Long Lines At Addison St. Revenue Center
Since Chicago city vehicle stickers went on sale on June 1st, lines at the Dept. of Revenue Payment & Hearing Center, located at 2550 W. Addison have been stretching out the door.
Waiting times for any services, including paying tickets and ticket hearings, according to reader Rob. G are running 30-60 minutes. Other reports had times nearing 90 minutes.
As the June 30th city sticker deadline gets closer and closer, lines will get even worse.
Look, everyone looking to get their new Chicago city sticker, there’s this thing called the Internet. Even my grandmother has heard of it.
Just go to the Chicago City Clerk’s website, order online. It takes about 10-15 minutes. You can do it from home or work or a Kinko’s. A week or so later, the mailman brings you your new sticker.
No lines. No wait. You even get to sit in a comfortable chair and enjoy the modern luxury of air conditioning.
You’ll be doing yourself and everyone else a big favor.
Thanks to Rob G for the tip and the great photo.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say “a week or so later” — mine took closer to two weeks (maybe more?) and I applied as soon as I got my renewal in the mail. They may be even more swamped with later registrations due to these lines. Good thing you have until July 15, right? =/
Or in my case where I ordered online on May 27 and have yet to receive the sticker. The City Clerk’s office said it should have been mailed June 12. A follow up call this week resulted in not being able to get a hold of ANYONE in data services (the dept. responsible for online sales). I spoke with the general licensing department who told me it’s definitely possible it will come this week and I shouldn’t try to contact anyone again until Monday.
Anyone else still waiting for their sticker after several weeks?
Jen, although you were able to order them before June 1, I suspect those orders did not go out until June 1st.
I ordered mine tuesday, June 2nd and got it Saturday, June 6th. The two weeks cushion is just to give the city some breathing room in case something goes wrong with the processing, though I expect you could always use your receipt or credit card statement to get out of a ticket if the grace period ended and you still hadn’t received your vehicle sticker.
MichaelM, nope. Ordered June 2, rec’d… June 17th?
Anyone know if in person they require you to give DL number? I’ve been resisting that for years and online forces it.
Sure, we’ve heard of the inter-web, but those idiot are STILL trying to tell me that my ancient Saturn sedan (smaller than even the recent Honda compacts) is a TRUCK and trying to charge accordingly.
So the inter-web isn’t always an answer when the city hall web chimps can’t program a drop down list correctly…
SS…
A DL and Valid registration is required in person.
Reason? your Car/Truck Plate number goes on the city sticker now….you have to Prove your the owner and resident.
Howdy…just take a photo of your car and plate….stick it in front of the next moron that calls your Car a truck.
I mailed my application in on June 6th, after the website kept changing my small car into a truck, and I witnessed the line shown above. (Possibly the same people in line still waiting?) My check has still not been cashed, so I am assuming it is in the bottom of an enormous pile of mail caused by the city’s inability to manage their website or their retail sites.
DoR: Of course they’ve had my plate number for years. I don’t mind showing my DL, I just don’t want it in their records. Is that possible?
Wait time today at Jefferson Park – Gale Street ended up being 1 hour 40 minutes (11:05 AM to 12:35 PM).
I had a similar problem to the my-car-is-not-a-truck issue mentioned above (though not as blatant), so I couldn’t use the internet either. I’ve got an early model Pathfinder, which is less than 4500 lb, but their system defaults to “Large Vehicle”. I just brought them a printout with my “curb weight” as proof, and they overrode the system without argument.
I have obtained my city sticker, but due to a glitch it shows the wrong license plate number. I went to city hall and was told that to correct this I would have to wait in the (formidable) line.
However the woman at the information booth said that for the coming year, stickers that show the wrong plate # would not be ticketed if otherwise properly displayed. Can anybody verify this?
(This advice sounds suspect to me, but not entirely unfeasible given the number of glitches I’ve read about.)
Peter, I’m having the same problem as you. I ordered my sticker online on May 26th and have not received it. I contacted them via email and they told me to call the data services department. I have not been able to get in touch with anybody at the data services department. I just get the recording that says all representatives are busy, please call again later.
http://www.yelp.com/topic/chicago-city-of-chicago-vehicle-sticker
For those still waiting for a city sticker, there’s a yelper that works for the city that has helped me out.