Some Mass. garages coping with inspection sticker shock
By
Craig S. Semon
Telegram & Gazette Staff
Posted Oct 6, 2017 at 8:16 PM
Updated Oct 7, 2017 at 5:32 AM
The first week of the Commonwealth’s new motor vehicle inspection program was frustrating for some stations in Worcester County.
On Friday, James DiCentes, owner of Deer Pond Auto Repair Service Inc., 14 Huntoon Memorial Highway in Leicester, had something he hadn’t had since Monday - a functional work station properly printing inspection stickers.
“The governor thinks we’re a bunch of idiots. Mechanics are the smartest people you are ever going to meet,” Mr. DiCentes said Thursday afternoon when his inspection sticker system was not working properly. “A monkey could run that machine. In 10 seconds, I could teach how to run it.”
After spending $9,200 for new hardware and spending many hours on hold with the Applus Technologies hotline, a technician arrived Friday morning at the Leicester shop, replaced the printer, made a few adjustments and now Mr. DiCentes is up and running.
Before the 15-minute fix, Mr. DiCentes said the machine sputtered out inspection stickers that were missing its mark.
As a result, a special code to be scanned to make the inspection sticker active was not being read and had to be voided. Mr. DiCentes produced more than 100 voided inspection stickers in four days.
State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jacquelyn Goddard said as of 7 p.m. Friday, the number of station locations processing Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicle inspections since “go live” on Oct. 1 was 1,340. She added that 1,347 station locations were scheduled to “go live” on that date.
“The Registry of Motor Vehicles appreciates the understanding and patience of the public and station inspectors as the new equipment is activated this week,” she said in a statement. “Throughout the holiday weekend, the Call Center will be assisting inspectors in order to ensure they have the tools, supplies and training they need and fully understand how to use the new software and technology. In addition, station visits will continue to occur daily.”
But Dave Malo, service manager for Fuller’s Automotive, 505 Washington St., Auburn, said their inspection sticker machine hasn’t worked all week.
“We’re mainly just having problems with our sticker printer actually
printing the right information on the correct sticker,” Mr. Malo said.
“I can get it to work by recalibrating the machine and all of that
stuff. However, it ends up spitting out more stickers incorrectly and
misaligning the printer. It ends up wasting stickers is basically what
it does.”
Mr. Malo said they have produced 10 or 12 inspection stickers properly this week, while voiding close to 100.
“For the first three days, I called them about every three hours and I emailed them twice and I left four voicemails and I got no responses back from anybody,” Mr. Malo said. “I have not been contacted.”
Jim Dunn, owner of Jim & Sons Auto Repair in downtown Worcester, 47 Summer St., said their inspection sticker machine just got fixed at 8:30 a.m. Friday.
“Probably, with no exaggeration, we lost $7,000 in business,” Mr. Dunn said. “Being in downtown Worcester, I do a lot of stickers.”
Prior to Friday morning, Mr. Dunn said there were 40 inspection stickers that were unusable and had to be voided.
“The stickers would come out blank,” Mr. Dunn said.
Jeff Sobol, the manager of Gardner Automotive, 1060 West Boylston
St., in Worcester, estimates that they have turned away 150 to 200
people looking to get their automobiles inspected.
“Applus has been here most of the day (on Friday) and he left to get more parts,” Mr. Sobol said. “He’s supposedly coming back but I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Despite spending roughly $6,500 for the new inspection sticker operation, Mr. Sobol said the technician from Applus Technologies told him that he needs a complete new station because “he fixes one item and then something else is wrong”.
“I’ve done one sticker and one re-inspection this week and I don’t even know if they’re any good,” Mr. Sobol said. “They were saying that it’s kind of our fault because we didn’t pick enough from the training. But we didn’t even get to that portion because the machine doesn’t work.”
Sheila Moss, customer service manager at Mike’s Truck Service, 214 North Main St., in Millbury, said not only haven’t they been able to print inspection stickers all week, they are not even set up yet to do so.
“We got the machine here. It’s still wrapped up,” Mrs. Moss said. “They haven’t given us the printer.
They haven’t given us the stickers, anything, and they haven’t even wired us into the system,”
Timothy McLaughlin, one of the owners of McLaughlin’s Service Inc., 5 Elm St, in Millbury, said they only missed producing inspection stickers one day, losing an estimated 30 stickers.
“We had a little bit of trouble with the printer that prints out the vehicle inspection reports,” Mr. McLaughlin said. ” It sometimes prints out two or three or something like that. You have to shut it off and put it back on. That’s about it.”
On Friday, James DiCentes, owner of Deer Pond Auto Repair Service Inc., 14 Huntoon Memorial Highway in Leicester, had something he hadn’t had since Monday - a functional work station properly printing inspection stickers.
“The governor thinks we’re a bunch of idiots. Mechanics are the smartest people you are ever going to meet,” Mr. DiCentes said Thursday afternoon when his inspection sticker system was not working properly. “A monkey could run that machine. In 10 seconds, I could teach how to run it.”
After spending $9,200 for new hardware and spending many hours on hold with the Applus Technologies hotline, a technician arrived Friday morning at the Leicester shop, replaced the printer, made a few adjustments and now Mr. DiCentes is up and running.
Before the 15-minute fix, Mr. DiCentes said the machine sputtered out inspection stickers that were missing its mark.
As a result, a special code to be scanned to make the inspection sticker active was not being read and had to be voided. Mr. DiCentes produced more than 100 voided inspection stickers in four days.
State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jacquelyn Goddard said as of 7 p.m. Friday, the number of station locations processing Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicle inspections since “go live” on Oct. 1 was 1,340. She added that 1,347 station locations were scheduled to “go live” on that date.
“The Registry of Motor Vehicles appreciates the understanding and patience of the public and station inspectors as the new equipment is activated this week,” she said in a statement. “Throughout the holiday weekend, the Call Center will be assisting inspectors in order to ensure they have the tools, supplies and training they need and fully understand how to use the new software and technology. In addition, station visits will continue to occur daily.”
But Dave Malo, service manager for Fuller’s Automotive, 505 Washington St., Auburn, said their inspection sticker machine hasn’t worked all week.
Mr. Malo said they have produced 10 or 12 inspection stickers properly this week, while voiding close to 100.
“For the first three days, I called them about every three hours and I emailed them twice and I left four voicemails and I got no responses back from anybody,” Mr. Malo said. “I have not been contacted.”
Jim Dunn, owner of Jim & Sons Auto Repair in downtown Worcester, 47 Summer St., said their inspection sticker machine just got fixed at 8:30 a.m. Friday.
“Probably, with no exaggeration, we lost $7,000 in business,” Mr. Dunn said. “Being in downtown Worcester, I do a lot of stickers.”
Prior to Friday morning, Mr. Dunn said there were 40 inspection stickers that were unusable and had to be voided.
“The stickers would come out blank,” Mr. Dunn said.
“Applus has been here most of the day (on Friday) and he left to get more parts,” Mr. Sobol said. “He’s supposedly coming back but I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Despite spending roughly $6,500 for the new inspection sticker operation, Mr. Sobol said the technician from Applus Technologies told him that he needs a complete new station because “he fixes one item and then something else is wrong”.
“I’ve done one sticker and one re-inspection this week and I don’t even know if they’re any good,” Mr. Sobol said. “They were saying that it’s kind of our fault because we didn’t pick enough from the training. But we didn’t even get to that portion because the machine doesn’t work.”
Sheila Moss, customer service manager at Mike’s Truck Service, 214 North Main St., in Millbury, said not only haven’t they been able to print inspection stickers all week, they are not even set up yet to do so.
“We got the machine here. It’s still wrapped up,” Mrs. Moss said. “They haven’t given us the printer.
They haven’t given us the stickers, anything, and they haven’t even wired us into the system,”
Timothy McLaughlin, one of the owners of McLaughlin’s Service Inc., 5 Elm St, in Millbury, said they only missed producing inspection stickers one day, losing an estimated 30 stickers.
“We had a little bit of trouble with the printer that prints out the vehicle inspection reports,” Mr. McLaughlin said. ” It sometimes prints out two or three or something like that. You have to shut it off and put it back on. That’s about it.”
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