Turns out Ticket Master ain’t the only ones screwing us with hidden fees and an ulterior agenda…
Welcome to the Superior Court of Los Angeles.
So let’s just say, hypothetically speaking, you get a speeding ticket… If he clocks you at…let’s say… 83… which you were not going, by the way… seriously on that… the fine is a mere $322… or I should say your “bail” is $322.
If you want to pay on line, because we all know that is harder and takes more time and effort and work, he said with a sarcastic wink and a nudge… that is an EXTRA $10!
If you want to go to Traffic School, so your insurance supposedly won’t go up, you have to pay an ADDITIONAL $64! ADDITIONAL… And this is not the cost of Traffic School!!! That is, of course, EXTRA!
What is even sicker is that the Traffic School Fee was only $39 last year. It jumped $25 in one year!
So if you have received said, hypothetical ticket, which is “unhypothetically” the first such ticket you have ever gotten… you are basically looking at almost $500 to the court.
On top of all this loveliness, have you ever tried calling to get information? First off the line will be busy for hours… then if you get through, quite often you get the message saying “There are too many callers currently waiting for operators. Please try back again.” AAGGHH!
Then… if you are lucky enough to get in queue, where there were… I kid you not… 79 callers ahead of me, your prize is to wait on line for over 40 minutes, get on with a woman who obviously wants to be anywhere other than there… and almost as soon as you are finishing asking your question, she rudely throws you back into the recorded information line, which is confusing and unhelpful and does not give you the specific information you need… Or even better, you get in the queue and the damn thing randomly disconnects you.
AAAGGGHHH!
So you get to “get back Jack and do it again!”
Today, for example,
I was on hold for 28 minutes and 12 seconds and it randomly threw me back to the beginning of the queue. Holy _()*&^%$#%^&*(_)+… I mean, I was totally calling for someone else, but still…
I’m gonna pay $500 for that. $500!!!
And yet our state is bankrupt??? There was an article in the paper saying how the police departments were going to write more tickets to raise revenue. Ouch!
Look, don’t get me wrong, most cops are good people… If you watched Bryant Gumble on HBO, you’d take issue with that statement… but most cops really do serve and protect. My issue is not with them… just like our issue against the war in Iraq was NEVER against the troops…
My issue is that our own government is price gouging us… acting like a Ticket Master like thug, with hidden fees, bullshit charges and ridiculous little add ons like Service Fee, Venue Fee, Facility Charge, Print Your Own Ticket Charge, etc.
I’m all for fixing the budget crisis, but not this way. No, not me, sir!
