It used to be that when someone in Indiana mentioned the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, it would invariably touch off a rant about long wait times and shoddy customer service.
Through the efforts of the State of Indiana and the BMV itself, those complaints are no longer the automatic response. Thanks to better organization, more resources and better technology, going to the BMV (or visiting the website) to update your vehicle registration or get a new driver’s license is generally not the painful experience it once was.
However, the BMV’s reputation is far from spotless, due in large part to episodic overcharging of customers. The overcharges were in the news recently when the BMV released data showing that customer refunds would defray revenue to local government units by $19.2 million.
In 2013, the bureau settled a class-action lawsuit after allegedly overcharging customers by $30 million. As a result of the settlement, 4.4 million Hoosiers received refunds of anywhere from $3.50 to $15.
This year, the BMV screwed up again and will refund almost $29 million total, to be divided among 185,000 motorists who overpaid for excise tax on registration of vehicles purchased from 2004 to 2014. That’s an average of almost $157 in refunds for the motorists, a nice little surprise.
But get this, “human error” at the BMV overcompensated 254 of the motorists a total of $60,000, and bureau officials have asked for the overage to be returned.
If the BMV were run efficiently, such problems wouldn’t occur and resources wouldn’t have to be allocated to figuring and providing the refunds, let alone refund recalls.
Overcharging for registration or other services undermines the credibility of the BMV, as well as the goodwill the bureau has engendered with improved customer service.
Motorists have the right to feel confident when they pay their BMV fees that they aren’t being overcharged. The recent pattern of BMV mistakes erodes that confidence.