DMV’s answer to impossible lines and surly employees: warn customers not to hit them!
Just spent the past 2 1/2 hours driving to and waiting in line at the DMV to pick up a friggin’n form. Can’t download such a form, God forfend, but the DMV’s site, after proclaiming “Welcome to the 21st Century!” – I kid you not – tells me I can file a request online and they will mail me one within 3 weeks.
So okay, first stop, the Triple A office on High Ridge which, it turns out and despite the DMV’s promise otherwise, has no forms available because it isn’t permitted to distribute them. So it’s back in the car and off to Norwalk.
But in Norwalk there are no longer forms available for pickup by the door; some bureaucrat must have decided that the public was helping itself to too many of them, so now they are doled out, one at a time, as needed, by a surly clerk protected by a counter and a 45-minute line. Only one clerk on duty at a time, of course – these are unionized state workers, after all.
Is this any way to run a railroad? Not if the DMV were operated by a private entity. As a branch of the state, though, it runs exactly as if Russians were in charge. Hope and change. Then revolution.
Your story is infuriating. How come we get better service from low wage earners at fast food restaurants than we do from highly paid state workers with benefits? Unbelievable, fire them all and outsource the whole operation and save billions in the process.
These days you get better service from the Russians. In Moscow at least they now even smile and say “please” and “thank you”. Stores even have help who know about the products they’re selling. But they got rid of socialism……..
We can top that! We spent 5 hours at the DMV in Bridgeport last Aug. when the kid wanted to get a learner’s permit. That was the month they wouldn’t do permits or new licenses in Norwalk. We got there early and it took longer (more crowded first thing). We did meet a lot of people of different persuasions and became fast friends with one DMV worker who said of my child “I love this kid”, we brought our own pen, that’s what elicited the praise. Since then we’ve learned Danbury is the better DMV to go to.
Welcome to Obama care.
Stanwich said it all. Totally agree.
I so dislike dealing with the DMV that a few years ago when I acquired a car previously registered out of state, I paid a modest sum to a friend who runs a pre-owned automobile dealership to do it for me, as he could avoid the “regular folks” line and go to the much faster, no-hassle “dealer” queue. Money well spent vs. the strong likelihood of my arrest for violating the DMV’s “zero tolerance for violence in the workplace” edict.
Let’s not forget the lovely folks at the Post Office. Just imagine if you had to mail a package AND go to the DMV in one day.
My condolences for your Lost Afternoon.
I’ve been fed bureaucracy through a firehose these past few weeks, having endured renewing my drivers license, my passport, replacing that new license after losing the original (only time I’ve done that in 43 years, damn it!), applying for a pistol permit, a beach card (not necessarily related) and today, getting a DMV form. Living in society can be a trial.
The only important question from your above response is: where are you going with the renewed passport? Someplace good I trust.
At least at the post office they now have computerized machines where you can mail packages of reasonable size without having to deal with any lines. Especially convenient on off-hours.
Just went through the pistol permit process – what a hassle. Glad to be done with it.
Pete: If we do THAT, we’d miss half the fun of hearing: Do you need stamps today? Would you like tracking with that today? And my personal favorite: Is there anything fragile, liquid, or hazardous inside?
Wondering if the extremely unpleasant woman still works at the OG Post Office? I used to stand in line there and pray that I wouldn’t end up at her window!
Jefferson said of federal bureaucrats, which was probably also applicable to postal workers, that “few die and none retire”. I’d stick to email for another twenty years, if I were you, just to be safe.
Jane: I know exactly who you mean. One day I tried to give her the exact change along with a ten dollar bill and she would not take it. It was the 3rd or 4th time I felt I’d had an “incident ” with her. So I asked my letter carrier about her and he confirmed she was known for that behavior. I then wrote a letter to the postmaster. I must say I did not get a response, now it is years gone past and she didn’t last long. All the OG counter people are very nice now!!
I believe you may be confusing unionized bureaucratic incompetence with criminal intent. Instead of welcoming you to the 21st century — their sense of humor, no doubt — the sign should read welcome to agenda 21.
‘Agenda 21 Declares War On Mankind’:
http://explosivereports.com/2012/08/07/resistagenda21/
DO NOT LOWER THE RUSSIANS TO THE DEM NUTMEG LEVEL !!!!!
A few years ago I went to the Riverside Post Office to mail a package. I was the only customer so I marched up to the counter where an ugly middle-aged “employee” was terribly busy writing a card to someone. She ignored me until she had leisurely addressed and sealed the envelope, then gave me a loud arrogant lecture about the requirement that I wait in line until called. The PO should be privatized or shut down.
DMV treatment of citizens deserves the scrutiny the libs gave to Bush’s enhanced interrogation techniques, and for the same reason: it’s TORTURE.
Stanwich asks: “How come we get better service from low wage earners at fast food restaurants than we do from highly paid state workers with benefits?” Do you think it’s because the fast food workers are part of the private economy, where customers have the liberty to choose?
Welcome to the Republican party, Stanwich.
Try to register a kit-built trailer. Three trips, 1 to Norwalk, 2 to Hamden, about 10 hours effort in all….
I just spent 2 days at Norwalk DMV and had time to sit and ponder the sheer madness of how it is set up, managed and how they treat people. Here are a few highlights:
“Kiosk” – what does that mean to someone who has never been to the DMV recently? Meaningless. Rather than describe the machine, how about tell people what it does. When you go to the airport it does not say “Kiosk” it says “Self Check-in”. Apparently in the DMV instance the “Kiosk” is where you go to get a learners permit number among other things, but there is no sign saying that, you have to be able to figure it out. That number you get at the kiosk then let’s you stand in line to get another number. I’m totally serious.
Numbers – it used to be that the numbers you got were sequential, nice and easy to figure out when you would be called and approximately how long you would have to wait. Now numbers are preceded by either an A, B, C, D, E or F. Not all letters are up on the screen at all times. So if you have an F number and only A and C numbers are being called you have no idea where you are in the cue. It might be 15 or 20 minutes before an F number is shown and even then it is still sequential so without other F numbers up there you have no idea how long you have to wait.
“Processing” – this is a large sign. It tells you where to go for processing. Processing of what? I still have no idea.
There are Xeroxed copies of flyers taped all over the place with arrows and directions of what to do and where to go. Is this any way to run a state managed organization? Hasn’t anyone with a process management degree looked at these places and figured out a better way? Where the permanent signs used to be are now ripped up sections of dry wall, why bother to repair the walls after we rip the signs down? There is no pride of ownership or motivation. That place is just a job to those people. They should all be put on a commission, you get paid by the number of people you help and problems you solve each day.
“Information” – the day I was there this line was out of the stantions and running across the waiting area floor, it was easily 45 minutes long. And this line only gets you to a point to find out which line to go stand in to accomplish your task, a task that should otherwise only take 5 minutes, not 5 hours.
Snack Bar – Butterfingers, Mountain Dew, Doritos and Snickers (of which you get plenty when you are being serviced in there). Don’t you think the people of Fairfiled County might like something a little more healthy?
The attitude of the employees – to sum it up “I don’t want to be here, I don’t want you to be here, you are stupid, I am smart and self righteous, what time is my break, what time is my lunch, why are you asking me so many stupid questions, can’t you read all the photocopied flyers that are scotch-taped all over the walls, don’t approach the window until I’m done texting, you are in the wrong line you f”ing moron….”
“No cell phones while at the counter” – the woman behind the counter was texting somebody on her iphone in between helping other people. I am dead serious.
Enough already, Governor Malloy needs to conduct a complete overhaul of the DMV system, it is broken.
Anonymous2: this will jump-start the PO shutting down
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/08/09/business/09reuters-usa-postal-loss.html?hp
Wait until health care gets to be like the DMV… I’m sorry sir, you are NOT allowed to bleed on the floor here. Stop bleeding!
After reading Matt, I am so glad I don’t live in Connecticut anymore. How’s the traffic on I-95 between exit 5 and Norwalk? Still on big, slow moving, stop-and-go parking lot?
Hi Chris, My husband, two children and I moved to Greenwich last week from Orlando. (You kindly corresponded with me via email about our move.) My husband and I spent over five hours today at the Norwalk DMV getting our new drivers’ licenses and car registrations. It was one of the most miserable days of my life. What a welcome to Connecticut! My husband and I have moved to/from five other states in our adult lives. We’ve never had such a nightmare DMV experience…as here.
I moved back to CT last month after leaving OG for a Boston suburb 23 years ago; coming from Taxachusetts, where the DMV, surprisingly, is by a comparison a model of efficiency (average visit for license renewal w/ photo and written test = 10-15 minutes), I was flabbergasted by the bureaucratic nightmare of series of paperwork (duplicate IDs, mail showing new address, other documentation, etc) needed to change a MA license to CT license; I thought I won the lottery when my # (in the crazy, non sequential letter preceded fashion described by Matt was called (after a long line to simply be able to the “kiosk”) after a 40 minute (by then 70 minute cumulative) wait, by of course, that was simply a prelude to another two different queues. Worse a separate visit for getting CT plates for two cars half aborted since one of the two cars was in my wife’s name as well as mine, and she had not yet gotten CT license yet, this after a 2 hours process at the Norwalk DMV. Everything Matt describes in right on. Simply unbelievable. I certainly cannot blame the DMV employees, since some of the people I interacted were clearly nice pleasant people. What’s mind boggling is the mindless system and process that perpetuates apparently day after day.
The problems are so bad there’s an ombudsman/problem-solver available by phone from DMV Wethersfield. After one two-days-running bureaucratic nighmare, I reached this nice women by phone, and she ORDERED Norwalk to comply and complete the licensing for our 17 year old. Even after being ordered, Norwald was incredibly dense and purposely slow. But if reason, logic and politeness fail, you might try to reach the “special customer service agent” or whatever they call the lady. She’s supposed to be the final appeal, before the customer goes crazy.