14 ms·

Here is a summary from the Louis Rossmann YT comment: To answer some common questions: a) I have already emailed & called, and I patiently await a reply... b

by dt3ft 5y ago

Here is a summary from the Louis Rossmann YT comment: To answer some common questions: a) I have already emailed & called, and I patiently await a reply... b) You can't re-renew with a 13 month old PIN if you already renewed. c) You can't show up in person without an appointment. d) Appointments are only granted by means of contact that don't reply. e) Yes I have two other licenses that AREN'T expired, but those are useless, they are for selling laptops, not fixing laptops, which I don't do anymore anyway after the city was unable to give me a straight answer on how to do so without being fined: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok - I need this license in the video to be able to actually do repairs. f) Just listen to this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok This is what I am dealing with. After 15+ minutes and being transferred to two people, they can't answer a basic question about a rule they fined me for breaking that they can't even explain. They never emailed or called me back, which has been the behavior I have come to expect over the past nine years. I am serious, if you work for the city and have any way of applying my 13 month old payment to this license renewal, you have the gratitude of myself & 14 of my employees who will get to continue paying their rents, mortgages, & food bill for their kids. In spite of what people think, I am not a millionaire. If I'm forced to close - I can't afford to pay these people. I do not want that to happen. I am not meming, I never get responses to DCA emails - not 3 months ago, not for NINE YEARS, and I don't expect to be able to now. Since I cannot sort this out in person due to the COVID closures, this channel is my only hope of reaching someone who can help me sort this out.

raverbashing 5y ago
This is not the time to play with city workers lacking in proactivity and/or competence. This is lawyer and/or representative time. Escalate the issue (ok, he's doing this with the video) If the payment was done, that shows intent on renewing the license. Might be worth nothing, might be worth something. Do you think if the city sits on a permit renewal by Chase or Starbucks that they'll diligently sit and wait? Yeah, right...
- apercu 5y ago
  Agreed. Sue the city. That will get someones attention. Well, maybe not in NYC. I honestly don't know.
  - omegabravo 5y ago
    Seeing a lawyer doesn't necessarily mean suing the city, it means someone who can navigate rules and regulations
    - jonny_eh 5y ago
      Or even know who to call to take a closer look.
    - apercu 5y ago
      That's fair, I just meant if the stern letter from a law office (which I am sure New York officials get weekly) didn't do anything.
- warent 5y ago
  Why is this being downvoted? It seems like perfectly reasonable advice and one of the first things that came to my mind as well. Is there something in the video that happens which is causing people to vote this down? Edit: instead of silently voting me down too I encourage someone to provide thoughtful written discourse expressing your disagreement so we can all grow and learn together
- CapitalistCartr 5y ago
  Unfortunately, the hard truth, in America at least, is you have to hire a lawyer for these problems. Most such problems magically disappear that way. It's unfair, but it's how it works. It's a lot like needing to bribe an official to get something done: if you don't understand, the system seems impenetrable.
  - xeromal 5y ago
    IDK, I see a lawyer as a positive benefit. Sure, some city, state, or federal employees are incompetent but at least there is a means of getting help if you're desperate enough.
prasadjoglekar 5y ago
Also call your local councilman. They have staff who will at least attempt to deal with the issue. It helps.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  This is good advice. That said, you shouldn't have to call up a politician and beg in order to get government departments to perform functions that they are supposed to be performing. If you have some ultra-edge case involving your deceased uncle's estate's something or other it can be understandable. But this should be a routine business transaction and the city is incapable of making it happen. He's trying to give them a large amount of money FFS, you'd think they'd accept it and then do the menial amount of work to make the records on their end reflect that.
  - justin66 5y ago
    That's all pretty much ass-backwards. It'd be wildly inappropriate and unethical if a city councilman could somehow sway the settlement of an estate, which is the province of the court. Getting things moving in city hall's bureaucracy is in the councilman's remit, as is improving the state of the bureaucracy to prevent further problems in the future. They might not be the ideal person to handle anything in particular, but they should sure know who to talk to, and they should make time to do it.
- user3939382 5y ago
  I just had an issue where I couldn’t get an appointment for a city service because of COVID, got ahold of my councilman and was there in 2 weeks. This is definitely what he should do.
- drewg123 5y ago
  This is why I think that if there has to be an unfixable Kafkaesque bureaucracy, I'd rather it be in the public sector rather than a monopoly in the private sector. There is not much your local councilman / state rep / US Rep / US Senator / etc can do about a problem with Comcast. But I've seen appeals to elected officials fix lots of issues with government bureaucracy.
throwaway0a5e 5y ago
And how many people bemoaning this situation in these comment threads will turn right around and advocate for more professional license requirements in some other comment thread. You can't have the good without the bad. I'd like to see those people come out and say these are acceptable losses.
- philistine 5y ago
  I think I'm the typical person you're inviting to say it and I will: those are acceptable losses. Whenever you want a new licensing scheme, you have to balance the gains with the losses. For example, my city had an issue where donation boxes would pop up on city lots next to parks and become dumpsters. The city implemented a licensing scheme, which forced the companies and non-profits to collect from the boxes at a regular frequency, and now the problem is solved. No bags of old books left soaking in the rain turning into useless pulp. But someone could argue the licensing scheme stops some non-profits from collecting much needed donations. It totally does, but it's worth it.
  - II2II 5y ago
    It would also be nice if those who oppose licensing suggested credible alternatives. As your anecdote suggested, licenses are typically implemented for a reason. Quite often those reasons deal with people who are taking advantage of a situation, with little regard to the interests of others or even the legality of their actions. I will admit that licenses can be problematic, but I honestly cannot think of a good alternative so I support licensing as the best option we have available at present.
    - Aerroon 5y ago
      >It would also be nice if those who oppose licensing suggested credible alternatives. Credible alternative: don't have licenses. They're not a gift from god. Businesses existed before them and continue to exist without them. Can there be a quality problem? Sure, but consumer protection laws will apply regardless of licenses.
ta1234567890 5y ago
> c) You can't show up in person without an appointment. > d) Appointments are only granted by means of contact that don't reply. Similar thing happened to me recently with the IRS. Got a notice about them needing to verify my identity and gave me a number to call. Had been calling for months and would always get a message saying they were too busy and to try the following day. After trying a few other options to no avail, I decided to show up at my local IRS office without an appointment (which I couldn’t get anyway). They first turned me down, then told me that maybe if I waited for a few hours they might be able to see me at the end of the day, then after about 20min and them clearly not being busy, they talked to me and was able to resolve the issue within 15min. So, even though I was told I couldn’t show up without an appointment, and they tried turning me down, just by being there they finally paid attention to me. Yes, it was uncomfortable and annoying to have to do that, but it worked.
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  If you have a moment, please call the IRS' Customer Advocacy Department to file a complaint regarding this. Gotta be the squeaky wheel. https://www.irs.gov/advocate/the-taxpayer-advocate-service-is-your-voice-at-the-irs https://www.irs.gov/advocate/the-taxpayer-advocate-service-i...
  - MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
    And people wonder why there is staunch support for less government involvement. At least when I get screwed over by a private company I can talk to someone...so long as it's not Google.
    - jonny_eh 5y ago
      or… this is the result of cut-cut-cut politics. When we continue to cut funding, while asking our govt workers to do more, of course the quality of service is going to suffer. This isn't a problem in other countries.
      - 5y ago
seriousquestion 5y ago
This is like dealing with a monopoly that you can't unsubscribe to. And imagine those who don't have a large Youtube following and don't have the money for a lawyer. What are they to do?
Railsify 5y ago
This is over-regulation at it's best.
- himinlomax 5y ago
  That's not even a regulation problem per se, it's a bureaucracy issue. The only regulation here is that you need to get a piece of paper to do business. There's no complex requirement, no job-specific rules to follow, no training requirement, nothing except a piece of official paper. Some jobs in some places may have onerous requirements for some jobs, possibly for good reason, such as having a doctorate to perform medicine, which takes a decade of hard work or so. The bureaucracy involved may be simple, you're supposed to have the diploma: if you're found to have performed medical acts without it you end up in jail. (This is not typically how it's done any more for a number of good reasons, incidentally.) Getting a simple piece of paper is the problem. As far as regulations are concerned, this is not any more complex than buying a concert ticket. If the festival you wanted to attend turned out to be unable to do that in a timely manner, you wouldn't fault them for selling tickets. You'd fault them for sucking at a simple business task.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - Railsify 5y ago
    That's why I said over-regulation, what I mean is regulation for the sake of regulation. Although, I would imagine there is a form with some fields that if filled incorrectly would result in a rejection. I don't really want to debate what the meaning of regulation is, but I see it as any checkpoint with a government, not all of it is bad but a need to get a piece of paper for which there are no requirements does seem like a regulation and a pointless one at that.

by dt3ft 5y ago

raverbashing 5y ago

This is not the time to play with city workers lacking in proactivity and/or competence. This is lawyer and/or representative time. Escalate the issue (ok, he's doing this with the video) If the payment was done, that shows intent on renewing the license. Might be worth nothing, might be worth something. Do you think if the city sits on a permit renewal by Chase or Starbucks that they'll diligently sit and wait? Yeah, right...

apercu 5y ago
Agreed. Sue the city. That will get someones attention. Well, maybe not in NYC. I honestly don't know.
- omegabravo 5y ago
  Seeing a lawyer doesn't necessarily mean suing the city, it means someone who can navigate rules and regulations
  - jonny_eh 5y ago
    Or even know who to call to take a closer look.
  - apercu 5y ago
    That's fair, I just meant if the stern letter from a law office (which I am sure New York officials get weekly) didn't do anything.
warent 5y ago
Why is this being downvoted? It seems like perfectly reasonable advice and one of the first things that came to my mind as well. Is there something in the video that happens which is causing people to vote this down? Edit: instead of silently voting me down too I encourage someone to provide thoughtful written discourse expressing your disagreement so we can all grow and learn together
CapitalistCartr 5y ago
Unfortunately, the hard truth, in America at least, is you have to hire a lawyer for these problems. Most such problems magically disappear that way. It's unfair, but it's how it works. It's a lot like needing to bribe an official to get something done: if you don't understand, the system seems impenetrable.
- xeromal 5y ago
  IDK, I see a lawyer as a positive benefit. Sure, some city, state, or federal employees are incompetent but at least there is a means of getting help if you're desperate enough.

prasadjoglekar 5y ago

Also call your local councilman. They have staff who will at least attempt to deal with the issue. It helps.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
This is good advice. That said, you shouldn't have to call up a politician and beg in order to get government departments to perform functions that they are supposed to be performing. If you have some ultra-edge case involving your deceased uncle's estate's something or other it can be understandable. But this should be a routine business transaction and the city is incapable of making it happen. He's trying to give them a large amount of money FFS, you'd think they'd accept it and then do the menial amount of work to make the records on their end reflect that.
- justin66 5y ago
  That's all pretty much ass-backwards. It'd be wildly inappropriate and unethical if a city councilman could somehow sway the settlement of an estate, which is the province of the court. Getting things moving in city hall's bureaucracy is in the councilman's remit, as is improving the state of the bureaucracy to prevent further problems in the future. They might not be the ideal person to handle anything in particular, but they should sure know who to talk to, and they should make time to do it.
user3939382 5y ago
I just had an issue where I couldn’t get an appointment for a city service because of COVID, got ahold of my councilman and was there in 2 weeks. This is definitely what he should do.
drewg123 5y ago
This is why I think that if there has to be an unfixable Kafkaesque bureaucracy, I'd rather it be in the public sector rather than a monopoly in the private sector. There is not much your local councilman / state rep / US Rep / US Senator / etc can do about a problem with Comcast. But I've seen appeals to elected officials fix lots of issues with government bureaucracy.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

And how many people bemoaning this situation in these comment threads will turn right around and advocate for more professional license requirements in some other comment thread. You can't have the good without the bad. I'd like to see those people come out and say these are acceptable losses.

philistine 5y ago
I think I'm the typical person you're inviting to say it and I will: those are acceptable losses. Whenever you want a new licensing scheme, you have to balance the gains with the losses. For example, my city had an issue where donation boxes would pop up on city lots next to parks and become dumpsters. The city implemented a licensing scheme, which forced the companies and non-profits to collect from the boxes at a regular frequency, and now the problem is solved. No bags of old books left soaking in the rain turning into useless pulp. But someone could argue the licensing scheme stops some non-profits from collecting much needed donations. It totally does, but it's worth it.
- II2II 5y ago
  It would also be nice if those who oppose licensing suggested credible alternatives. As your anecdote suggested, licenses are typically implemented for a reason. Quite often those reasons deal with people who are taking advantage of a situation, with little regard to the interests of others or even the legality of their actions. I will admit that licenses can be problematic, but I honestly cannot think of a good alternative so I support licensing as the best option we have available at present.
  - Aerroon 5y ago
    >It would also be nice if those who oppose licensing suggested credible alternatives. Credible alternative: don't have licenses. They're not a gift from god. Businesses existed before them and continue to exist without them. Can there be a quality problem? Sure, but consumer protection laws will apply regardless of licenses.

ta1234567890 5y ago

> c) You can't show up in person without an appointment. > d) Appointments are only granted by means of contact that don't reply. Similar thing happened to me recently with the IRS. Got a notice about them needing to verify my identity and gave me a number to call. Had been calling for months and would always get a message saying they were too busy and to try the following day. After trying a few other options to no avail, I decided to show up at my local IRS office without an appointment (which I couldn’t get anyway). They first turned me down, then told me that maybe if I waited for a few hours they might be able to see me at the end of the day, then after about 20min and them clearly not being busy, they talked to me and was able to resolve the issue within 15min. So, even though I was told I couldn’t show up without an appointment, and they tried turning me down, just by being there they finally paid attention to me. Yes, it was uncomfortable and annoying to have to do that, but it worked.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
If you have a moment, please call the IRS' Customer Advocacy Department to file a complaint regarding this. Gotta be the squeaky wheel. https://www.irs.gov/advocate/the-taxpayer-advocate-service-is-your-voice-at-the-irs https://www.irs.gov/advocate/the-taxpayer-advocate-service-i...
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
  And people wonder why there is staunch support for less government involvement. At least when I get screwed over by a private company I can talk to someone...so long as it's not Google.
  - jonny_eh 5y ago
    or… this is the result of cut-cut-cut politics. When we continue to cut funding, while asking our govt workers to do more, of course the quality of service is going to suffer. This isn't a problem in other countries.
    - 5y ago

seriousquestion 5y ago

This is like dealing with a monopoly that you can't unsubscribe to. And imagine those who don't have a large Youtube following and don't have the money for a lawyer. What are they to do?

Railsify 5y ago

This is over-regulation at it's best.

himinlomax 5y ago
That's not even a regulation problem per se, it's a bureaucracy issue. The only regulation here is that you need to get a piece of paper to do business. There's no complex requirement, no job-specific rules to follow, no training requirement, nothing except a piece of official paper. Some jobs in some places may have onerous requirements for some jobs, possibly for good reason, such as having a doctorate to perform medicine, which takes a decade of hard work or so. The bureaucracy involved may be simple, you're supposed to have the diploma: if you're found to have performed medical acts without it you end up in jail. (This is not typically how it's done any more for a number of good reasons, incidentally.) Getting a simple piece of paper is the problem. As far as regulations are concerned, this is not any more complex than buying a concert ticket. If the festival you wanted to attend turned out to be unable to do that in a timely manner, you wouldn't fault them for selling tickets. You'd fault them for sucking at a simple business task.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Railsify 5y ago
  That's why I said over-regulation, what I mean is regulation for the sake of regulation. Although, I would imagine there is a form with some fields that if filled incorrectly would result in a rejection. I don't really want to debate what the meaning of regulation is, but I see it as any checkpoint with a government, not all of it is bad but a need to get a piece of paper for which there are no requirements does seem like a regulation and a pointless one at that.