A difficult thing to remember, but something that must be remembered, is that people who work in government offices are people just trying to make a living like the rest of us. I know we all have had our negative experiences with public employees. Today I had a most positive experience with three clerks in the DMV office.
But first, let’s go back to the certified weight thing. When you bring a pickup truck from outside California into California you have to get a certified weight. This is because California believes the information on the vehicle itself (from the manufacturer) as to the weight might not be correct AND that the printed weight on the title of the other state might not be correct. This belief means you have to find a place to get a certified weight. I went to the truck stop at 10:30PM two nights ago and they said the printer was broken so they couldn’t give me a print out of the certified weight. They suggested I come back the following night. I went back last night at 10:15PM (and yes I did call first and was told to come on down) only to discover that the printer was still not working.
I decided to keep my 9AM appointment with the DMV today because we needed to register the van. While doing that, helpful clerk # 1 told me of a place to go for the certified weight not far from the DMV. We finished up the paperwork for the van and I headed over to said place which didn’t open until 10AM so I sat in the parking lot and worked on my message for Sunday. When the store finally opened I got my certified weight in 5 minutes (including paperwork) and was off back to the DMV.
I arrived back at the DMV and helpful clerk # 2 started the process. I needed some paperwork that I hoped was in the truck so she told me to go out and get and come back right to her line. She would wait on the next customer but help me when I got back. I arrived back with the paperwork and the lady next to her, helpful clerk # 3 said she would help me so I didn’t have to wait for helpful clerk # 2. She took a look at my certified weight paperwork, took a look at the weight printed on the Virginia registration and said "the certified weight is higher than the VA registration and if we go with the certified weight you are going to have to pay more." She then said, "we’ve already taken enough of your money so let me see if I can just use the weight on the VA registration." She checked with a supervisor, came back and said, "I‘m sorry you had to get the certified weight - you didn’t need to do that - we’re just going to use the weight as printed on your VA registration."
Long story short. The vehicles have been registered. They now sport California license plates. I even filled out (and the clerk approved) a request to keep my VA license plates. I wanted to keep them because they are 9/11 memorial plates.
I know most experiences with the DMV and other places like them are not much fun. As difficult as these experiences can be, the more positive attitude we bring to the counter the better chance the experience has of being positive. Now that I’m finished with DMV it’s off to the dentist. I know how to schedule a day!
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March 30th, 2007 at 9:01 am
I’m very glad you shared this. Lisa and I try to make it a point to be grateful for good service. We often ask to see someone’s manager so that we can tell them how great the person was who helped us.
You could easily have been frustrated and upset by all the needless hoops through which you already had jumped. But you focused on the positive (AND got sermon work done!). I guess those prayers for patience have really been paying off.
March 30th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Glad it worked out. Now, try importing one of those cars to Switzerland! That’s really fun…Tell the family that Pa and Granny arrived in good spirits.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Every now and then you hit a glitch in the system and they are actually helpful. That happened to me on my last visit … could not have asked for a nicer person.
April 1st, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Hath not a government worker feelngs? Doth not a government worker bleed? :) Having been one, I can testify to both. Not all of us fit the prototype; most of us really care about doing a good job! But bureacratic red tape is frustrating to me, too. Having worked for a government agency for 30 years, I’ve seen a lot of it. Glad you got hold of some of the cream of the crop. And you didn’t say, but I’m assuming you were not forced to eat sushi at midnight. Now that’s a good thing!