Well, you would think after deploying hundreds of thousands of folks around the world that these things would be fully and accurately updated and tasked out with a check sheet for any and all places you would be going. Yeah. No.
So, the first lesson I learned on moving my car from sunny Georgia to Wintery Germany was that you need snow tires. I DID find this out by reading all the documentation on line about the requirements... and we needed new tires anyway, so time to spend money on new tires but making sure they will meet the requirements to be driven in Germany in the winter. Problem solved. New tires.
The day arrives for me to actually get things moving on the move and get the car turned in. I did have to get a letter from the moving offices (TMO - Travel Management Office) stating I was authorized to ship said car. Although, I'm still wondering WHY this added piece of paper is needed since they had it on my orders that I was authorized, but OK. OH, and something they also needed was proof of ownership. Say what? Yeah, proof of ownership. Well, I don't really own it, Toyota owns it for now. Hum, call Toyota finance to get their approval to move overseas with said car. I was told "no". Uh, hello? I’m on government orders, now is it OK? Nope. Yes, you read that correctly Toyota will not let you be financed through their institution with payment due on the vehicle. I would have to refinance it through another company to take my car with me. Hum. I'm at zero percent interest and I HAVE zero percent interest in refinancing and paying someone else to borrow money for this so I guess that I'll be paying those last NINE payments now. SURPRISE!! Sigh. I'm grateful I have the money in the bank to even contemplate doing this, much less actually DO this. So, the car is paid off. The next hurdle is to get the letter from Toyota saying the car is indeed paid in full and technically mine, just holding on the title to be delivered to me. What's that? Oh, I have to wait TWO more days to get that letter as they have to make sure the money really makes it to your banking institution from my banking institution. OK. I will wait....
Two days pass without incident, the money comes out of my account and I call Toyota back to confirm they have indeed gotten the money into their banking records. Yes, transfer is complete, happy car ownership day! I kindly ask them to email me the ownership letter. They kindly tell me they are not able to email outside of the company. WHAT??? Yeah, no email capability. They can fax it to me however. Did you know that fax machines have gone the way of the dodo bird? Yes. I finally found a number for a fax machine and when I asked WHERE this fax was in this building no-one knew. The Admin person pointed to me to the machine that she THINKS it is... I monitor said fax machine as there are notices on the machine and it appears to have the fax capabilities... they are all included in copy machines now. So, I wait the next 24 hours hoping it will show up. Nope, I run the settings files and such where I can see what the history is on that machine for faxes. The last fax that was successfully sent was in 2016 - yes 2016. YIKES!! There are a number of failed attempts from 2018 where it states no dial tone. Gee, that is a bust. So, I call back to Toyota and get them to fax it to Office Depot and for $3.5x I get my fax. Frustration. I did tell the lady when I "RE" requested the fax that the fax machine has gone the way of the dodo birds and they really need to get that updated in their system. Sigh. They don't care, they are just workers.
So, fax in hand, all paperwork ready, car cleaned (well, sort of) and ready to go, just need to vacuum it out and I'm ready to GO. I make an appointment for the following day at 3pm in Atlanta. OK? OK.
That day was yesterday. I went to work as usual and realized that I had slacked out last night and did NOT vacuum the car out before going into the house and getting wrapped up in scanning negatives and doing laundry and generally doing things that needed to be done like dinner and the like. Whoops... and it's RAINING today. Yep, pouring. Sigh. Oh, well, I know the place by me has a very LARGE overhang on the vacuum machines and I know I can get in there even with rain and get it done today. I also had a girlfriend lunch at 11am to meet the girls for Gift exchange and visit. OK, I've got this. I leave work, go to get the car vacuumed - get that done, get to the restaurant, meet the girls, have lunch and have a GREAT time at lunch then head to the house.
I was met by a panic stricken husband who was wondering where I was because my phone was still forwarded to the office. Whoops! SO. I tell him the appointment is at 3 - it's JUST 12:30 now, we're fine. The place is in SOUTH Atlanta. I get home, get the potty run done, grab the last minute things and head on out. No problems. I even looked at my gas tank and it said I had 118 miles left on my gas tank and I had to go something like 95 miles to get to the place so I'm thinking "GREAT, I should be at 1/4 tank of gas by then".
I arrived on site at 2:40ish – a little early for my 3pm appointment time but they took me right in. There was some confusion about the funding of how these things were getting paid for – aka the shipping and I’m sure the flights, etc. for my trip over as well. (I need to go over there and take care of that as well)
That gas tank level? Yeah, I wasn't at or UNDER a quarter tank. I was a titch over. Not much but just enough that they said "nope, not low enough... you need to take a drive and burn some gas off"... ugh!!! THEN as she is walking away she said "Oh, you're going to Germany right? I forgot to check to see if you have window tinting on the front as it's not allowed in Germany". Hu? This one is new on me. So I told her we didn't get tinting when we got the car, so it doesn't have any. Well, it DID. Aftermarket window tint on the car. CRAP!! So, there we stand in the pouring rain looking at the windows and the gas tank!! UGH!!!! Butch had his knife and started to peel the tinting off the windows in the parking lot... and low and behold, it all came off without a hitch - hard to get the peel started, but it peeled right off no problem. NOW to deal with the gas.
By now it's 3:15 and we took a drive for about 15 minutes through the side streets in a big circle in 2nd gear to burn off gas... then Butch wanted to test my dexterity (which, by the way I DO NOT HAVE) and wanted me to REV the engine while at stop lights. Yeah, this was not fun!! So, between him grousing about whole gas situation and me NOT reading the whole freaking regulation on the move my stress level was NOW through the roof!! In addition the lady had said they do not accept cars after 3:30 and of course we're damn close to 3:30 as it was. Yeah... can you imagine how much I'm freaking out and wondering if we will have to come back the next day?? I was NOT happy, Butch was NOT happy. AND I let him have the car while I went back into the office to tell them I was back. Sigh. I had a little "incident" due to the stress of it all so had to be in the potty for a bit longer than a normal person to take care of business... when I got back out I was told they had called my name already and they went ahead with someone else. GREAT!! I was happy with that but then I came out to Butch revving the CRAP out of my poor car. I'm surprised the engine still runs for as overheated as I'm sure it was getting... poor Reba!!
It's now 3:45 (ish) The gal finishes her 2nd inspection and rescues Reba from the revving from hell and states "you're fine" ... thank goodness... the needle was BARELY on the line, but good enough for them to accept it! Thank you, thank you, and thank you!!!
It's now 4:00 (ish) I go BACK into the office to finish up with the rest of the paperwork and the exterior inspection - they marked the most minuscule scratches on the paperwork. To the point that I was questioning him on just WHAT he was seeing. I actually DID question him and ask him to show me what he is talking about… he insisted there were SCRATCHES there… but to me it was a little rubbed, but that was all… ugh. I was SO over this process by then I just gave up, initialed everything and then took a video of the damn car and called it a day!! Ha!
At 5:15 I walked out of the offices... yes, folks that was a LONG drawn out process of 2 hours and roughly 15 minutes with only 20 minutes added by my gas and tint fiasco. What have I learned from this effort?
1. BEFORE signing up for overseas jobs ensure your car finance company will let you travel with the loan - if not move it LONG before you head out so you're not waiting for paperwork from them saying you’re OK to travel
2. Believe them when they say 1/4 tank or LESS...
3. Ask for the regulations for the country you are going TO and ensure you're meeting all the needs, not just the obvious ones
4. Plan for and schedule an earlier time slot because wrapping something up and driving out after 5pm SCUKS!! (Especially if you are over an hour away from home for this effort!)
5. ALWAYS be nice to the folks pushing the paper, they commented on how patient I was during the process and treated me well and explained it all to me as I went.
6. When it says "you can" print something out from that web site. PRINT IT. It means they want you to bring it with you (not that the blasted web site SAID that. (grumble, grumble, grumble)
7. Breathe, this is just a small step in the whole process and there are more joys coming your way!
