Yesterday we went to pick up a ‘new’ car (well it is only 7 months old!). Arranged with the company we were buying it from to go in a bit early so that we could go and get the tax disc as I am tax exempt. We had organised it so that the insurance ran out on the old one at 12:30 and transferred to the new one at 12:30. The post office was only a couple of miles away so shouldn’t have been a problem!?!
Hubby went into the PO at 12:10 with all the relevant forms and came out fuming - she wouldn’t do the new one until 12:30 because “IT WASN’T INSURED!” - he explained that it was in secure private premises and that we still had the documents to complete so we would not be driving it until after 12:30 when it would be insured. “Computer say no” was the reply. So we had to wait until 12:30 by which time we were driving a car on the road that wasn’t insured because the insurance had expired on the old car!!!
Eventually we left the premises at 14:00 with our new car duly “taxed and insured” after fortunately getting the old one back to the car show rooms without incident.
Anyone else had similar problems and how did they overcome them?
Frustrated and stressed - Ann
Hi, that post office clerk must be a real jobsworth, eh?
Now that youre all present and correct`, I hope you enjoy the new car.
Are you still driving then, or is someone else chauffeuring you about?
luv Pollx
It takes time for the computer update to filter through - the insurers have to tell the computer etc.
So the PO clerk isn’t being a jobsworth. Just making sure people who ARE trying to get away with breaking the law, can’t.
Enjoy the new car!
In the past the expiry/start of our car insurance hasn’t been that precise, we have usually had about 24 hours leaway either way to cope with that eventuality.
P.S. the clerk in the post office wouldn’t have had any discretion about the car tax, as Ellen said I think we should be grateful that they make an effort to stop uninsured drivers from getting on the road.
The annoying think is that hubby had been to the PO in our local town the day before to ask if we were ok to do what we did and they said there was no problem - we now wish we had driven a bit further (about 4 miles) and gone where we had asked the question first.
It seems ironic that we couldn’t tax a car which was in a locked compound unisured but we were forced to drive the one we were in uninsured (albeit briefly) just to get back because of her decision.
The one thing she didn’t question was the fact that I am only allowed to have one car ‘tax exempt’ but that’s a whole new bag of worms!!!
Just for the record my old tax exempt disc is now on its way back to DVLA.
Ann
Ok, fair cop! The post office were following orders, I guess.
luv Pollx