The CHL dept and problems

[bugsbunny45]

The CHL department is not flexible when problems crop up I found in the last few weeks.
Application online 12-07-2010.
Class Taken on 12-11-2010.
Mailed off 12-14-2010.
01-30-2011 pending manufacture.
mailed 02-01-2011

My problem and a few others in the state happened after it was mailed. After a lot of searching I found that to save money the state uses
Pitney Bowes to mail things. On 02-03 or so they had a fire in Dallas that burned things send to different area codes 77705 being one.
Here is the problem other agencies let their customers know but the CHL people really said nothing except just wait to 03-01 and we can resend.
Lucky I had been reading their website and did not want to wait and just said it was lost and paid 25.00 to get a new one on 03-03-11
I wish I had realized I could have done that 14 days after.
But Finally I have plastic in hand. Hopefully there will be no more fires for others to have to deal with like a few of us.

[Skiprr]

Glad you got to the root of the problem. Certainly explains the ship/receive delays several were experiencing.

But I wouldn't hold it too much against the DPS CHL department. Extraordinary things can sometimes happen in any company's shipping operation--a fire, a crashed UPS truck, packages stolen at an airport before they got to a FedEx plane--and the improvements in CHL turnaround time over the past few years have been nothing short of remarkable.

A few years ago, 60 days from packet receipt in Austin to plastic mailed was the exception; commonplace was closer to 90 days than 60. Even renewals were hitting 90 days, and it wasn't uncommon for a new application to exceed that. During that time, the volume of active CHLs has literally doubled. Since the change in management, DPS has been able not only to handle twice as many new and renewal applications in the past 5 years as were processed in total for the preceeding 10 years, but they've managed to move the processing times down to the mandated 60 days and, in many cases, even quicker.

They ain't perfect; don't get me wrong. But looking at the big picture over the past decade and a half, I give 'em a round of applause for the job they're doing.

[bugsbunny45]

As I read about the waits people had in the past I am so grateful how fast things worked for me and others.
I just think they need to have plans for something out the ordinary happens. The way I found out about what actually happened I was talking to a friend that works for another agency and she was like we had stuff lost in a fire and what zip codes were lost and she told me what they did to help their clients out.
Communications I think is the key just let people know whats going on nine out of ten people would have no problem with a delay caused by a fire. Just let us know.
During the same time I had stuff being sent by fed ex that was delayed by the bad weather. They just let us know there was a delay.

[rmr1923]

As I read about the waits people had in the past I am so grateful how fast things worked for me and others.

2 months felt like a long time to me, but a couple years ago my brother-in-law applied for his CHL and even with a clean background it took almost 6 months for his application to be processed

[C-dub]

This makes me wonder how many non-CHL department or LEO see my license with my name and address. Hmmm?