Not much new to report here, so I’ll share this funny thing. I became an Arizona resident last Thursday. On Monday, I went into my new online account and ordered paper titles for my van and my bike. After Florida screwed them up so badly, I had no faith whatsoever in electronic titles and decided to start the process now so that I could actually have paper titles in my hand by the time I actually needed them.
They arrived in the mail today.
Despite their promises, Florida’s system required manual intervention from the Sumter County Tax Collector’s Office to generate and send me the titles that I was supposed to have been able to order easily online anytime I wanted. To her credit, Samantha was incredibly helpful, giving me the best experience I’ve ever had with a tax collector, something I hadn’t even thought possible before. She, herself, said that Florida’s online system isn’t very good and that mailing printed paperwork as though we’re still in the 19th century was the most reliable way to get it done. The entire process took about three weeks, delaying my Arizona residency by that long. This delay prevented me from voting in the recent election.
Meanwhile, exactly one week after becoming a resident here, I have my Arizona paper titles in my hand. I didn’t even order them immediately. It took Arizona three days to deliver them in a truly fast, efficient manner — something that seems beyond Florida’s capabilities.
And then I got a renewal reminder email for my Florida registrations. No, I don’t think so.
Smokey Da Van 