I would waste my day off to save $22 dollars, but waste my time and energy and gas money which will not be reimbursed? Or just swallow the $22, and take a hit?
Lacking the phone number of an important bureaucrat, I think I will eat that $22, and enjoy my precious day off. The time and the energy I would have to expend, in order to retrieve that $22 is worth far more than $22.
This is just the benefit of living under the bureaucratic system that is strapped for cash. If I could, I would fire the whole chain of bureaucrats for this kind of FU, but DMV job is probably the safest job in the world.
