Online PA Deer licenses may be held up due to a glich

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For those who have purchased their 2019-20 hunting licenses online instead of at a licensing agency, and if you haven’t  received them as yet, you may want to contact the Pennsylvania Game Commission as the delay could affect applying for an antlerless deer license before they’re sold out in your favored Wildlife Management Unit. 

“We appreciate and care about every single one of our license buyers, and it’s unfortunate that some of those who bought licenses online have experienced problems this year,” said Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans. “We’ve worked with the same license vendor for several years with few issues, so the problems that emerged this year, which likely have impacted thousands of hunters, not only were unexpected, they are frustrating for the agency.

“We sincerely apologize to those hunters who have been affected and who share in our frustration,” Burhans said. “If you bought a hunting license online and did not receive it within the seven-to-10 business day window, please contact us. We can help to get you your license, and if the vendor’s error prevented you from submitting an antlerless deer license application, we can assist you in that process, as well.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s license division can be reached by phone at 717-787-2084 or by email to [email protected].

As of 7-20-19, antlerless deer licenses remain available in all but one Wildlife Management (2H). Locally, WMU 5C had 26,389 remaining; 3D, 8,887 and 4C, 17,383. The first round of unsold licenses go on sale, Aug. 5 and second round begins Aug 19. 

While hunters are required to have purchased a general hunting license prior to submitting their applications for antlerless licenses, they do not need the general licenses in hand to submit. Applications for antlerless licenses can be found in the Hunting & Trapping Digest, as well as on the Game Commission’s website, www.pgc.pa.gov. As long as a hunter knows his or her Customer Identification (CID) Number, which does not change from year to year, they can complete an antlerless application and send it in. The nine-digit CID number is printed on each hunting license. 

In most cases, hunting licenses bought online cannot be printed at home because the licenses contain harvest tags hunters must use in the field when taking big game. When buying a license online, customers are prompted that they should receive their licenses within seven to 10 business days.

Unfortunately, the contracted vendor responsible for mailing licenses to those who purchased them online has run behind schedule in some cases. Meanwhile, a computer glitch that initially went unnoticed caused the vendor to temporarily misplace some of the online sales records

Burhans said the PGC already has stepped in to fix problems for hundreds of license buyers.

“We fully recognize some of our license buyers have been inconvenienced, which is unfortunate, but we are here to straighten out any problems they might have had,” Burhans said.
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