I am a parent of a third-year student at the New England Institute of Technology. I won’t begin to tell you the amount of money I spend in your state. Anyone with a child – or three, in my case – in a college without dorms knows the cost of educating and boarding students.
I have just spent five and three-quarter hours on the phone, over a two-day period, with the R.I. Division of Motor Vehicles. I have been attempting to reach anyone human at the Operator Control Section. Dial the number, 462-0800, and “Agents are not available” is all you will hear for hours on end.
But it gets better. I did happen to get a recording machine yesterday that told me the machine was full. That was pleasant! Any phone message sending you to the “user-friendly” Web site will produce nothing but telephone numbers sending you back into phone loop.
Do I sound upset? Not to worry, as this too will pass! However, we are now looking at colleges in other states for my daughter to continue her education.
I can’t afford the frustration of doing business in Rhode Island anymore. I now need to pay an attorney just to get through the bureaucracy. All this accumulated on top of very high rent, expensive groceries, gas, numerous taxes and tariffs and the plethora of other costs of living in Providence.
I am not sure how the state’s public puts up with the bureaucratic bungling of communication, but I for one am going to stay away from Rhode Island. In the past, while discussing with other parents the collegiate and social aspects of Rhode Island, I have been both an advocate and ambassador for the college and the state. No more!
Call me an extremely frustrated father in Vermont.
Joel Williams, Poultney, Vt.
