I bought a new car on August 13th to much delight. The car is great, runs like a dream, has all the features I wanted, I love the car. What I don't love is the issues I am running into while trying to get license plates. Let me first describe how the process should have worked:
CarMax sends the title to Johnson County with my name on it. I go to Johnson County and buy license plates. Johnson County sends the title to the leinholder.
That is it, everything should be done in the background and I just get plates. Here is how it is currently going:
I went to Johnson County last week to get my plates and they told me they had not received any information from CarMax, so I would have to contact CarMax to have them send the info to Johnson County. I call CarMax to give them the information to find out that they have already sent my title out to the U of Iowa Credit Union, my leinholder. CarMax does fax me a copy of the title and the form moving the title to my name however, and tells me that will be enough to get the plates. Now why I have to talk between CarMax and Johnson County, I do not know. It was fairly irritating since neither group wants to accept responsibility, but that is fine.
Today I go into Johnson County with the forms, ready to get my plates. Right away the person tells me that these forms are no good and that they need the actual title. I then tell them that CarMax sent them to the Credit Union, to which the lady tells me that I would need to contact the Credit Union to get the title and bring it in to get plates. I get quite angry with her because CarMax and Johnson County are telling me two very different things and they refuse to talk to each other. However, I leave without blowing the place up and call the Credit Union when I get back to work. I ask if I can get a copy of the title to get plates, to which they say that Johnson County would have to request the title from the Credit Union and they cannot give it to me in person. I confirm that Johnson County, which has no idea I bought a car except for my two visits, is supposed to contact the Credit Union to request a copy of the title. They said yes, not realizing how absurd this sounds.
I call back Johnson County, to request that they request my title to hold onto so I can go in there and get my plates. The lady at Johnson County, which was the same person I talked to when I went in there today, was hesitant to contact the Credit Union because she knows my name will not be on the title and it will cause a problem. I told her that I am aware of that, but if she could please request it to at least get the process in motion, I would appreciate it. She said she would contact the Credit Union and talk to them finally. I am really really hoping that these three groups can figure out what they need to figure out because I am real tired being in the middle of their mess. It sounds like it is all in their hands now, but we will see.
