Ontario MOT Online Driver's License Renewal: Fail | GTAMotorcycle.com

Ontario MOT Online Driver's License Renewal: Fail

T

TorontoBoy

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Did my driver's license renewal online yesterday. It said average time takes 13 minutes, download your temporary driver's license, your permanent driver's license mailed to you in 4-6 weeks. Punched in my info, all is good. Pay my $90 (3d party site), good. Then it gives me a screen telling me to either download my temporary driver's license or print the .pdf, so I do. And wait. And the server times out with a message saying there is a problem, come back later. I retry, and cannot connect to the server. No receipt for payment and no temp driver's license.

I call the MOT, the nice lady confirms that I indeed did pay and she emails me my receipt. She also notes that the receipt is in no way a substitute for a temporary driver's license. As for the temporary driver's license, once 20 minutes are up your session times out and your license number is locked out of their system, so there's no way to download it to print. That's great security but poor service. I'll have to go into a Service Ontario outlet to get it printed.

Today I go into my local MOT Service Ontario outlet, tell the nice lady my story. She smirks, and has obviously heard all this before. Has to call the MOT to confirm my payment, then issues me my temporary driver's license. Her advice: next time renew at the office, because you'll need to come in anyway.

Automation is great, but bad things happen. The online renewal site has no options if you cannot print your temporary driver's license due to the server having a bad day. No instructions, as if it never could happen. At least they still have a call centre. This is your tax dollars at work.
 
Pretty shabby, at this point we're not treading new ground with these websites anymore and these lessons have all been learned already. This is straight up broken and should be disabled until it is fixed
 
remember when they installed self serve kiosks at malls so you could do this anytime of the day without lineups?

they didnt work either.......
 
On that note, check your license expiry date, and get in and update it when it comes due.

The bureaucracy no longer feels compelled to let you know of the expiry, and will be very glad to take your cash, as you go through graduated licensing, if you let it expire for too long.

The self serve kiosks always worked perfectly for me. Maybe someone doesn't have enough nerd blood?
 
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After reading this I'm glad on-line wasn't an option for me as I had an enhanced driver's license.
 
They are trying to make it easier for all of us, one day the issues should be sorted out.


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I always take screen shots when doing anything with the government online. To easy to lose it all as the OP has seen.
 
I did take screen shots. These shots, printed, are still not a legal temporary drivers license. Neither is the receipt I received by email from the MoT Call Centre. I doubt a cop will believe printouts from a screen shot. When I paid it did not even give me a confirmation receipt screen, which I would have screen shot. The whole transaction process is not well thought out. Ontario could take a look at some ecommerce sites such as Amazon, where each step is deliberate and expected.
 
Baggsy said:
The self serve kiosks always worked perfectly for me. Maybe someone doesn't have enough nerd blood?
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Yeah, I was a bit bummed when they toasted the kiosks. They seemed to be deliberately not inside MTO (was it Service Ontario already?) offices so you didn't come anywhere near the lineups. Press some buttons, instant license stickers
 
I did my license plate stickers yesterday. Didn't work exactly as I expected. Entered e-mail address for the receipt, clicked send and kept screen open. Waited a few minutes, but no e-mail......... Clicked send again, but no e-mail........ Downloaded, printed and closed web page. 5 minutes later I got the 2 e-mails........ So it worked, but who really expects to wait over 10 minutes for a receipt e-mail in 2017.
 
Before I called the MoT Call Centre I filled out their contact form detailing my license renewal problem. it has been over 24 hrs and there is no answer so far. Still, I wait. I am not hopeful.
 
The bureaucracy no longer feels compelled to let you know of the expiry,
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actually you are incorrect but you do have to sign up for the email alert....and if you have multiple vehicles then it will alert you on all of them far enough ahead of time to do it online.

I doubt a cop will believe printouts from a screen shot.
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He can look it up and you have your previous drivers licence which because it has been renewed - even if the cop was an *** and gave you a ticket the court would throw it out.
 
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matthew said:
10 minute wait for anything from the government is pretty good.
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I waited 25 minutes before responding................

Good point, but with virtual all other e-commerce type sites the wait times is nil or at most a minute or so and that's the standard the gov. should be aiming for.
 
Baggsy said:
The self serve kiosks always worked perfectly for me. Maybe someone doesn't have enough nerd blood?
Click to expand...


I think a lot of them were out of order. (when you actually found one)
 
ReSTored said:
I did my license plate stickers yesterday. Didn't work exactly as I expected. Entered e-mail address for the receipt, clicked send and kept screen open. Waited a few minutes, but no e-mail......... Clicked send again, but no e-mail........ Downloaded, printed and closed web page. 5 minutes later I got the 2 e-mails........ So it worked, but who really expects to wait over 10 minutes for a receipt e-mail in 2017.
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Govt worker was using computer system #1 to input your details into system #2. Thats the delay ;)
 
kiwi said:
Govt worker was using computer system #1 to input your details into system #2. Thats the delay ;)
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No joke, I once temped somewhere that was basically doing that with credit card information. Very not PCI
 
I renewed my vehicle stickers and drivers licence online in May of this year and had no problems at all. Printed the receipts and temporary driver's licence without issue and received the stickers and real licence in the mail before they expired. I find this service far better that wasting an hour or so of my time at the MTO office in town. I do miss the kiosks however, they were very handy and you got the stickers on the spot.
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