We are not completely heartless.

[Reyneth]

The main thing I hate about my DMV is that they have done away with the numbered tickets. Now there are two lines that you get in depending on why you are there. I miss my time sitting and reading or knitting! Now you have to stand and wait. No cell phones/texting allowed either!

[fireheart]

My local Service SA centre (the Adelaide equivelent of a DMV) has a great system set up for the lines AND for getting permits.

The lineup: you go up to a counter when you walk in, tell the clerk what you're here for (i.e. license test, rego renewal etc.) and the clerk will give you a ticket and/or check your forms if there are any. If you need to fill out forms, they give them out and you fill them before you get the ticket. Once you get your ticket, you find a spot to sit. When your number gets called out you go straight to the counter. Cuts down on people who take too long to fill out forms.

As for the birth certificate requirements, I needed a birth certificate when I got my proof of age card. For my actual learner's permit, I needed 3 forms of ID, one of which had my photo and signature. I was allowed to use my POA card, I had my details on the database and then all I needed to fork over was my bank card for identity purposes.

[Andara Bledin]

I have to say I have never had anything but cheery, excellent service at the DMV (except a frighteningly brief and atrociously incomplete driving test delivered by a police officer who had put a passed stamp on it the moment I started the car).

That sounds like how my grandfather passed his written test. He'd gone in and the person ahead of him was a particular ethnicity. The person grading the tests was the same ethnicity. The grader had taken the first guy's test, glanced at it, and just stamped it as passed. When my grandfather got to the window he told the guy he wanted his test checked the same way as the last guy. The grader glanced at the test, shrugged, and stamped it as passed.

Someone earlier posted taht they didn't even have a birth certificate.

That would be me.

I just renewed my DL over the Internet.

For any of you in the same situation be aware that there is a new federal rule that you can't renew your drivers license without a birth certificate, social security card and two letters that were sent to your address.

Well, won't that just be complete and utter hell... Yeah, that won't overtax resources stretched to their limits at all, no...

That makes me wonder how they'll justify all that money spent on making so many processes able to be completed online and then having to reprogram everything to disallow it all.

Of course, that still won't change the fact that I don't have a freaking birth certificate and never have had one.

The main thing I hate about my DMV is that they have done away with the numbered tickets.

Your DMV sucks.

Why, in the name of all that's holy, would they get rid of the system that makes everything go easier?

Oh, yeah... if it makes sense...

^-.-^

[Chrismor]

I have to say I have never had anything but cheery, excellent service at the DMV (except a frighteningly brief and atrociously incomplete driving test delivered by a police officer who had put a passed stamp on it the moment I started the car).

Sounds like my second attempt. Test lasts 40 minutes, including time for oral test and technical checks on the car.

Three manoeuvres are required: 1. Hill Start 2. Turnabout (3 point turn) 3. Reverse around a corner.

My test lasted all of 15 minutes. Never completed the reverse. Was going to, but someone else took the spot we needed. Examiner just waved it off, and said "Yeah, we'll take it as done anyway"

Not surprisingly, I passed. Lucky me, as the other examiner working that afternoon was the one who failed me the first time.

C.

[Whiskey]

The main thing I hate about my DMV is that they have done away with the numbered tickets. Now there are two lines that you get in depending on why you are there. I miss my time sitting and reading or knitting! Now you have to stand and wait. No cell phones/texting allowed either!

My DMV is similar. Theres Titles & registration tickets, then theres Drivers License/ID tickets. Everyone still sits around and waits, but the tickets are LetterNumber (G504, E127, etc). You can text. I don't think they'd be able to enforce a "no texting/phones" policy.

For any of you in the same situation be aware that there is a new federal rule that you can't renew your drivers license without a birth certificate, social security card and two letters that were sent to your address.

California must not do this because I just walked in and renewed my license with my birth certificate (if I hadn't lost my ID, I just would have had to show them that, no birth cert)

My DMV service is always good. Then again, I always have a look of undeniably pity on my face. 200 people outside at the moment they open, 3-5 hour waits all day, then the 4:30 rush of people who get in just before the doors close. I would die.

[EricKei]

I'll echo what many have said here -- The Selma & Patty's are the exception, NOT the rule. Most of the DMV worker's I've dealt with here have been -- maybe not enthusiastic (I can't blame them )-- but certainly never rude.

except a frighteningly brief and atrociously incomplete driving test

Pre-Katrina, one of our DMV locations (which is now paved over) was known for this. Their entire driving test was literally "go around the block and park again". That's it. The other main one, which still exists, is a good 40-minute test in both highway and urban conditions, and is unavailable if it's raining.

My local Service SA centre (the Adelaide equivelent of a DMV) has a great system set up for the lines AND for getting permits.

Our main one is set up this way too -- they had to move after the storm, so it was a great excuse to start fresh with a new, vastly more efficient system.

[Lingerie_Lackey]

If that girl is going to cry because - due to her own fault - she couldn't get her license that day, perhaps she shouldn't be driving! Crying over that is pretty pathetic. The daughter in the second one does indeed sound like a twit.

How I can sympathise with you. We don't have the DMV in the UK so can't comment on that, but us council workers get a reputation for being heartless when most of us aren't at all. The people who think like that have probably got really high demands that can't be fulfilled, or they had one bad experience (which is usually their fault!). We have rules and regulations to follow, I don't have any control over that. If anyone is heartless it's the people who came up with the flipping laws about council tax, not the people who have to enforce them.

[HawaiianShirts]

I try to be as nice as I can to DMV workers - it isn't their fault the state has such assinine rules

Bingo.

And ditto for most other government agency employees (like me). I don't make the rules. In fact, I even disagree with some of the rules. But, if I expect to keep my job (and, in some cases, keep myself out of trouble with law enforcement), I have to follow them.

[fireheart]

Sounds like my second attempt. Test lasts 40 minutes, including time for oral test and technical checks on the car.

Three manoeuvres are required: 1. Hill Start 2. Turnabout (3 point turn) 3. Reverse around a corner.

Wow, you guys get off easy

I have to do those three manoeuvres PLUS the following: (this test is thankfully split into two parts)

Test Part 1:

1. Cabin drill (stupid thing, but my instructor passed me on it anyway)
2. Start up and shut down the engine. (this is a LOT easier in an auto)
3. Moving out from the kerb (I still fluff this up funnily enough)
4. Coming INTO the kerb (ditto)
5. Stop and go with the handbrake.
6. Gear changing (my instructor's car is dual transmission, which makes it easier when there's no clutch, but still a PITA)
7. Reverse around a corner (and do 3-4 corners as well)
8. Hill start.
9. U-turn on a quiet street. (I still mess this up)
10. 3-point turn on a quiet street. (I can do this like a pro)
11. 90 degree angle park (again, mess it up)
12. Parallel parking....well reverse parallel parking.

Test Part 2:

25 minute drive, covering several corners. These are the corners and such I have to do in this half of the test:

-Slip lane onto a main road from a side street going the same direction (as in I'm turning left)
-Slip lane turning RIGHT. (while traffic is going in the opposite direction)
-Turning right onto a main road while traffic is coming from the other way. (agh!)
-Turning onto a one-way street.
-Doing a turn from a turning lane (no problems)

There's more but I can't remember....

[Chrismor]

Well, while I say those 3 ones are required, the test is meant to be about 10 minutes questions/checks, and 30 minutes driving, various conditions (mine was all on essentially residential roads), various roads, and includes most of what you mentioned EXCEPT parallel parking. They specifically ask for the three moves to be completed though (EU thing I was told).

My test was the last appointment on a Friday, just before a long weekend. Methinks the examiner wanted to finish up and go home. We spent about 15 minutes TOTAL, including maybe 2-3 minutes stopped at a junction waiting for traffic to clear. He spent most of the time sat back in the passenger seat, and seemed fairly relaxed about the whole thing.

Notes: Car used was manual transmission, and I got faulted for stalling the engine a couple of times, and for a couple of gear changes not being quite what they should have been. Also got faulted for lack of progress, as I waited for oncoming traffic before moving around a parked car. In the examiners opinion, space was not an issue, but he put it down to caution/nerves.

It was commented afterward that even though it was not a perfect drive, I was a serious contender for his drive of the week.

C.

[Andara Bledin]

I remember when I took my driving test, I got marked down for one thing, and one thing only, and even though I did it correctly, I knew I was going to be marked down. The person testing me was writing something down in their notes when I came to a stop sign. I saw them with their head down when I looked to the right to ensure I was clear. So, of course, they never saw me look at all because they were the ones not looking. The basics include how to behave at a stop sign, a 3-point turn, pulling up to the curb, backing along the curb, and a right turn. Plus, your car has to pass a short inspection, which includes not having the Engine light on, working headlights, working signals, and a working horn.

I had to take the written test twice. I totally missed the alcohol-related stuff because it will never apply to me (I'm such a teetotaler) and one of the questions was worded poorly so that the answer they wanted was the only wrong answer available. For whatever reason, they let me retake it immediately (they're supposed to make you wait a week) and I aced the second one.

^-.-^

[Swordsman422]

Sounds like my second attempt. Test lasts 40 minutes, including time for oral test and technical checks on the car.

Three manoeuvres are required: 1. Hill Start 2. Turnabout (3 point turn) 3. Reverse around a corner.

My test lasted all of 15 minutes. Never completed the reverse. Was going to, but someone else took the spot we needed. Examiner just waved it off, and said "Yeah, we'll take it as done anyway"

Not surprisingly, I passed. Lucky me, as the other examiner working that afternoon was the one who failed me the first time.

C.

This guy was just tired of testing teenagers, I guess (wow, this happened fifteen years ago...) All he made me do was pull out of the DMV, turn around in a parking lot, and bring it back. I felt cheated.

[Sleepwalker]

I had the misfortune to take mine right as the state decided to drastically raise standards on their tests. Still, I only failed my first one because of missing a school zone sign.


Behind a tree.

Presumably the locals just knew where it was, but not me. The second time, I missed it again, the laws of physics regarding light and wooden objects still being the same, but she passed me. I had been wondering why she was making me drive in circles around the school... 9/10 school signs spotted ftw.

[Fire_on_High]

For any of you in the same situation be aware that there is a new federal rule that you can't renew your drivers license without a birth certificate, social security card and two letters that were sent to your address.

What the heck do you do if you *don't* get mail? I don't think I get more than 1-2 things in a year's time under my legal name.

My husband and I live in the same house as my mother, and til she died a month ago my grandmother as well...we all took care of her. All the bills are in one of their names.

We never had the money to do much so we don't have any subscriptions or memberships other than the WoW accounts, and I'd left the one bill I do get...my credit card...under my maiden name since at the time I got married, I played EQ and any paid services had to be on the original credit card used to establish the account...marriage, identity theft, even sex change weren't extenuating.

Yes, I had a guildie finish her surgeries and get her name changed. Yes, they refused a server transfer since she had a new card reissued with her new legal name. Not original, not happening.

[MadMike]

The main thing I hate about my DMV is that they have done away with the numbered tickets. Now there are two lines that you get in depending on why you are there.

That has to suck. That's like the opposite of what they did with ours. You used to have to stand in line and wait. Now you take a number and have a seat somewhere.

Even with the old setup, the employees were always nice to me, including this sweet lady that I accidently scared the hell out of. It was winter, so I had my coat on, and I had my forms in my inside coat pocket. When I got up to the window, I reached into my pocket for the form, and the lady at the counter looked like her heart had jumped into her throat. After the saw the form, she calmed down and told me she thought I was reaching for a gun. I guess that's understandable, especially considering my naturally "pissed off" expression. Once I realized what had happened, I must have apologized a thousand times.