Further to my previous post Ultimate Incompetence…, it has been a week or so since we contacted the DMV so as to have the suspension lifted from my wife’s non existent (for a year now) VA drivers license. We were promised that the information will be sent in the mail and that we will have to act when we receive it.

Luckily we are vigilant about these things - especially deadlines - and we followed up with the DMV yesterday. To our surprise the lady that my wife talked to yesterday was a hundred times more helpful that the previous one. From what my wife tells me, the lady yesterday did not sound bored and was not dragging her words, was very knowledgeable and did indeed help us with our problem.

It appears that we did not have to wait for any documentation from the DMV in the mail. The lady yesterday told my wife that she can fax the relevant documentation to my wife, then my wife can pay over the phone and all the relevant information (suspension lift, receipt of payment etc.) can be faxed back to my wife. The whole process taking less than the phone call last week.

Sure enough, 15 minutes later I got an email with the scanned receipt of payment as well as the statement notifying all interested parties that my wife no longer has a suspension on her VA license.

I am really appalled by the laziness of certain people. I will give the benefit of the doubt to the lady that my wife spoke to originally (a week or so ago) for not knowing. I somehow do not thing that this was the case. From what it sounded like, the information we received was filled with boredom and the attitude leave me alone I just want to stay here, get paid and do nothing.

It is sad to see this kind of attitude in organizations throughout the US. I have lived the first half of my life in Greece and have seen bureaucracy at its best – aka if you don’t know someone to do you a favor you won’t get far. Lazy people or people that do not take pride in their work and do not do it well, hurt us all. They waste their time, our country’s money (and I am using me as part of the US since it is my home for the last three years) and more importantly yours and my time.

Is there a solution to this problem? I do not know. What I do know though is that if you don’t get anywhere or you are met with unhelpful people, it is always best to escalate the matter and talk to the supervisor or the supervisor’s supervisor. If all fails, a letter (having things in writing always draws attention) to the higher management might get some heads turned.

You or me alone might end up with zero effect to the problem. If however, everyone starts doing this, then we will definitely get attention AND we will start getting better service or the service we are entitled to. Soon enough there won’t be any room for lazy people, since employers will no longer tolerate attitudes – their customers (us) will demand more.

/0.02 USD

PS: When we checked our credit card transaction log, the charge was $93.00 instead of $85.00. It appears that the DMV charges a $8.00 convenience fee for credit card processing. I am wondering who’s convenience because it definitely is not mine…