2008-05-04

You have two weeks to correct our mistake

I got a letter from the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles. It seems that when they issued the title for my Toyota Prius, they gave it a fuel type of "Gas", whereas they should've given it "Electric/Gas". I wouldn't think it matters much; technically, the thing does run on gas. The only energy I put into the thing is unleaded gasoline. The fact that it uses that gas to power an electric generator and, in the end, transport me about 50 miles per gallon of gas used is nice and all, but it does all run on gas. If I didn't give it gas, it would be dead. (Barring any conversion process that may allow me to plug it in, but technically the same could be said for any car; just that the "conversion process" may be much more involved.)

But if the Colorado DMV wants to make the distinction, I have no problem with that. What I do find a little interesting is that, along with the convenient "no postage necessary" envelope to return my title, they gave me a deadline: "Please return the title to this office in the enclosed envelope by May 13, 2008." I've owned the car for four years, and now it's imperative that I get this done within two weeks? What would have happened if I were on vacation?

Not that I'm too bothered by it. The two week deadline might just be an arbitrary date they put on there just to get me to return it. And, that's probably not such a bad thing. If there were no deadline, just "return it someday", "someday" could easily turn into "never" as it gets put off indefinitely.

Still, the implied "Hey, we screwed up, now hurry up and act to fix our mistake" almost makes me want to wait until May 14th to send it off.

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