As I sit here, entering hour #2, I decide to see if this place has any Yelp reviews. I was pretty sure they would not be positive. To my surprise, no previous reviews. I'll make up for that now.
I take part of the blame for this waste of time. I could have mailed in my name change application. Instead, I decided to do it in person. If you have the option to avoid this place, DO IT.
I'm too far in right now to leave. Sadly.
First, half the letters are missing from the sign for the building. Don't drive past it like I did. It's the ugly building next to the OTB Casino. There is only one direction entering the parking lot. Drive past and you will have to do a U-Turn and go back. It won't matter, though, because there will be around 40-50 people inside and only 10ish parking spaces. They will be full. You will then notice the back parking lot and think "oh, good, overflow parking" and make another U-Turn to find the unnecessary two-lane One Way street to get to the back. The first entrance to the lot is the casino. Don't park there. Keep going. You will be happy you found it, complete with empty parking spaces, only to be greeted by an "Employees Only" parking sign. Keep in mind, many more spaces than the front. This is when I decided, oh well, park anyway.
Walk inside, find a very thorough touchscreen system to check in. They ask questions about why you are here. Very specific. It even takes your SSN. Presumably this is to collect some info and speed up the process. Please don't be fooled.. It doesn't.
It does spit out a number. Of course, there are signs up telling people that the numbers aren't called in order. This is probably to keep people from getting discouraged when they realize their number is 25+ digits away. Go ahead and get discouraged. It's pretty much in order.
The fun part is people watching, but even that gets old after a while.
Eventually you will get close to your number being called. It's like winning the lottery. Except.... Not. Remember all of the info you already gave the kiosk? Not necessary. When they call your number, you happily prance over to the desk thinking you are almost done. The employee then asks your name and reason for visit (same as the kiosk...). Next? You go sit. And wait. They call your name when they want to. No more numbers, no more idea of how many are ahead of you. You just wait, and wait, and wait.
One star is generous. One star is mandatory. One star is wishful thinking that I might eventually get to change my name, instead of just sitting and waiting...
(I'm still waiting and managed to type this on my phone) read more