.
I received a brown envelope this morning (I always hate brown letters) marked from the DVLA:
As I was both very curious about the said "error" and didn't fancy entrusting both my paper
and photocard licence to them simultaneously, and also wasn't going to merely entrust it to Royal Mail unregistered in the enclosed DVLA 2nd class envelope, I phoned DVLA Swansea on the given number.
The chap with the Welsh accent, not Pakistani accent, who answered the phone was very polite and friendly but I think was the latest model of the Bureaucracy Android and utterly incapable of any lateral thought. Although I gave him my case # on the DVLA letter and he went away from the phone for a couple of minutes, he knew nothing he could tell me about what the 'error' was on his return. He repeated himself by asking me to send both plastic and paper licences to Swansea so they could check this obviously top secret 'error'. Our conversation remained polite but basically I said "No, I'm not happy to send anything until you can tell me more precisely why", adding that I often (not strictly true) have to drive to Europe at the drop of a hat and obviously need my documents, quite apart from the use of my photocard licence as ID.
This impasse confused the android and so he went off to find out more. A supervisor (I assume, or possibly a human) came to the phone and set about repeating their request all over again. I kept my patience but very firmly said that I still needed to know what the 'error' was and, more importantly, whether my licence was legal and valid. I was assured that my licence was still valid. He then asked me what was set out on the card reverse and we established that it was absolutely correct but what was on his screen was incorrect! I suggested I sent him an enlarged photocopy of both sides of my licence and all was well. Needless to say, I had a photocopy done with both sides shown on one single sheet of paper rather than two sheets which could become separated at the DVLA!
So, ladies and gentlemen, if you recieve one of these DVLA letters, politely challenge it.
^ The latest Bureaucracy Android version - Quite trendy and fluent in the Welsh accent.
