How Often Do You Pay People to be Rude to You?

Grand Junction, Colorado
June 4, 2010 8:11pm CST
OK so I had to go to DMV yesterday to finally get the new plates, tags and to have the VIN verification done on my truck, I had already done the weight verification and it finally passed smog, so I'm all set. I get to DMV and the line of course is out the door, I move through the line finally getting up to the counter where I inform the guy I need a VIN verification to complete my paperwork and get it turned in. He hands me a ticket (my number is B194) I ask how long is the wait he tells me hour and 45 min. He also tells me to bring the truck around back, stay with the vehicle and someone will be out. OK. So I glance at the monitor to see what number their on B123, yeah right hour and 45 minutes. So I get the truck pull around back turn off the truck and wait. I should mention this is a 96 Ford F-150 PU LIFTED 4X4. I'm the only vehicle out back so I'm thinking this will be quick, yeah right, at DMV. It takes 45 min for a man to come out. He is immediately rude, asks me very rudely “How am I suppose to do VIN verification? I need a ladder.” (I'm thinking that your department is the one that has decided that it's needed complain to them) (also I'm thinking this isn't the first lifted PU to require a VIN verification) so he now proceeds to tell me “Let me see your paperwork.” so I hand it to him. He glances at it and tells me “I need you to open the door and pop the hood” OK so I open door and pop hood. I next here “I need you to open it!” I'm now confused I opened door, so I say “excuse me” “I need you to open the hood” me “of the truck” so(excuse me what exactly is your job? ) So he complains about the whole thing and whenever he speaks to me he is rude. He lasts says to me “you need to be careful” me”of what?” “climbing out, you could slip.” I inform him that I have been driving big trucks for awhile and climbing in and out isn't a problem. I see him reach down and rub his shin apparently he slipped and banged it on the step. (I don't feel sorry in the slightest.) Now I have to wait for my number to be called. I go back inside to see what number they are on, OMG B143, remember I have B194, I sit down and play soduko on my phone. I'm at DMV for 3 hours and have to pay additional fees for the weight of the vehicle. Taxes pay his salary, he doesn't work for a private company. He works for me. In the state of CA(I'm sure many others) the DMV s a joke. When was last time you paid for someone to be rude to you? (I don't think that I should have had to open the hood. The guy at the counter told me to stay with the vehicle even while the inspection was being performed) Am I over reacting? I was so irritated, was still irritated when I left 3 hours later. Picture is attached.
5 people like this
16 responses
@kykidd (6812)
• United States
5 Jun 10
Just the other day I was at the local Dairy Queen. After I pulled up to the window, the lady opens the window and tells me 3.21, the amount of my order. I had her the money, she opens the window again and says the amount of the change. Next, she opens the window and says here's a Pepsi and a straw. Closing the window, without another word. I waited for quite a while for my burger, wondering what in the world was going on. Finally, after at least 5 minutes, maybe longer, the lady opens the window again and hands me a burger. No thank you for anything. She could have at least said thank you at one point during the transaction. Instead, I said thank you. She was quite a young gal, and looked all prim and proper. If she is so proper, then why couldn't she have told me it would be a while on my burger. Or why couldn't she have thanked me for doing business at their restaurant. I know it's just fast food, however I work in the office of a retail shop, and our employees greet you when you walk in the door, end the transaction with a smile, and say "Thank You!"
2 people like this
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
@hatley, the Walmart here is also not very customer service oriented. It is cusrrently being remodeled and you can't find anything and when you ask someone they seem like you have put them out. I have started going over to Target.
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
In today's economy when dollars are hard to get from consumers every owner and manager should be stressing to every employee the importance of customer service. Service with a smile and thank you. We have many chooses on where to spend our hard earned money and if you don't want to be nice then I will spend it somewhere else. With DMV I don't have a choose I have to go there and take it, in the private sector we do have a choice and complaining does work to some degree. Safeway is very customer oriented, they greet you through out the store and ask you how you are when at the check out and thank you for shopping. All places should be like that.
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
5 Jun 10
hi beanie Vons is the s ame way .everyone is most helpfull and pleasant and always ask me if I found everything I was looking for. wish other places were like that.course come to think of it Safeway owns Vons so they must train all their help to be like that. A nice colored lady in the meat department helped me to find exactly what i was looking for so I often stopped there and asked for her. They are not that customer oriented in Walmart some of the socalled greeters are very rude.
1 person likes this
@hofferp (4734)
• United States
5 Jun 10
I think DMVs in general are some of the most frustrating places to do business. It's just as bad in NM. Not too many years ago they set up DMV Express businesses (private contract) and that's where I go now. It costs more, but at least you don't spend half a day standing in line waiting for your number to roll around. Also, I found complaining about DMVs are a waste of time. The "higher ups" know there's a problem, but it hasn't done much good in the 40+ years I've been dealing with DMV. (Oh, now I do as much as I can online...that helps. But for some stuff, you just have to go in. What a pain.)
1 person likes this
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
I go to DMV more than the average person and unfortunately online isn't available to me for what I do so it forces me to go there. I dread it every time, because I know it will take forever and then to have to put up with the rudeness just gets me all irritated. I just think that if you don't like what you do and can't pretend then you should go somewhere else or management should make the decision for you. You shouldn't be above being let go if your rude just because you work for the state.
@hofferp (4734)
• United States
5 Jun 10
Agree. But management won't know, unless people tell them. You should tell them...even if it amounts to nothing. Who knows? Maybe you're complaint number 100 and that's the push management needed to react.
1 person likes this
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
Well maybe I will just call in on Monday and complain about the terrible service I got. Your right it couldn't hurt.
@max1950 (2306)
• United States
5 Jun 10
well at the dmv you really dont have a choice but to put up with them, "but" when i go out shopping and get a rude cashier, i have been known to let her or him ring up everything in my cart and then tell them because their rude and i "dont" have to put up with their crap, i walk out and if they have a problem call the manager, and i dont care where it is, and i dont care if they had a bad day or night, there lucky to have a job and if they dont like what they do, let someone who will appreciate the job have it and quit. i told one b1tchy girl the other day if she doesnt think her boss will fire her if i gave him 500 bucks think again.
1 person likes this
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
max, that's incredible. Good for you. Your right I don't have a choice when I have to go there I just have to put up with it, but it really does irritate me, they make decent money, have benefits and retirement all of it. I just think that they should also be more customer service oriented yet they aren't. Your right the private sector, your going to get fired if your running off customer's willing to spend $500 in these economic times.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
12 Jun 10
What a lovely guy you are max, thinking you can play with someone's life like that. It's crappy customers like you that make a cashier's job so awful, it's the attitude of customers like you that give cashiers bad feelings and make them hate their job. Most of them like their job and most of the customers are polite and decent. Unfortunately too many people think it's their right to look down on service people and give them a hard time. Of course some of them have a bad attitude...we're talking lowest common denominator here.
@max1950 (2306)
• United States
12 Jun 10
if you cant do your job and be happy about it hit the bricks, i dont care who you or they are, when i go in and say good morning and get a sneer they can kiss my as$.
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
5 Jun 10
I can see why you were irritated...and I know what you mean. People forget sometimes not to bite the hand that feeds them......like policemen..etc. Their job is to protect and serve....and sometimes when you give them a call they act like you're the criminal!
1 person likes this
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
Ahhh yes I know what you mean exactly. I'm calling you to report the crime and you want to play 50 questions. UGH send help right away we can discuss later. I inderstand wanting to have a few facts, so the officer are prepared, but when lives are endanger seconds count.
@sid556 (30959)
• United States
5 Jun 10
Every person we pay for a service is a person we are paying their paycheck. I have never been treated poorly at the DMV. It doesn't matter where I am, if I am paying someone for a service, I expect to be treated with respect and simple courtesy. If it were not for us customers then they would not be having a job. Could it be that he was too short to lift the hood up himself? If so, he could have handled it with a lot more humor. And like you said, yours is surely not the only raised truck.
1 person likes this
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
No he was about 5 ft 8 I am only 5 ft 2 if I can open the hood no reason he can't and why he needed the hood opened when he couldn't see inside the engine I have no idea. He basicly read the VIN off the door, as he was so irritated he glanced at it through the windshield but didn't take the time to check each letter/number. Getting the hood closed is awhole nother story, but I did it.
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
5 Jun 10
hi beaniefanatic13 oh tell me about it, even just getting senior citizen dmv identification is a pain in the rear. we filled out something then they did find us chairs,we were all senior citizens and I and another person were the only ones not in wheel chairs. so then we wait I look at my number and at the screen up overhead that shows the current number and it moved maybe three number in a half hour,finally after almost two hours they got my number and of course the window I was su pposed to go to was way the hell and gone around on the other side of the room, and I had to hobble as f ast as my quad cane would move to get there, and the clerk was tapping her fingers she said we called you ten minutes ago and I said no you called me five minutes ago. well let me see your old card so handed it to her and she did this and that and then saidd now go to station C to have your picture taken so of c ourse I had to go b ack around the whole thing again and was now in a line of five or six other people waiting to get their mug shots done. then one lady gets into a shouting match and that takes more time, but finally she hands me this card with a very small space for me to write all my name, middle name too but finally manage to get it done so they will accept it. then a rude man snaps take offa de glasses. and i ask what did you say, he says taka offa da glasses. so I taka offa da glasses and they get my picture taken and I knew it would look like a face on the FBi most wanted women criminals. and it did I looked startled like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. and somehow they got my white hair to have an orangey hue wow.
1 person likes this
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
You give a very descriptive picture. Yes many times I have been told to go to one side and been called to the other side. The particular DMV I go to has about 36 windows, it's very large also very crowded. I just think that they could all stand to be a little bit nicer.
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
5 Jun 10
well I havent had trouble with them yet just the long wait!
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
7 Jun 10
I sure hope I dont either would really not like to go off on someone that works there but I would if need be!
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
Nice to know that not all are rude. I hope that you don't ever have to put up with the rudeness.
@laglen (19759)
• United States
6 Jun 10
It seems I do it VERY often. I try to avoid it though. Our DMV here, they are mostly nice when you finally get to see somebody. Our local governments are actually pretty big on giving good service. Now, where this fails is the courts. I had to go into the courthouse yesterday. I am standing at security waiting to go through. One guard and he is talking to everybody but me. He has to watch each person walk into a court room, (nobody in line to get in) finally turns to me, doesnt say a word, just looks at me like I am inconvenient. I am already getting pisy. So I say, can I come through? he says no. I said well do you want to let the judge know I wont be there? he said well where are you supposed to be. I told him which division, he sighed and said ok put your stuff on the belt. I thought what the heck? is this not a public building? I can walk in and out all flippin day if I want to. This was strange because usually the security are the nicest people there....
• United States
14 Jul 10
i don't think i've ever run into a DMV worker that didn't have a chip on their shoulder.they seem to hire a**holes on purpose. no you're not overreacting..the guy was just plain rude.
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
5 Jun 10
I sure can sympathize. I remember one time when I was in a LONG line at the DMV and another customer in line had a terrible cold and was snarfing and sneezing all over the place without covering and no "excuse me" either. That time I actually felt sorry for the clerk behind the counter. It does seem that public employees are often much ruder than private employees in the service industries. But recent experiences with the DMV have been better than in prior years, especially with the appointment system they have for some of the services. So there is some improvement. Sorry you had such a bad experience. I hope the next one is easier. PS: I would certainly stay with the vehicle while the inspection was being performed as I would not trust that guy alone with it.
1 person likes this
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
I usually am symathetic to them and the long hours they work and people yelling, and arguing and out right lying to them. I do feel sorry for them, but not all people are the same, I think that the next customer deserves respect. It's hit and miss, I just seem to get the rude ones more often than the nice ones. Maybe it's just that I'm at DMV way more often than the average person. Your right I would never leave my vehicle alone with someone I didn't know or trust.
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
7 Jun 10
Well yes, but rudeness is practically a requirement at the DMV, right?
@savypat (20216)
• United States
5 Jun 10
It seems the DMV personnel are in a class by themselves. When ever I have to deal with people who deal with the public I look upon the situation as a challenge. If I can get just one smile or kind word, I win and guess what no one looses.
1 person likes this
• Pamplona, Spain
5 Jun 10
Hiya beanie, This time round we heard they were going on strike at the Vehicle Inspection so we went to another place far out from here and it was all done in less than twenty minutes whereas if we had had it done here it would have taken them yonks to do anything either. I don´t how you managed to keep yourself together what a rude person. Although we are used to rude People here too. I once took back a pair of t shirts right away because I had picked up short sleeved ones instead of long sleeved. All I asked was for them to be changed for long sleeved. She went up the Wall I looked at her sort of gone out and said I don´t know what all the fuss is about I only bought them ten minutes ago and I have the receipt the lot and I have paid Cash. Well it seems if I had paid with a Credit Card little miss Madam would have had it much easier. Oh pardon me for paying with my humble Cash. She made such a fuss that she called over her General Manager and he glared at me I thought how infantile can you get? I picked up two long sleeved polo t shirts of the same size and said look swap me this for that if not why can´t you do it I just don´t understand what you are making such a fuss about. So after about an hour I got them changed and they were really lucky I was not in the mood for complaining to the Manager above them they really were. It seems that Credit Cards rule everywhere humble cash has had it´s Day. Sorry to hear about your plight with that Person though what a to do about something that should be so straightforward. They always have to make it more complicated don´t they. I believe they enjoy being awkward to everyone. Hope you have someone much more polite the next time around.
1 person likes this
@saphrina (31551)
• South Africa
5 Jun 10
Sweetie, i love that truck of yours. Next time, wait till he peeps under the hood, then you blow that horn of yours. That will make him think twice about his rudeness. Damn idiot. I won't pay for that, i will go and see his manager or something. All of them have no manners at all. TATA.
• Grand Junction, Colorado
5 Jun 10
You are a spitfire I think, that would be to funny. Thank you it's a pretty fun ride.
@saphrina (31551)
• South Africa
6 Jun 10
Please remember to take a pic of that guys face, when you blow that horn. That i would love to see.
@zyxel999 (44)
• China
5 Jun 10
Actually I met this situation many times, especially in the public place. Sometimes they were crude to the customers, I think whether the welfares or treatments of public employees from government or exactly from taxpayer are extremely high level so that they don't worry about to out of work.
• India
5 Jun 10
well if a person is rude to me i try not to lose my cool over it ,as i feel that losing our cool over it makes us much worse than the person being rude to us