Thousands who paid for DMV renewals in limbo

Bogged down by long customer wait times, California’s Department of Motor last fall tried to ease the pressure in its offices by sending license renewal notices much earlier than usual.

It backfired.

The DMV sent renewal notices to Californians 120 to 150 days before their licenses were scheduled to expire. But the department’s technology could only accept payments 115 days before a license’s expiration.

As a result, thousands of customers across the state who immediately paid online or by mail for their renewals are now in limbo, waiting for a card that may never arrive in the mail. Some have not gotten their money back.

The DMV in a written statement said it has fixed the error, which affected “a small percentage of customers” who received renewal notices between November and January. It added that the department is “working to contact the customers impacted and issue their driver license by mail as soon as possible.”

The department has launched an internal review to determine how many customers have been affected. Findings could emerge as early as next week, according to the DMV. A spokesman said the mistakes may have affected tens of thousands of customers.

When customers went to pay for their renewals online or by mail, their payments appeared to have been processed. But on the back-end of the website, the DMV didn’t have a record of the transaction.

Waves of customers began complaining to the DMV when they noticed they did not receive cards in the mail, according to a spokesman, a DMV customer and a call center employee.

The DMV said the driver license delay caused by renewing too early is isolated to November through January, though it began sending earlier notices in September. The earliest expiration date by someone affected would be Feb. 25, according to the department.