CHICAGO — Procrastinating drivers who put off buying their city vehicle stickers got a 24-hour extension after a computer glitch affected sales at area currency exchanges Tuesday evening.
Just hours before the midnight Tuesday deadline for vehicle owners to buy the stickers, the computer network used by currency exchanges sell the stickers experienced problems, causing significant delays, according to the City Clerk's office.
As a result, the clerk's office decided to extend the deadline to buy stickers another 24 hours.
This means drivers will have another day before the $60 late fee kicks in and before Chicago police, parking enforcement aides and other ticket writers begin issuing $200 tickets to cars with expired stickers. Enforcement will now begin at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
City Clerk's spokesman Patrick Corcoran said the computer issues occurred between 6-8:30 p.m. and led to longer lines and longer wait times. The problems led some drivers to come away empty handed, he said.
"While this issue only spanned a two- to three-hour window of time exclusively at currency exchanges, we took quick action to extend the grace period for a day because we want to help people come into compliance," City Clerk Susana Mendoza said in a statement. "We appreciate our customers' patience as we worked through this glitch."
Drivers rushing to buy the stickers at the last minute were generally happy with the extra time.
Eustargio Chaidez who was still in line after midnight at the PLS currency exchange at 3601 N. Western Ave., was glad he didn't have to pay the late fee.
"Yeah, I'm happy the deadline was extended," Chaidez said as he walked out the door of the store, waving his new city sticker.
Daniel Donohue thought it was a good move on the clerk's part to extend the deadline.
"I got my city sticker on time two weeks ago but I bought a new car today," Donohue said. "This is the worst day of the year to buy a new car —so it's a positive thing" the deadline was extended.
Mendoza's office said the computer network was back to normal by late Tuesday evening.
An employee of the Kedzie Irving Currency Exchange at 3158 W. Irving Park Road confirmed computer systems were up and running after explaining the problem probably stemmed from a last-minute rush for the stickers.
"Of course it's because everyone in the city waited until today to get their city sticker," she said.
Electronic License Service LLC, the company whose software allows currency exchanges to interface with the city sticker sales system, had similar issues back in June 2009 when heavy computer traffic slowed transactions to a trickle for two days.
Mendoza's office said all city sales locations will be open Wednesday for sticker sales.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
