chp inspection and smog certification

[Andreas]

wow. that's all i can say. it was one of those days. it all started with 2 accidents on the 880 freeway which only left the fast lane open. this is when a chp officer pulled up behind me and over the pa system informed me that i couldn't be towing in the fast lane...

i arrived to my appt at the san jose chp on time and had my cousin jump out to see where they wanted me to park the truck and trailer. the first officer asked me to parallel park the everything on the street and as i was backing it out another officer told me to pull up into the middle of the parking lot and not to worry about it. the first officer came out and with tone started asking me why i hadn't parked in the street so i pointed at the 2nd officer and told him that he instructed me to park in the middle of the parking lot. the first officer literally started cussing at the officer saying something about i don't give a **** you're f'ing up my parking lot.

so 2 other officers came out. officer danielles and one other officer. one of the officers was grilling me passively to the point that he almost had me convinced that i had stolen car parts on my car. (not the case) i asked him if he was officer danielles, the verification officer, and he said no and walked away. officer danielles then jumped on the trailer and it was obvious that he was looking for reasons to not perform the vin verification. we also went over the dreaded location of the tag to which his response included not having enough time and not wanting to put forth the effort to drill it into the frame. he chose the fiberglass door jam as a safe place to put the tag... he then instructed me to park in the street and to wait what would be a very lengthy wait since he was going to have to check on everything. he implied that he was going to be taking other appointments and would get to mine when he could. i looked at my cousin and said this guy is going to go and find any reason not to complete this today and sure as **** he pulled it off. sir you are from contra costa county, you need to do this in your county not here. i mentioned CALIFORNIA highway patrol and that I live in CALIFORNIA and he cut me off which he did about every 2 seconds anyways to tell me that it is not how it works here. i then tried to tell him that my bar exam was at 1 oclock and that i was doing everything in san jose because it came highly recommended and that i had verified when i made my appt that i was coming from the east bay. he responded with i don't know who gave you this misinformation or who these cobra guys are that think they have had their vin verifications done here but i'm telling you like it is. anyways, i walked away from him while he was talking AT me since i had reached my boiling point and drove away.

at this point i had blown $80 on the trailer rental, i was going to miss my appt at the bar and get back in on the 2 month waiting list again for contra costa county chp. i called hayward chp and the guy just about laughed me off of the phone and told me that he could get me squared away at the end of september. i phoned dublin chp expecting the worst. the woman heard me out and politely transferred me to the verification officer, officer piccinini. he was listening and i could tell. he called san jose to confirm what had happened, called me back and squeezed me in the schedule understanding that i had already waited 2 months, rented a trailer, missed my bar exam and had taken the day off from work to complete this. mind you dublin's office is in alameda county, not contra costa where i live so he was obviously not concerned with where i was from. he was extremely polite, extremely respectful of the car and very understanding. the example: he was eyeballing my firewall as a location for the tag and when i mentioned that i would have preferred not to install it there he simply responded, well it's simply not going to go there then.

my advice to everybody is stay away from san jose. officer rosconi who came highly recommended is no longer doing vin verifications and i can't say i was at all impressed by any of the other staff. it was almost as if me bringing my car there was a total inconvenience to them.

officer piccinini is the way to go. you will not be disappointed with his level of respect or professionalism. after my experience at san jose i wanted to give him a hug. i maintained composure though, shook his hand and thanked him about 100 times. i still have to rent the trailer again and reschedule the bar exam but he got the vin done and allowed me to surpass another 2 month waiting list.