I used to work at a dealership so I kind of know how things go when it comes to tags. I meant exactly what you said, they should have given him a dealer demo tag to put until they could get one processed. It would have taken a few minutes to print one of those out instead of letting him leave and possibly getting a ticket.talltex wrote:There are a couple of reasons they might not have been able to give him a tag...neither of which excuses it, but might explain it. Unlike it was for years, the dealers no longer use a preprinted cardboard tag from the local print shop where they could buy a years supply for $50.00. Starting in September of 2009, the state required all dealers to get internet access to the TXDMV / DPS system and input the data on each deal at time of sale and print out a transaction specific paper tag for that vehicle and customer which is immediately in the DPS database showing the VIN, the make and model and the buyers name. It cannot be stuck in the back window...has to be affixed to the rear license plate spot. The dealers were all told how wonderful it would be because we would no longer have to fill out those buyers tag by hand...just type it into the computer and push a button. Well, it took about 2 minutes to do one of those by hand....it takes about 15 minutes to log in to the website and enter all the information on the computer. At the time, they failed to tell us that we would also have to purchase Texas E-Tag paper forms to print them on, and Texas E-tag plastic bags to put them in, and that they were going t charge us $5.00 every time we printed one
. It took effect 9/1/2009. The system crashed after 10 minutes and they tried to restart several times in the next week before they gave up and said go back to the old tags until we get it fixed next week. Second launch it lasted about 35 minutes and after the third failed launch they said use the old ones until notified. 6 months later they tried again and it would work for a while then go down several times each day. At that point they allowed the dealers to pre-print a specific number of "Internet Down" tags to be used when someone came to get their vehicle and the dealer could not access the system...the number of those tags was based on average sales volume. After a couple of years it started working most of the time. Those "internet down" tags have to be kept locked up and a log kept of when and where they were used and who assigned them. The salespeople don't normally have access to the dealerships tag system...only an administrator or manager can use it. Given the time of the transaction, probably wasn't anyone still there with access to the tag system or to the locked up "internet down" tags. They should have stuck one of the salesperson's "agent specific" tags for a demo on the customers car just to get them home and had them come back or take the proper tag to them the next day.
I had not clue of the history of how the current tag system works (and we know dealership systems are under budgeted
), I always received tags from my finance guy and put it on before they left. If anything I would have given them my dealer tag until we got one printed.
