June 26, 2018
Dear editor;
Readers of The Voice June 21 issue page 2 letter, “Learning experiences: E-mail Renewal,” might be interested in the final result of my contacting the Secretary of State (SOS) regarding my discarding personalized license plates, for which I would have been “required by law” to affix the odd-looking blank orange T sticker received through E-mail renewal, amount of $108.. Because I found out my personalized plates cost an additional $7. annually, I went to a Secretary of State Facility (DMV) and paid $29. for new random-number plates over-the counter. The SOS website,
Cyberdriveillinois.com lists fees, $20. new sticker and $9. new plates, as well as provides a PDF download of a refund request form: Consideration For Refund.
My form, photocopies of bank statement, both registration sheets, and one-page letter was received and signed-for in Springfield June 14 at 8:30 a.m.. Two hours later that morning, I received a phone call from SOS stating that “we are aware you now have random plates; …therefore your order for new Viola 11 plates has already been canceled. We do not send souvenir plates…. I do not know what the office of accounting will do with your request for refund….”
I had written the last week in May to the old “new license plate address at 3701 Winchester Road” asking why the differential fees. At the time I believed mine was the least amount at $108. car dealers’ more, how long it takes for new plates, why I only saw so few T stickers around, why were there still yellow Ts out there from last year, and why couldn’t police tell me the T stickers mean new plates are on order by SOS? If I had not mailed a certified letter to the Office of Accounting, it seems I would not have received even this attention. My question about why so few new plates on order was not addressed at all.
I received June 25 a one-page simple letter from Office of the Secretary of State: “There is no legal basis on which the Secretary of State can return the fee charged. (SOS) can only refund if there has been an excess fee charged by error, or if an application accompanied by a fee has been refused or rejected.”
Analysis: The SOS makes the rules, so I can’t argue.
Mary Goetsch
Aurora
