I'd give this place negative 5 stars if I could. I don't hold the line staff helping customers to blame so much as the management. Management at MVD must be a bunch of serious morons, or they just don't give a rip about whether their staff does a good job or the public is served. As a public servant myself who works in management, this is sad, pathetic, reprehensible, and utterly unacceptable to me as a taxpayer. The fact that you can't make appointments on the MVD website is ridiculous. The fact that the MVD website actually points you to third-party companies to get MVD services is laughable - a clear admission that they don't believe they can handle customers properly themselves! (And after this experience, it's obvious they indeed can't!)
I went to the MVD on a Tuesday. I left work early to try to beat any lunch rush, arriving at the MVD at 11:45. There were a number of people there, yes, but the place was far from packed. I'd estimate there were about 35 customers present. I dutifully took a number and waited. Shortly after sitting down and hearing a couple numbers called, I noticed they called a group of about 11 numbers and asked them to queue up in front of one window. I thought this was odd but didn't give much thought to it (until later). When I began my wait, I was about 15 numbers away from being called. I figured this might take 30 minutes to get helped, and while a bit long, I would have been OK with that.
After about 50 minutes and getting to within 3 numbers of my number, I was called in a group of about 10-11 people over to a side window (#2) to queue up and supposedly get helped. All of us lined up as told in numerical order and waited. (Shortly before this, a gentleman got upset at a window and asked to speak to a manager. He said he had been there earlier and that they had sent him away to get more information/paperwork, which he had done; but now they were telling him he needed something else and had to go get it and come back. I can understand his frustration.) After sitting in this new line, and being that much closer to the MVD agents, I naively hoped my wait might be nearly over. After about 20 minutes of standing in this line near empty station #2 and watching about 8 people get helped who came in to the MVD office well after I did, I decided that the 'side queue' line that I was in must be some kind of bizarre management idea to get their 'numbers helped' quota artificially higher, because they actually call your number, but they just don't help you. So it looks like they're helping 11-12 people on paper, but they aren't. I finally seized an opportunity when a vacant window called a number for a customer who wasn't responding. I waved my hand at the MVD agent and asked, "What about us, in this line, who have been standing here waiting for almost half an hour?!" He sheepishly shrugged and looked around and then called over the 1st person in our line. A few minutes later, someone appeared in booth #1, which was right next to us, and called the next person in our line. Maybe 5 minutes later, I was called up. The woman apologized twice for the wait and asked what I needed. She took my paperwork, shuffled it around for a couple minutes, gave it back to me, and said to go wait for the next booth that would call me "very soon."
I was glad to be moving on and that it would be 'very soon.' However, after standing for 10 minutes waiting, I realized that all she had done was verify that I had the correct paperwork for what I was there for (which I did), so she didn't actually do anything! About 15 minutes after my 'very soon', I was finally called. The woman assessed what I needed and got it for me. I paid. I was out of there and done 5 minutes after she called me.
The whole experience took 98 minutes. The actual meaningful interaction at the counter took 5 minutes, so that was 93 minutes of waiting and run-around - an idiotic process with employees who are unmotivated and beaten down by management that doesn't give a crap.
So while it rankles me to no end that MVD Express places even exist, I now see why they do. It will be with consternation that I will become one of their customers. I wish I could just selectively refuse to pay my taxes that go to the MVD - at least the taxes that fund these offices - because trust me, they are being wasted. But sadly, taxation doesn't work that way. All I can tell you is DON'T DO IT. DON'T GO TO THIS OFFICE. Hopefully, one day, someone in management will care enough and be empowered enough to change this mess. Today, that is certainly not the case. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.
Oh, and it should come as no surprise that the poor guy who was waiting for a manager was still waiting when I left.
And my long wait made me late for work and to a meeting. Thanks, MVD!! read more
