DPS Problems

[Rstyshcklfrd]

Hey, I'm a long-time lurker and a hopefully a future CHL holder! I thought I would make one of my first posts count, so here it goes!

Sent in the paperwork, fingerprints, etc, and everything was received Nov 3, 2011. Around the end of Nov - beginning of Dec I receive some mail requesting more information regarding a simple class c misdemeanor(one that does not disqualify me). Now, I'm a college student in Lubbock and the municipal court is in Amarillo, where my mother lives. So she helps me gather everything up and sends it off. One week after the extra paperwork is mailed, I give the DPS a call. I am told that a Deadra has received my mail, and that she would be emailing me shortly to give me an update. One week goes by and no update(Now we're at about 7-10 days ago). I called in to see if everything was okay, I'm being very polite I might add, and then I am told that, "Deadra has nothing on her desk for me." The person on the phone mentions it says in my "file" that my extra paperwork was received, but no one knows where it is. Being the big trusting dummy I am, I never made copies of the paperwork the municipal court gave me. So I had to get more paperwork again! And here we are. I faxed in the extra paperwork on Monday, knowing they were closed, but hoping they would see it first thing Tuesday morning. Called in Tuesday morning and was transferred to Deadra immediately, but after being on hold for 15-20 minutes I was then sent to her voicemail. I left her a message asking her to please call me back, but did not receive a phone call. That's my story.

I'm getting the feeling that the Tx DPS hates me!

Any words of advice?

[steveincowtown]

I would advise on polite persistence at this point.

Call, email, and fax daily until someone gives you an answer. At some point it will be easier to take care of you then to deal with you.

[Rstyshcklfrd]

Yeah, I'm absolutely trying my best to be polite. When I was told they lost my first batch of paperwork, I wanted to just yell at the guy, but he actually seemed like he was a little peeved that my paperwork had been lost too. So I continued being polite. It's just getting difficult though, when I feel like I'm being pushed aside and ignored.

[i8godzilla]

Welcome to the Forum.

The only advice I can give is wait.....................

I never trust that a fax will make it to a government agency. Follow it up with hard copy snail-mail. You can use a Delivery Confirmation from the USPS to insure they received it. Delivery Confirmation is much cheaper than Certified or Registered mail and also gives you the ability to verify delivery online.

[Rstyshcklfrd]

I guess I'll try to get something in the mail tomorrow. I just called and got the same, "Let me transfer you to Deadra." - followed with a voicemail. I plan to call again before I have to go to work today, in hopes I can actually get to talk with someone rather than hoping I get my voicemail returned in what they said as "24-48hrs". Man, do I have some bad luck sometimes.

[n5wd]

REGISTER the mail and pay for receipt confirmation. That way, SOMEONE at the receiving end will have signed for it - it's a lot less likely to "disappear" that way.

[The Annoyed Man]

Complain to both the Governor's office and your state legislator and senator. Sometimes it takes one of the people responsible for seeing that DPS gets its funding getting involved to shake the bushes a little bit.

[Rstyshcklfrd]

Well I called this morning, got the voicemail option, hung up and decided to call again before I went to work. Did so. I was told to leave a message again, and if she didn't respond by 5:00pm today, that when I called tomorrow I would get to speak with her supervisor. I also think sending some mail/email to my reps, senator, etc is a really good idea.

[rmr1923]

sounds similar to what happened to me last January, i'm not sure if they still respond to emails but i always got a response back within a day or so. i was polite in all my emails, and finally after the 3rd try they forwarded it to whoever was handling my "file", and he told me everything looked in order and i'd have my plastic in the mail shortly. problem with mine is that the misdemeanor was expunged from my record, and was a juvenile case, so i couldn't get any paperwork to send them. could be they just had a backlog of applications at the time, who knows. seeing how long it's been, and the fact that it's the first week of the new year, you'll probably get some sort of reply in the next couple days (i'd hope).

[Jumping Frog]

REGISTER the mail and pay for receipt confirmation. That way, SOMEONE at the receiving end will have signed for it - it's a lot less likely to "disappear" that way.

There is no need to send it registered mail. "Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested" requires a signature and proves receipt just as well as registered mail.

[kjolly]

could it be a personal test to determine if you have the patience and desculation skills. Good job staying polite.

[Oldgringo]

REGISTER the mail and pay for receipt confirmation. That way, SOMEONE at the receiving end will have signed for it - it's a lot less likely to "disappear" that way.

There is no need to send it registered mail. "Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested" requires a signature and proves receipt just as well as registered mail.

Phone calls and e-mail never happened unless both the addressee and the addressed agree that it happened.

[Rstyshcklfrd]

Well here's a quick update brothers. Called in this morning. First person I talked to was actually rude to me. I was polite and everything and I guess when I said, "case-worker" she got upset for some reason and she replied, "Well first of all, they're not case workers, they're technicians," which caught me off guard. She then told me my "technician" has been on vacation for a while now. She tried to get me to leave another voice message, but I politely asked her if I could just please speak with someone who could at least check to make sure my fax went through. She tried to argue it a bit, but I was then transferred. Next lady, Melinda, actually went and checked my file - nothing in there. Then went to check another basket I guess, and bam there it was. So it made it, no one has just looked at it. Now on to part II.


She looks at it and says, "What exactly did you do?" Not wanting to completely divulge into what I stupidly did, I told her it was a Class C Criminal Mischief charge. She asked me what that meant, and I told her that it was just a Class C misdemeanor which was not Disorderly Conduct, therefore I did not meet any of the disqualifications. She told me she didn't know and needed to call the court to make sure.

Now, I've done my research on this and have been told and read that I'm okay. But boy, does she have me nervous.

[Rstyshcklfrd]

She called me back. She said Class C Criminal Mischief disqualified me. I asked her if she was serious, as I began to get sick to my stomach, and she said just kidding. Melinda said she was going to go ahead and work on getting it processed and I should be receiving it in 2-3 weeks. Persistence pays off!



But I won't go counting my chickens before they hatch. I'll believe it when I see it lol.