I get told that I like complaining. I guess this post might vindicate that. hmmm.

Anyway, I don’t think I like complaining just for its own sake. I just think it’s better than not complaining when something stupid is unreasonably frustrating. Better than bottling it up anyway.

Here’s one example (warning: complaining below).

I’m trying to apply for a learners driver permit. I have applied for, and done my Driver Theory Test (on dtts.ie). That was a positive experience, apart from having to figure out that there’s a separate organisation with their own website you need to go to.

Now, I’m trying to put together my application. This needs to include a bunch of things:

• An application form. There is no online version of this - you need a paper one. To can apply online to get one posted to you on citizensinformation.ie, but they explicitly take no responsibility for whether or not you’ll actually receive it (I think they forward the request to an office in Mayo - seriously - and leave its fate in their hands). So far I haven’t received it. However, my girlfriend was good enough to get one for me from the local Garda station (that you can do this is some kind of insider knowledge that is not advertised anywhere).
• You need an eyesight report. Turns out this is as simple as going to an optician and asking for it, for a cost of about €20, though it seemed to me like it was going to require a full eye examination at some much greater cost. The fact that I already have recently passed a full eyetest and have documentation to that effect is not enough. It has to be on the correct form.
• You need to post in your cert from the theory test. Not a copy, but the actual cert. If everything was a bit more connected-up, this wouldn’t be necessary, because there is a database in the DTTS saying that I passed, referenced by my PPS number. No, they need the original form (so if its lost, I need to go get a new one and try again).
• They need a fee, in the form of a cheque made payable to ….? Of the many websites with instructions on this, only one actually tells you who to make it payable to. In my case, its Dublin City Council (and its only their website that tells you this). So you need to already know what body you need to make it payable to before you get told what body to make it payable to.
• Identification. This is the bit that really gets me. One of the websites instruct you to just include 2 signed passport pictures. The others also tell you that, but also require either your passport or your birth certificate. They require the originals, not copies. To me this is crazy. By the time I got to this point I had lost so much confidence is the process that there is zero chance I’m going to trust them not to lose an original document like that. Why not accept a Garda-notarised photocopy of the passport, like everyone else? And why the birth certificate? Since when is that a form of ID?

Regarding the ID question, I called them up. I got transferred to the appropriate department, where I waited on hold for 15 minutes without any sign of progress except a message every 30 seconds asking me to continue holding. I soon became convinced that my call had been lost in the system, or transferred to the desk of someone who wasn’t there.

So I called again, and immediately got put onto someone who could answer (so I was right that my call had been lost). This person told me that, yes, I need to enclose an original document, and that yes, I would be crazy to do so. It was clearly communicated that that person wouldn’t in my shoes.

Phew.

So, now, I’m going to actually go in person to the Dublin City Council Motor Tax Office, and see if I can get them to accept me for who I am there and then, and leave me in possession of my particulars, so to speak.

Why is life so complicated? Anyone, ANYONE, ought to be able to fix this system into something that makes sense for all concerned. For example, have the Driver Theory Test office distribute instructions on what to do next (thus avoiding all the web-based misinformation). Then accept a Garda-signed passport copy. And while you’re at it, fix your phone system.

Unfortunately, it always seems like no one with the power to improve things gives a shit.

Am I wrong to complain? I already feel better.

-————UPDATE—————-

Turns out the Motor Tax Office only opens until 3.30pm, so basically I wasn’t going to make it today.  Also turns out, that those kind folks in Mayo got my request, and posted the Learner Driver Permit form to me and it was waiting in the post.

Well, anyway, because I’m impatient as well as being a complainer, I just went to the Garda station, got my passport notarised, and posted that in place of my actual passport. Watch this space for updates on whether or not they accept it…

…. Okay, they didn’t accept it. I got a phone call from them saying that I must either post the passport to them, or bring it in in person. I chose the latter, only for the person at the information desk in the Motor Tax Office to make a photocopy of it and hand it back.

What was wrong with my photocopy in the first place??