It’s New Year and I just can’t stop posting. This is actually a post that warns you off going online.

I lost my driving licence recently and needed to order another. First port of call was DirectGov. Couldn’t use this as I didn’t have my Government Gateway user ID. I’d applied for one ages ago but it never arrived - should have been sent by post.

So I turned to the physical form. Queued for ages at The Post Office (you can’t just pick up the forms any more) and had begun to review the dreadfully laid out application form (one for our Information Design team methinks). But was rescued.

A helpful colleague suggested a phone call. 5 mins rooting around on the site for a number and, hey presto, 0870 240 0009. Took 30 seconds. Name, DOB, address, card details. Done. Excellent.

Said colleague quippped:
“I was amazed. How could something involving the Government in this country could take so little time? The only reason I could think of was that they want you money.”

Cynic.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Lifehack. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.