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Kokua Line
Question: An earlier Kokua Line column said that state law limits the amount a business can charge on returning a bounced check. That fee is supposed to be $20. Why is the city driver's licensing agency charging $25? Was there an exception for government agencies? Why is the city overcharging us? Government rubber-
check ripoff?Answer: There are no exceptions for any business or any government agency, says JoAnn Uchida, state complaints enforcement officer. There was no ceiling until April 1999 when the ceiling was set by the Legislature at $20, she said.
Roy Amemiya, city Budget and Financial Services director, said the city wasn't aware of the change in the law until last week. New signs at city agencies should be up today. The reason the fee to process a bounced check was set at $25 was because that is what it cost the city. The next step will be determine how to reimburse city customers who were overcharged $5 since April 1999 because they bounced a check with the city, Amemiya added.
Q: I watched while a merchant on Monday scanned the driver's license of a person ahead of me making a hardware purchase and was paying for his items by check. What was the merchant scanning and what information is on my driver's license?
A: Every Hawaii state driver's license has a linear bar code below the applicant's picture. The only information on the bar code is the driver's social security number, said Dennis Kamimura, administrator of the city's driver license division. "That is a requirement of the federal immigration act."
That federal law requires all states to list in some form the driver's social security number. "Some states do it on a magnetic strip, others use a linear bar code," Kamimura said. When the new state law goes into effect Jan. 1, forbidding the imprinting of the numerical social security number on a person's driver's license, the city will still have to maintain it on the bar code because of the federal law, Kamimura said. This means that after Jan. 1, a driver has the option of paying $5 for a replacement driver's license where his new number will be computer generated. Or the driver can wait and use his current driver's license until it expires and then get a new number.
Q: Does the U.S. Post Office have a section that handles misrouted mail? The reason I am asking is because I ordered four books from a ministry in Orlando, Fla., in 1998 (April and September). According to the ministry, the order was filled and books sent to me, but I never received them. I have corresponded with them by mail and phone, but to no avail. The only proof that I ordered the books is my cancelled check.
A: The Postal Service does maintain mail recovery centers that automatically return to the sender undeliverable mail if the parcel was sent first class. You need to check with the ministry if the address for you is correct. However, after two years the Postal Service says there would be no record of your parcel and your only recourse is to work with the sender. At this point it would seem that the package was mislabeled and, because it was probably sent by book rate, it is gone.
Mahalo
I recently returned home and when I got to Honolulu Airport there were two halau performing. I want to thank whoever arranged for the halau, and I would like to thank the performers. It's a wonderful way to return home. It's great to have music at the airport.
Need help with problems? Call Kokua Line at 525-8686,
fax 525-6711, or write to P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com