It’s been one full week since I started my new duties, which are not that different from the old ones really: instead of replacing people at the counter on their breaks and lunches and working in the back the rest of the time, I now work the counter full time AND get replaced on my breaks and lunch, leaving me with a lot more to look after such as payments, motions, transcripts, appeals, etc. YEH.
One major difference so far: time flies. I cannot believe how fast the days go by when you get yelled at that much. I’m also amazed just how many people cannot fill out a simple one page form correctly.
Of course, I exaggerate a little bit… not everyone is angry, and yelly, and insulty, and stupid…y. And since you’re curious, here’s a sample of conversations / comments from the first week:
After giving me a copy of a Notice of Fine and Due Date (meaning the client has not taken any action on a ticket for more than 45 days), this lady asks what time of the day the offence took place. A quick check revealed the ticket was issued at 1:45am. She then asked if I could please make these letters stop coming to her house as her son, who got the ticket on that day and time, committed suicide shortly after. There isn’t much you can do about this unfortunately, but I told her how sorry I was to hear this and that for sure she’d never get another letter like this in the future… Happy first day me!
Then there was the guy who gave me a printed receipt for a payment made online. He then asked why his licence was suspended even though he had clearly made a payment soon after receiving the ticket. A quick look showed that he had paid a moving violation into the parking tags website which meant the money was taken but was sitting in limbo as the ticket number couldn’t be matched to any parking matters. I told the man that yes, this was in fact a receipt but… he interrupted me half sentence to say: “Oh my god, we have a winner here, he can read”. Turning to the crowd behind him he continued: “Hey everyone, this guy just confirmed that this is a receipt”. Then back to me: “Congratulations, you can read. It’s written in black and white, we can ALL read that”. Since he was being a douche, I stopped talking, short of telling him that all we had to do was call a certain number to have the charges reversed back to the correct account, that would take 1 minute or so at the most, and I’d make sure the Ministry of Transportation would be notified immediately. A couple of minutes and a half and he would’ve been out the door. Instead, I told him I’d have to get my Lead to look into this matter and asked him to have a seat in the crowded, non-air conditioned room.
Then there was the lady who had to call her husband, then her bank, then her credit card company to cover a 4 figure infraction that would suspend her driver’s licence if not paid that same day as it was now in default.
Then there was the one who paid a $1300 infraction in $20 bills and kept asking me questions while I was counting. The first time I simply asked him to wait until I was finished with this transaction before we moved on to the next, but no, he kept on going. So I looked him straight in the eyes and clicked off the microphone cutting him off completely until I was finished. Once done, I clicked it on again and said: “You were saying?”
Then there was the over-protecting mother who accompanied her son to request a trial date and wouldn’t let him speak at all. When I said that I could only speak to one person at a time, and would prefer to talk to the person who’s name was on the ticket if he was present, she fired me a burning look and finally let the son speak for himself… I mean, c’mon, all I’m asking is for him to answer the questions on the form… He gave me a quick smile when his mom left his side to sit down on a nearby available chair.
Then there was the one came to complain about the length of time it took to deal with a matter, demanding to see a Justice of the Peace immediately. All I could do was send him in, I can’t argue with someone who won’t listen. As he walked away in the direction of the Justice of the Peace, I noticed that he was wearing a nice shirt with Daisy-Duke Cut-Off jeans short… hot pants… Yeah. A Justice of the Peace won’t take your complaints very seriously if you barge in dressed like that. I didn’t see him leave, but I inquired later on and was told that never got inside the JP’s offices…
Then there was the lady with the low cut top who leaned on my counter pressing the puppies together in hope of I don’t know what really. Without looking up, I said: “That doesn’t work on me.” The puppies were pulled back inside the “kennel”.
Then there was the one who started to cry when I told her an unpaid offence from the beginning of the year was suspending her driver’s licence.
There there was the one who made me explain all options opened to him to deal with this ticket, options clearly explained at the back of the copy given to him by the issuing officer. After slowly going through all the options, I took a quick look based on his driver’s licence revealed MANY many many request for trials. I looked back at him and asked if he wanted to do the same as all the other tickets he’d dealt with in the recent months. He said yes.
Then there was the guy who complained that City workers were all overpaid lazy people (hummm where did I hear that one before?!) and were a disgrace. Why? Because he received a speeding ticket and had to deal with it… At least if you’re going to have a rant, be original, wear Daisy-Duke Cut-Off jeans shorts and don’t repeat the same thing we’ve heard for 6 long weeks in June and July on all the media outlets.
Then there was the agent who comes regularly to file for his different clients who complimented me on my work and said it was nice to finally see me on a full-time basis. So sweet.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg in that one week.
