NJ DMV & NISSAN

So this will be a commentary on laziness and outsourcing customer service

As a new resident of NJ you are supposed to switch all your car info over by 60 days of living here, which seems to not really be a rule but a give us some money and I'm sure each state has some sort of rule about for the same reason. The process is loosely described online in how it should work in a perfect world (no time line is given).

Step 1: Get your brand new NJ driver's license --- No problems
Pick up your registration paper work --- Here is where the issues begin

Step 2: Fill out your registration paper work (now you have a few choices depending on if you are paying a loan on your car or not), as Angela is paying hers off she had to go that route. The paper work states that you fill it out then mail it to your loan people (Nissan) and everything takes care of itself (how nice)! The NJ DMV is actually supposed to call you when everything is ready and you can come back to finalize the process. After about 2 weeks of hearing nothing a call is made to figure out what is going on...DMV hasn't received anything so time to call Nissan. Nissan (who has outsourced their customer service to India, like many other companies) claims that the state of NJ requires the form to be faxed (now contradicting NJ's form), so we get the fax number and head back to the DMV. The form is filled out again and taken to the counter--this is the best part--Angela asks the woman to fax the form as she was instructed to do by Nissan, the woman's response, "Why would I fax it? It isn't my paper." This woman was not willing to fax something for a customer because it wasn't something for herself...So a disheartened Angela decides to fax it herself from work the next day.

She is told that it should take about 6 days to get things turned around (assuming Nissan receives it). After 6 days we make another phone call to Nissan to ask if they received it (as we have heard nothing from anyone) and guess what? They didn't (even though the fax was received according to the fax machine). So Angela is more persistant this time and asks for the fax number again to verify, then calls again after she faxed it to verify that they received it. So yay they did it! She is then told it will take about 30-45 days to get the title transferred from PA to NJ (I guess to prove ownership). At this point the inspection has become out of date as well as the PA registration making her Nissan Sentra not able to be driven until this gets resolved. Who knows what the next step in the process is but we'll see what happens.

Here are the 2 main issues: LAZY & POOR COMMUNICATION

The laziness of people today is remarkable, no one at any point during these events acted as if they had EVER encountered the situation before (which I find hard to beleive). No one went through the next step until an angered customer pushed and pushed for it. "It's not my paper" is one of my favorite quotes now because it signifies everything that is wrong with the workforce, especially those working for the state (all states not just NJ). The bigger issue is the incredible amount of money that is wasted through government agencies, and the lack of motivation for state employees to do a good job. Frustrating...

The issue of poor communication does not have anything to do with ethnicity, I have no problems with Indian or any other group of people. It is the act of outsourcing and what that means to the quality of customer service. These people who are outsourced to are trained to answer certain questions and anything past those certain questions are very difficult to deal with. At my last job, if you had an issue you could speak directly to the person that could help you (usually me, or one of my co-workers) and we would give you a specific answer to your specific question, not this cookie-cutter crap outsourcing creates. I understand the cost implications of the process but cutting customer service leads to frustrated customers who will go somewhere else that has better customer service (especially when product differentiation is not huge...Nissan, Honda, Toyota).

Final Word: The economy would be in a much better place if people stopped being lazy at work and did their fair share or were paid based on the amount of work they did instead just holding the position. Outsourcing customer service can work but I haven't seen it yet.