TorontoBoy
Well-known member
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.
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.