MISSION, Kan. — The computer problems continued Wednesday at Kansas Motor Vehicle Offices, as at least one office had to close early due to a major backlog of waiting customers.
The office at 6000 Lamar in Mission closed early due to a six-hour-plus wait time for Kansas residents looking to get or renew their licenses and registrations.
Offices were closed across the state for a week while the state upgraded the computer systems. They reopened Tuesday, but there were many glitches and delays which lasted into Wednesday.
“I stood there and stood there and waited and waited,” said Cynthia Daugherty.
Daugherty actually thought she had her business completed on Tuesday. She was there at 6:30 a.m. and was third in line. After three and a half hours, her licenses were renewed and she paid the bill, only to realize when she got home that the clerk had made an error and billed her for two years of taxes.
The Johnson County Treasurer looked into Cynthia’s problem and says it wasn’t part of the computer issues, but instead “human error”. He says the majority of records are processing correctly, although slowly because of the staff is still learning the new system.
Officials are urging people to go to the department’s website to take care of business online, if possible. Johnson County Treasurer Tom Franzen says that Motor Vehicle Office employees are having too many technical problems with the state’s new MOVRS computer systems.
Franzen says that if customers aren’t there in line by early morning, they may not be served that day.
Computer Glitch Forces Johnson County Motor Vehicle Offices to Close
Tuesday was the first day for the new motor vehicle system after a week-long shutdown of all Kansas Vehicle Offices. FOX 4 talked to taxpayers on Tuesday who feel the upgrade is not making it easier to get licenses and registrations.
Several people waited for more than two hours on Tuesday as they tried to renew a license or get a car registered. Daniel Corney says he was told he’d have to wait over three hours to register his motorcycle.
“It’s kind of frustrating, the new system is supposed to make things faster and more quicker and stuff but it’s just to me this is a huge waste of my day,” Corney said. “It’s something I could come in and do usually within an hour or two is now 3 or 4 hours wait.”
Many people expected long lines after the closure which allowed the state to install a new computer system. Some hoped that the experience would be more efficient and help speed up service.
“You got things you want to do in a day,” said customer Ken Koval. “I don’t want to spend a day at the DMV, especially when I feel like I’ve ultimately spent a week because I couldn’t get here last week.”
The State’s Director of Vehicles, Donna Shelite, says the new system had some problems issuing new license plates and that caused much of the delays. She claims the state’s vendor corrected the problem but not before Johnson County decided to close its offices at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday. At the time, the office located in Mission estimated customers would have to wait eight hours to receive service.
Shelite says some county treasurer’s offices across the state decided not to re-open on Tuesday so they can get more familiar with the new system. All state driver’s license stations are open.
