LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK)—Florida rolled out new software to solve DMV problems, but counties say the software itself is a problem.
Tax collectors across the state report that a new system called Orion keeps glitching out, leaving customers and tax collectors waiting for a solution. The Lee County Tax Collector got hit with an outage just before it closed.
“Brutal,” said Cynthia King, a customer.
“Nerve wracking,” said Ronnie Dean, another customer.
“It’s a little bit overwhelming,” said Wyneshia Robinson.
No matter what word you want to use, no one likes waiting at the DMV. Now, tax collectors are the ones waiting as Florida tries to fix a glitch that’s causing delays and disruption.
“It’s just, it’s just ohhhh, not again,” said Rob Stoneburner, Collier County Tax Collector.
The state rolled out the new software called Orion. The system is supposed to streamline things, merging drivers license transactions and motor vehicle transactions.
But tax collectors around the state say the system keeps crashing.
“So it’s been a lot of delays for our customers,” said Lauren Bernaldo with the Lee County Tax Collector’s Office.
Some counties have reported that delays could be up to two-and-a-half hours. The extended wait times are frustrating customers and tax collectors.
“When that happens we can’t, there’s certain business that we can’t do, and so that’s frustrating for us, frustrating for the client,” Stoneburner said.
Tax collectors say there’s nothing they can do because it’s a state-run system. In a statement last week, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says it’s aware of the problem and working to fix it.
“We just kind of have to weather through it,” Bernaldo said.
Lee County says it tries to keep people updated on delays through text messages and social media posts as counties and customers wait on a solution.
“They need to get their [bleep] together and fix it,” Dean said.
Lee County tells WINK News most of the service shutdowns happened last week and it impacted some of their computers but not all of them. Service has been pretty smooth since then.