1st my horror story. This was around ten years ago when you have to chose which lines you want to stand in for the type of service you need. ( now you just stand in one line and you'll be given a number and asked to sit down till your # is called) So, ten years ago I stood in one line for an hour and a half only to be told I was in the wrong line. So, I had to get in the right line and wait for another two hours. I noticed that in recent years, DMV employees have been much nicer to people and actually treat people like human beings. Ten years ago, DMV employees treated people like cattle. Now whenever I need to go to the DMV, I always go and stand in the line outside the DMV at least an hour before they open. Is this the best thing to do? Is there a better way?
I just found this out last year so I have been making this mistake forever. Back then whenever I had to go get a smog check and re register my vehicle , I would go and wait in the lines at the DMV just to use the kiosk at the DMV. Last year a friend told me that there are DMV kiosks all over town. :eusa_doh: To locate the DMV kiosk locations in your town just go to the DMV website and enter in your zip code.
It's not really a horror story, just an annoyance.. So in the US (not sure about other places) anyone under the age of 21 has an ID that is vertical - so anyone over 21 has one that is horizontal. So before I turned 21, I looked online and it said you had 30 days after you turned 21 to come in and get the horizontal one. Well I called to have it verified and received one of the worst customer service experiences - the lady was very rude and didn't seem to understand my question - - "It expires the day it expires." I'm sorry, everyone else has now told me you have a month. Go stuff it, lady.
Not really horror stories: When I took the driving test the guy (who was very nice) said: if you drive over the curve as you turn, you fail; if you hit the orange poles (parallel parking), you fail and the driving test is over." Felt so nervous to be told that, even though I expected it. Luckily, I passed on my first try. When I went to get a new picture (and get the horizontal post-21 card) I filled the form and had everything the same but my height since I put 5'9 instead of 5'8. The lady almost lost it when she was like "I don't even know how to change this" and I basically said, "I got my first picture and card when I was a teenager, I just thought it was time to update that." She finally found out it wasn't hard to change. Still I can only imagine how hard it would be for others to change something like a gender marker if it took forever for them to change my height.
Nope, I have always had a smooth experience there. I want to say I used their online appointment system which got me through much faster.
I'm forty now and I have been driving since I was 21. So, I have needed to go to the dreaded DMV for the last 19 years. Prior to ten years ago, it was ALWAYS ALWAYS ATROCIOUS every time I had to go to the DMV. The last ten years, the DMV in my state of NV have gotten A LOT BETTER. Even so, I still always dread having to go to the DMV.
Not quite DMV related, but I'm currently in a relationship that requires international travel (I'm American, He's British) and when I approach the officer at the Border Control desk at London Heathrow, I get extremely nervous as it looks in our relationship I will not be living with him(considering bumping him). As I have to say I am visiting a Friend, and make sure they believe I am returning to the US, when I say I am...
I have to go to the DMV in a month in order to change my name on my driver's license. I haven't been to a DMV since I transitioned so I can't say I've had a negative experience. Last time I went, I got an ID. Worst part was just the waiting. My dad and I were there for about two hours, if I remember correctly but once we were called, it was a relatively quick and efficient process. Once I change my legal name, I'll be sure to post about what happened when I go back to the DMV to update my ID.
Today i had to go to the PennDOT center 3 times trying to switch my license over to the state of Pennsylvania. The first time, I forgot my birth certificate, the second time, I get all the required documentation only to find out that I misheard them when it came to living with a relative and instead of them bringing two pieces of mail, I have to bring 1 piece of mail in my name regardless (Thank god that today I got a letter in the mail for a student credit card) and after all that I finally managed to get all my documentation, only to wait about 2 hours to finally get my picture taken and info changed. Before that, I lived in the state of Florida, and I had gotten my license in there. However, the DMV there was mostly handled by our county tax collector offices, and in my county, only one of them had a Class E testing course, so naturally, the thing was booked until the god damned month of October (And this was in August) I was lucky and gotten a fairly early testing date for August 18th, go in there, do all the necessary paperwork and etc, get turned away because I failed the eye exam, come back the next day, and take the road test.. I made the wrong first turn in a 3 point turn, instead of a left toward the oncoming lane, like he wanted me to do, I turned right first, and he instantly disqualified me, but did not tell me until I finished the entire test. Then the 2nd time I came in I did it perfectly, flying colors, etc. My advice to you people, schedule so far in advance, that you don't know what technology will be like then. Read or listen to all the information/documentation you're gonna need, then do it again, and for the hell of it, repeat that process about 7 more times. And for the love of christ, get it right the first god damn time.
I've never had luck with the DMV. I started preparing to get my license when I was 16, which would have helped me a lot since I started my first job at the time and it would save my mom time from picking me up late since she worked 3rd shift. I'm almost 22, and still no license. I have my permit somewhere and a state ID. The "written" test was done on computers, though I'm sure they had a small room where you could do it on paper or something. I'm sure every place is different though. It was all multiple choice, and it's pretty easy on the surface. The one thing that sucked about how the scoring system worked as that it worked on a three strike system, and if you got three of the maybe 20 questions wrong, then it's game over and you failed. This meant that you'd have to reschedule your appointment and come back in a few weeks. The worst part about the testing was that it would tell you if you got something wrong, and would just make any anxiety you had worse. If you passed the test, then you got to take the road portion. I eventually passed the test portion after a few stressful times, but then I'd hit a block with the road portion. I'll just let you know that being a short person trying to parallel park in a goddamn mini van isn't an easy task. It's such a paranoid thought, but I feel like the DMV secretly has a grudge against me for some reason. I think this is different for everyone, but the place I'd go to required that you'd parallel park first. If you successfully did that, then the rest would go. If you didn't, then you'd fail. People I've spoken to said the place I'd go to was full of hardasses who I guess hated teenagers, unless that's what my past experience wants me to believe. If you grazed one of the cones, or just barely bumped it, then you "hit" the cone, and the road test was over. I swear I must have been 17 or 18 and I was still trying to get past the parking portion. Eventually I did, but then I ended up fucking up again on something trivial. After the parking portion, the next part meant leaving the lot (stopping at a stop sign) before going around the large city block and then back into the lot. Simple, right? Well not for me. I have vision problems, and (again) I'm short so I pretty much need a booster seat to see what I'm doing--since I can just barely see over the steering wheel, and this is no matter what car I'm in or how high I raise the seat. As I was approaching the stop sign, I didn't see the white line and went past it by a trivial amount, probably less than six inches, so I could see into the busy, oncoming traffic. I wasn't into the street, but the person giving the test said I illegally ran a stop sign, and it was over. Just to clarify, about most of the times I'm on the road and I see someone approach a stop sign, they do what I did--being ever so slightly ahead of the sign. I was fucking livid at this point, and my mom thought it was pretty damn ridiculous that that one little thing got me an automatic third strike for basically nothing. On the ride home, I believe one of us called the house to say I flunked the test again and for what reason. I know my mom was rightfully irked, and how I guess the message I took from it is that you need to lowkey be a kissass and just deal with their black and white ways until you get your license or permit and leave. These days I haven't bothered driving because of an accident I almost had, and it gets me anxious just thinking about being behind the wheel again.
Had to wait for almost 4 or 5 hours to take my just to take my permit test, 3 hours to get a california ID. I still need to take the behind the wheel test before my permit expires.
