Can't book NCT since the reg comes up as deactivated in their system!

zepman

Hi,

So I have a 2009 reg car that I bought from a reputed used-car dealer, around this time last year. It had a valid NCT and motor tax when I bought it, and I was able to get insurance on it without any problem. A few months later, I also renewed the motor tax with no issues.

Now its NCT is due on Feb 10th. When I looked up the reg on the NCT website, I got the message "Vehicle Records indicate that this Vehicle is Scrapped". :eek:
So, I rang the NCTS yesterday morning. They told me that the registration has been deactivated, and asked me to ring the DVCSD (Shannon) to get it reactivated. When I rang the DVCSD, the woman I spoke with said that the reg is fine in their system. She said that she would send a letter to the NCTS saying the reg is active so they can update their system. She added that I should ring the NCTS again in a couple of days by which time they should have received the letter and updated their system.

I am a bit paranoid because this is my first car and the NCT process is new to me. Therefore, I rang the DVCSD again yesterday afternoon just to confirm that they had sent that letter over to the NCTS. But the woman I spoke to this second time said, "I have no way of knowing that.", which I think is ridiculous in this day and age.

Anyway, has anyone else faced this problem? As I have no clue when it will be fixed, I am worried that by the time I'm allowed to make an appointment, I will no longer be able to find a suitable slot before the due date.

Alanstrainor

Sounds like you've done everything you can do at this point. Check with the NCT centre tomorrow, or Monday and see if they have changed their records. Sounds like some admin error on the NCT's side.

zepman

Rang the NCTS this evening. As I had expected, their records had still not been updated. I explained the whole situation and said that there was a letter sent to them by DVCSD 2 days ago.

So I got transferred to their customer service. I was afraid that I would be bounced back in the direction of DVCSD again, but the customer service agent said that she was going to ring them straightaway and get back to me. She rang me back after about a minute and said that she confirmed that the reg is active and updated the records. She then got my name down for a priority appointment which would be sometime after the 27th. Got a text confirmation about that.

Immediately after hanging up, I looked up my reg on the NCT website and it showed up fine. So, all good now!:)

Wesser

thanks be to god for that. it was a real cliff hanger there for a while.

zepman

zepman wrote: »

Rang the NCTS this evening. As I had expected, their records had still not been updated. I explained the whole situation and said that there was a letter sent to them by DVCSD 2 days ago.

So I got transferred to their customer service. I was afraid that I would be bounced back in the direction of DVCSD again, but the customer service agent said that she was going to ring them straightaway and get back to me. She rang me back after about a minute and said that she confirmed that the reg is active and updated the records. She then got my name down for a priority appointment which would be sometime after the 27th. Got a text confirmation about that.

Immediately after hanging up, I looked up my reg on the NCT website and it showed up fine. So, all good now!:)

Every year, a car is registered randomly that doesn't have to go through the NCT for it's lifespan. It's a goodwill lottery that started about 10 years ago to encourage people to buy new cars.

What normally happens is they issue the winner a Golden NCT disc for your windscreen. And you get a tour of the Test Centre with all the other winners.

You won the NCT lottery and forfeited the prize!


(all lies, of course)

Odyssey 2005

As a matter of interest OP what make/model is the car ?

zepman

Odyssey 2005 wrote: »

As a matter of interest OP what make/model is the car ?

It's a 2009 Skoda Fabia.

mgbgt1978

...and if we have learned anything here, it's the difference between useless gobsh!te civil servants and private sector Employees.




I'm not joking

elperello

zepman wrote: »

Rang the NCTS this evening. As I had expected, their records had still not been updated. I explained the whole situation and said that there was a letter sent to them by DVCSD 2 days ago.

So I got transferred to their customer service. I was afraid that I would be bounced back in the direction of DVCSD again, but the customer service agent said that she was going to ring them straightaway and get back to me. She rang me back after about a minute and said that she confirmed that the reg is active and updated the records. She then got my name down for a priority appointment which would be sometime after the 27th. Got a text confirmation about that.

Immediately after hanging up, I looked up my reg on the NCT website and it showed up fine. So, all good now!:)

That's a great story.
All too often we hear about problems like that taking ages to sort.
You met someone who knew her job and did it.

zepman

elperello wrote: »

That's a great story.
All too often we hear about problems like that taking ages to sort.
You met someone who knew her job and did it.

I know! I was checking the reg on the NCT website all day today, hoping they had updated their records. But like I feared, it was still the same. So, I finally rang them in the evening, very reluctantly, since I fully expected to be calling DVCSD right after, who would again tell me that a letter would be sent. Basically, a repeat of what happened two days ago.

Thanks to this woman, it was all sorted in a matter of minutes.

un5byh7sqpd2x0

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

...and if we have learned anything here, it's the difference between useless gobsh!te civil servants and public sector Employees.

The NCTS is a private company?

mgbgt1978

Sorry, 'private sector'.....:)

elperello

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

Sorry, 'private sector'.....:)

I've had personal experience of public sector employees going the extra mile too.
There are a lot of well qualified and helpful people working for the State.
You will hear about the bad ones but the good ones often go unnoticed.

mgbgt1978

That has not been my experience in over 30 years of dealing with many departments of the public service. This OP's 1st post in this thread illustrates this.

elperello

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

That has not been my experience in over 30 years of dealing with many departments of the public service. This OP's 1st post in this thread illustrates this.

I'd be the last to denigrate your experience but I too have dealt with a lot of Government departments, State agencies and local government.

I don't see it as black and white as you do -

"...and if we have learned anything here, it's the difference between useless gobsh!te civil servants and private sector Employees."

There are good and bad in both sectors.