The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles did not get it's awful reputation undeservedly. I spent a lot more time than I planned on at the RMV in Milford, MA today and was fuming watching those morons "working."
The interesting thing about the situation is that things are more automated now; you take a number....and it has a corresponding letter depending on what you need to have done there. For example, Auto registrations are letter A and your number, Obtaining Driver's Licenses are B and you number, and so on all the way to letter H. I had no idea that there are that many other things you can do there, but so be it. Also, everything they do is computerized, thus, in theory, it should make it all easier and faster. HA!
I drew a number..it was A192. At the time I walked through the door, they were serving A181. Ok, so how long could it take to get through 10 numbers?
On my ticket it estimated a 24 minute wait time. That estimate is based on how long the average transaction takes with a NORMAL employee at the desk. They didn't take into account that the RMV employs the laziest, least intelligent, and least motivated human beings on the planet, at least they do in this state. I didn't take into account that there were also letters B-H that were being served in an order that I can only imagine is a very complex algorithm. I could not figure out how C380 went before A 182 or B256. It is a mystery. It is very possible that the workers there just choose a letter at random in order for the patrons that are waiting patiently not to figure out the system and stage a revolt. So I waited and observed. I was there at 11:30AM so each of the 9 windows that were available opened and closed during that time. They were rotating lunch shifts. Interesting. They know it is busiest at lunch, yet they allow 1/2 of the employees to take their lunch at that time. That is not helpful nor is it expedient. They could have lunch at 11 and then maybe at 1:30. But no, they have to close 3 windows at 12 noon!
The part that was really irritating was that when an employee appeared at a previously closed window, they were always chatting with the next closest employee, straightening out their work area, walking around aimlessly, etc. It took each of the suddenly appearing employees at least 10 minutes to start serving customers! That is infuriating. I am mostly a calm person, not prone to violence or sudden outbursts. But a waiting room full of frustrated people was watching those employees goof off and make us wait for them to finish socializing ; they would come over to their counter, look off into space for a few seconds and then leave for 5 minutes into some back room. Can anyone remember where the term "going postal" came from? If this isn't a potential scene of someone "going postal," I don't know what is.
Then there was the lady from India that decided she didn't need to take a number like the other 50 of us that were waiting and watching those counters like hawks. She strolled in with her daughter and granddaughter, skipped by the ticket giver, barely spoke English. She floated from counter to counter trying to get someone to wait on her. WAS SHE FOR REAL? Were we on Candid Camera? We have all been sitting here and she thinks she can just stroll in and get waited on because her English is not so good? Guess what she was there for? To get her driver's license photo. She has a driver's license in the good old USA and can barely speak English! How can she read the road signs? This was aggravating in and of itself. But the fact that eventually she did get someone to wait on her was even more so. You get to the point where you just want to throttle those workers. I bet if someone took my blood pressure at the RMV it would have been high, and mine is usually very, very low.
So, as my "expected wait time" of 24 minutes came, went, doubled, and kept going, I waited and waited. My transaction should have taken about 30 seconds. When my number was finally called, I went over to counter #7 and presented my registration. ( I would have done it all on line and avoided this hell, but the state required an insurance stamp, since our car insurance renews during the same month that the registration renews. Drat!) I had the registration, stamped by my insurance agent, and I also had my insurance card with me. I handed her the form and expected a few seconds of typing and then she would print me what I needed and hand me the date sticker. Well, she looked at me, sort of, I was not sure if she was looking at me or by me. She had a really odd look about her. It didn't look like anyone was home upstairs, AT ALL. Oh great, I was thinking, she will probably screw me over royally and I will never know unless I get pulled over by the police and they look up this registration.
She fiddled with her monitor for about 30 seconds. Didn't you work this out during your 10 minute pre-work waste of time? Apparently not. Then she typed in the name and sat staring at the screen and the paper I had given her for about 45 seconds. How hard is it? No changes, no updates, just give me the damn sticker and let me leave this hell hole. I was getting violent, but only in my head :-)
Finally, she gave me my print out and sticker and off I went. In all, it took 1 hour and 15 minutes of my life to do what should have taken less than 5 minutes. If I could have done it online, I most definitely would have.
The reason people hate this place, the RMV, is that it deserves the awful reputation it has. The whole process of using these branches could be infinitely more efficient if the RMV workers cared at all about moving people through in a reasonable amount of time. Nobody there seemed to care at all about that. They see it every day, all day long. The waiting room is always full and that is the way it is. They were all slovenly, slow, and not particularly kind.
I am sure they get their fair share of customers that complain and get belligerent, but I think they probably deserve it a lot of the time. I saw absolutely nobody that appeared to be a manager, or a person of authority that could better direct (human) traffic and cajole the workers to speed it up. They had no motivation to work hard, they are in a state job, with state wages, benefits, holidays, etc. They do the minimum amount of work they have to do to get paid, and no more.
If there is anyone working at the Milford, MA RMV that works hard, takes pride in helping customers, and is efficient, he or she must have been on their lunch break today while I was there!
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