Had to Visit the CA DMV.......Appointments YES

[John Rogers]

Well I had had so many extensions on my driver's license I finally got nabbed to go and get the sucker replaced. It was old style with no chips or holograms or....... Anyways I made an appointment for 11:40 this past Friday and got there about 11:15 or so. I actually got called at 11:30, EARLY, and completed the form and the eye exam w/o issues. Got the picture immediately as I found handicapped folks do not have to wait in any of the lines but the photo line was empty anyways.

Not the same for the exam computers as there were a dozen or more waiting but I got one of the stations with a seat. BUT it seems line the thumb read was not working and the cheerful young lady gave me a written test. She was relieved by a guy who did not seem to want to be there and after 20 minutes he called me and said my license would be here in a week.

During the time I was waiting a supervisor came out a couple times and tried to get the test takers who were waiting to sit down but they didn't speak English so she went away. The second time I motioned to her and she cheerfully said she could help me but I said the guy doing the tests needed help as the computers were not working? She said no one mentioned that and she'd contact their IT guy who was in the back room doing something? I said probably playing computer games and she seemed to agree!

Anyways the moral of the story is MAKE AN APPOINTMENT!

[id10t]

Can you travel to a small town to have it done? In the teeming metropolis of Gainesville (~100k folks when UF is in session, 150k on game days) the DMV is *very* busy, and they do licenses and plates/tags/etc.

Or you can drive 20 minutes out of town to where I am in the sleepy little town of High Springs (population 1200 or so) and do all the same at City Hall with 3 clerks and no waiting...

Even for things like applying for social security/disability it is often quicker to head to the next county over (small rural towns, maybe 20k folks in the whole county) and do it at those offices... no lines, happier employees, actual helpful country folk...

[Evans, Marv]

I imagine you went to the C.V. DMV. I always hated the place because things moved so slowly. Now the El Cajon DMV is the one I use. I was amazed at the efficiency of the place. They really cranked people through and were even semi friendly. I've had to go there three times & it's been the same every time. I guess the moral of the story is there are some decent DMV offices out there.

[vash]

The Sonoma co DMV is really close to the Laguanitas brewery. Makes for a fun visit. I had an appt but something happened and they pushed us an hour. Time for one beer and a quick return. They hustled us through a change of address for two cars and two ID cards.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

[Otter74]

Last year I had to renew my Illinois driver's license. I regularly have meetings at City Hall in the Loop, there is a Secretary of State office in the lower level of the building across the street, and it is easy to get to from my office in any event, so I always do it there. Walked in around 2PM (no appointments, you just take a number) and walked out with a new license less than 20 minutes later. I was really impressed with the attitude, professionalism and efficiency of those guys.

Last week I had to renew the tags on my appliance car and get an IL title and plates for my SE-R. (office is next door to DL office.) 4PM, last hour before closing. In and out in 15 minutes. They get it done!

I was chatting with the woman who took my money and gave me my plates and confessed that I had a car problem (I own four). She said "at least you don't have a Porsche problem." Um.....

[John Rogers]

It would be nice if we could go to a "small town" to do all the things like this but the appointment idea has really started to work. For transferring a set of license plates I use a small place down the road a bit that has half a dozen really beautiful Mexican ladies working in the office and I don't mind visiting them at all! when I sold my F350 I transferred the handicapped plates to my HHR and they only charged me $25 service fee plus the DMV charges. The young lady that helped me said she NEVER has to wait when she visits DMV and the same guy helps her each time.........wonder why but I think it was those legs??!!

[rusnak]

Appointment is the only way to go. I thought about trying AAA for tags, but really if you make an appointment, the DMV is really better. I also tried going to a small town to take care of stuff, but the time savings is not there. Going to a small town to pay traffic fines to a court is however a huge time savings. I go to a small town called Selma to pay speeding tickets and leave with a receipt. I don't trust them enough to mail a check.

[GH85Carrera]

In Oklahoma tags and licenses are handled by a kinda sorta free enterprise. We have tag agents that have to get an appointment by a legislator to get the license to open business. Once in business the prices are set by law so the incentive is to get the business to your agency. There is a agency 6 blocks from my office in an commercial area that has very little foot traffic. I can walk in and get a tag renewed in 10 minutes and they cost $20 for my old cars. A driver's license renewal takes 15 minutes.

Everything looks like very business like and is easy.

The bad news is if one lets the driver's license lapse ya gotta go to the DMV. In the bigger cities it is always a zoo from what I hear. The new first time drivers and the aliens overwhelm the system. Just go to a smaller city outside the major cities and it is easy.

I just know to never let my license expire.

[scottmandue]

+1 on appointment!

However... I also let my licence lag too long... I tried to go online but it was too late, appointments were two months out and I need to renew that month (I know, I'm a wuss, should have made a appointment and just drove with an expired licence for a month).

Anyway... come to find out the DMV website has listings for every office giving wait times. After studying every wait time for every office in southern Calif. I just bit the bullet and went down to my local office and camped out at 7AM on the sidewalk with about 20 people... as it got closer to 8AM the line went around the building. 8AM the doors open, I file in and take my number. Get called, do my paperwork, take my bad picture, I was out of there by 9AM.

When the doors opened at 8 there were maybe 6-8 people in the reservation/appointment line.

[SCadaddle]

I tend to put on a goofy, just woke up-dis shoveled look on my face when they take the pic, that way if I get pulled over at a DUI checkpoint they might think I usually look like I'm drunk and let me go.

[Embraer]

loved the appointments when I lived in California. really, the only way to do it. Palmdale/Lancaster only had 2 DMV's for a metro area of almost 400K people. the lines would be 300 people deep at the palmdale office...no joke. seemed like 5% of people made appointments online. I never had to wait more than 5 minutes each time I went...and it was still ahead of my scheduled time, since I'd show up 20 early.

[Tobra]

Having an appointment is particularly crucial now. I was in and out in 20 minutes when I got the title on the DD recently. They told me the crowd is about 80-90% people that are not in this country legally.

[lowyder993s]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

I imagine you went to the C.V. DMV. I always hated the place because things moved so slowly. Now the El Cajon DMV is the one I use. I was amazed at the efficiency of the place. They really cranked people through and were even semi friendly. I've had to go there three times & it's been the same every time. I guess the moral of the story is there are some decent DMV offices out there.

My business is right next door to that DMV. Looking from my office window, I'm astounded at the number of people who are waiting in line at 8:00 a.m. Appointment is the ONLY way to do it. When you're in there...the other thing I notice is how many people bring in another person with them...like they know they're gonna be there a couple hours

[Jim Richards]

I walked in w/o an appointment today to get plates for the car we brought here from the east coast. An appointment would have been better, but I only invested 1.5 hours of my life to get plates. Next week I go for a CA driver license...with an appointment.