Customer Walks Into Empty Local DMV Office, Still Takes an Eternity

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 16, 2022 2:00 PM EDT

There's nothing like a trip to your local purgatory - I mean, DMV office…

 

This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/mrcrashoverride, who shared a previous experience at the seventh level of H3ll, also known as the Department of Motor Vehicles. What was remarkable is that this Redditor walked into an empty location, and yet it still took forever. By the time they were finally seen, the customer was told they needed a number (rookie mistake). They came back and the DMV employee kept calling other numbers, supposedly for the other invisible customers there. Nightmare! Eventually, the employee just told the customer to head over, and that's when malicious compliance ensued.

 

Of course, we do not know what the employee has been through and what their daily life is, so we have no interest in making light of DMV employees. However, it's just a fact that the DMV's purpose in life is to humble everyone in the most soul-sucking way, like a real-life Dementor from Harry Potter. Keep scrolling below for the full story in the Redditor's words!

 

For more malicious compliance content, check out this story about an attempted robbery gone wrong.

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  • 01
    Font - Simple but funny DMV story M OC Several years back it was a rainy depressingly slow day I think it was close to the holidays when everyone was busy at the mall. I stepped into my local DMV office about fifteen minutes before closing. What made this even rarer was besides a few guests mulling about in a far corner by the testing area waiting for test results or maybe a photo. I was the lone person waiting for assistance as there was absolutely no one waiting to be called.
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 02
    Font - So I walked over to the long counter caught some state employees eye and indicated I needed help. She came up and asked if I had a number... a number I said as I looked around an empty lobby. She said well everyone has to have a number and pointed off in the distance back to the entrance towards an antique of an old clanking number printer. So I made the long walk back waited for it to chug and grind and spit out a ticket.
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 03
    Font - I then made the long walk back standing several feet from the u-shaped set of windows. Looking at the employees all gathered together gossiping. Finally someone elbow nudged someone and announced there is someone in the lobby. They begrudgingly slowly walked over, in that you know eye roll of a slow walk every state employee does when they have to help a taxpayer.
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 04
    Font - They reach their window and call a number out. I'm holding my number between my two hands like I've just heard the winning lottery number being announced with a big smile on my face and a pure look of glee but as I look down and see... darn that's not my number giving a big disheartened scowl and shake me head no. She clicks the button and calls out a new number. I get real excited again my face lighting up ticket raised up in front of my face but alas this too isn't my number. So my face
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 05
    Plant - +2. 1 day ago I have never seen an empty DMV office. Where is this mythical paradise? Artor50 191 Reply Share
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 06
    Font - NotMe739 1 day ago S I had one when I went in to change my name after getting married. Had a horrible grumpy hag of a woman 'helping' me. I was dropping my middle name, moving my maiden name to my middle name and taking my husband's last name. Sounds complicated but is a normal thing to do, at least in this area. This hag said no, you can't change your name to just whatever you want, you have to follow the rules of either a hyphenated last name or changing only the last name. Anything els
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 07
    Font - SeanBZA +3 - 1 day ago Seen it once, on a Tuesday afternoon when I went in an hour before closing time. Aside from me, the staff, and the 3 cleaners busy looking at the mop in the bucket, there was one person at enquiries, and another getting a PDP renewed. In and out in 5 minutes, which was the only time ever. Now closed because the building was condemned due to the roof collapsing in, and they might have it running out of a container in a year or three.
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 08
    Font - barrel-getya · 22 hr. ago I went to get new plates for my car at the Houston, TX DMV once. There was six lines with at least forty people in each line, and more coming in all the time. I finally got to the head of the line, the clerk took my paperwork, looked at it, set it on the desk on her side of the counter, never said a word just turned around and left. After waiting for her for about five minutes, I asked the clerk next to her station where she went. That clerk said to me that she w
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 09
    Font - DustinDirt 1 day ago The really sad part of this story is that it is a typical DMV story. And that is just a pathetic truth. You told it with unsurpassed charm. Reply 84 Share
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 10
    Font - G lostboysgang - 1 day ago I tried to test my luck in a new state because appointments were weeks out. I showed up to DMV at 1:30 PM on a Tuesday. Decently full lobby but not bad at all compared to Cali. One hour goes by, then two. I know they close at 5 but there's only 3 people left plus me. 3 more people gradually walk in who have appointments. It's 4:42 and the last person besides me gets called and my number is next. 4:46 PM the two remaining employees stand up and start gathering be
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 11
    Font - fractal_frog +2 - 21 hr. ago I was able to get a next-day appointment at the 3rd or 4th closest office to me this week when the other nearby offices had nothing before November 6 or so. (Texas)
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 12
    Smile - lord_kamote. 1 day ago I would have printed 10 tickets and then throw out the first 9..
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 13
    Font - HerfDog58 17 hr. ago My last trip to DMV was to get a title change on the leased car I was buying. I had downloaded the forms from the wesbite and filled them out. I got to the office, and the receptionist went thru the stack and said "Good, Good, nope, missing one." Handed me the correct form, I filled it out. She checked "Yup good." Went to the window and got my title processed and paid for, was in the office for less than 15 minutes. And all the employees were very pleasant and helpful
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 14
    Plant - Zoreb1 +2 - 1 day ago In my state, you can get some DMV services done through the AAA. I think I've been in the DMV only once in the last decade, and that is to get the new license with the star on it.
    via u/mrcrashoverride
  • 15
    Font - NoShameorGuilt +2 21 hr. ago If I myself hadn't walked into an empty DMV several years ago I'd've called BS on this one. Lol I had to go thru the same thing except there were 8 clerks and they took turns calling out numbers, "100, number 100.", then exactly 3 minutes of silence, a different clerk, "101, number 1 zero 1", silence, rinse & repeat. Apparently there had been 69 people ahead of me that for whatever reason left all at once. Got a nice little nap though, so it wasn't a total was
    via u/mrcrashoverride

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customer service employee malicious compliance customers reddit thread Reddit drivers license DMV
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