Poor update of computer databases

redux

There are many computer records that seem to be impossible to get changed, on moving house for example.

This week, I contacted the claims department of my car insurers. They had a phone number for me that is eight years out of date, after two changes of address.

This morning, I received a letter from the DVLA in Sidcup, about enforcement action and an £80 fine for failing to relicense my car. The letter was forwarded, with apologies for opening it by mistake, from my old address nearly 3 years ago.

When I moved, I notified the DVLA of the change of address, but never received a new registration document. I bought a new car a bit over 2 years ago, and kept the old one on the driveway for a time, notifying it SORN twice, and again the new address. Altogether I have written to the DVLA three times and made 6 or 7 phone calls about this; their phone call log indicates my previous calls and the subject, but the address seems to be impossible to get altered. The car was moved to a scrapyard last year, and they have also informed the DVLA.

It is very common indeed that organisations update an address but not a phone number, and about as common that they do not communicate it to all parts of the company.

I still have a pension fund, investment trust saving schemes and two building societies that know I have moved, but will not write to me here (for security reasons), except to ask me to confirm my change of address, then ignore the reply.

IvanOpinion

I can't say why there should be a problem with DVLA but many companies have been involved in many take-overs and mergers throughtout the 90's and beyond. This has left them inheriting many disparate legacy systems containing many different databases. The systems integrators are then tasked with the job of trying to give centralised access to these systems which can be incredibly difficult. It would be easier to move everybody onto the same system however that may not be logisitically or commercially advantageous.

You may think it is a simple case of matching up someones name and address .. you wish. On one system you may have J Smith, on another John smith, on another Jon Smith on another Mr J Smith etc. etc. Now who is to say this is the same person and can you just imagine the outcry if information got sent to Mrs Joan Smith who may or may not be J Smith at the same address (people will probably have their lawyers on speed dial waiting for each and every opportunity to sue).

There may be typos in names and addresses and in some cases what you believe to be your address may itself be incorrect and the system may be sourcing the actual information from a PAF application (therefore it may keep changing your address back to the one that the post office knows it by .. irrespective of what you think it is).

In this country we all have to pay billions upon billions every year just to maintain the hundreds of thousands of databases that our names are on. If you change it on one it may not change it on others or it may create 'duplicate' entries on other systems (and that is assuming they talk to each other). This could be simplified (and made much much cheaper) by using a centralised database which is what the government is proposing with id cards ... however our paranoia knows no bounds and we seem to be petrified that our next door neighbour might find out our middle name is 'Winnifred'.

Ivan

Anniek1969

I had changed from BT to NTL about 5 years ago and recently changed from NTL to Bulldog. The man came yesterday to collect the NTL box and the phone number on the sheet was my old BT one. The man said that this was quite common and it's no wonder they can never contact anyone to let them know they're coming to pick up the equipment. Seems really silly that they gave me my new phone number but never updated their records to include it.

Heinz

DVLA are a complete waste of space.

I moved house and filled in the change of address part of the V5.

I received a new V5 back - with the wrong postcode (even though I'd filled in the details correctly).

I notified them by e-mail of their error and they sent me another V5 - with the wrong house number.

I notifed them by e-mail of their mistake and they sent me another V5 - this time correct.

I then had 3 V5s for the same vehicle!

2 months later, they changed to the new European version of the form - and sent me another one!

And that's why they use 0870 phone numbers - to fund their own ineptitude.