Google Places result · Novato DMV

I would like to leave an extremely positive review for the employee who conducts practical driving test and performs VIN verification. He is a true professional and an expert in his field. I strongly recommend that this employee receive a bonus!

Needed to renew license, filled out and uploaded documents at home and went with no appointment. Was kindly greeted by woman handling the appointment/no appointment line. She commented on my preparedness and gave me my number to wait. Office is clean with multiple screens giving you DMV info and sports scores; low music playing in the background. The dmv office had a new positive energy.

Dealt with two male staffmembers in connection with my license renewal involving vision changes. Neither was the “German man” referenced by other reviewers (who I assume is Caucasian). Also, I am typically an upbeat, polite person who is respectful to customer service people. These two individuals were extremely RUDE. The main person I dealt with started out snarky and condescending, and spoke in a nonstop monotone in explaining the rather confusing procedure. As a retired attorney and judge with no hearing problems, I’m not stupid or have difficulty following instructions, but this staffmember’s instructions, given in a mumbling monotone, was hard to follow. When I asked to confirm, his instructions were no clearer, so I left feeling not fully sure about the entire procedure. Still, I left smiling, telling him, “ I appreciate you!” When I returned several days later with the completed vision form, I thought I was supposed to return to the same line 10, but wasn’t 100% sure, and there were two people in line. I didn’t want to wait in line only to be told to go back to the info desk first, where there were three people in line, So I went to line 8 where the staffmember seemed unoccupied, with no one in line. I asked him if I could ask a quick question, to which he responded firmly, “Make it QUICK.” So I asked him whether I should go directly back to line 10 with the completed vision form, to which he responded something like, “Why are you asking me?!” What??!!! Why is this person even in customer service facing the public? He knew or should have known the answer to my simple question, but couldn’t just tell me yes or no in a civil manner. Pretty crazy and uncalled-for. To be clear, the main guy handling my license renewal was somewhat less rude on my second visit and gave me a temporary license, but the person at line 8?!! Completely unacceptable. I know not to expect much from the DMV, and have been to many other DMVs in my life, but this was by far the worst DMV experience.

German man is insanely rude, hard to understand, and failed my son over three times because he couldn’t give him proper direction. My son went up to court Madera and passed instantly. Much like the last reviewer says, everyone in the Marin DMV world is familiar with the German man and how much of a stickler he is, who never passes anyone…. I wouldn’t recommend doing your test here until the German guy is fired. Both Corte Madera and Petaluma have much nicer instructors, and ones they’re easier to understand and understand American road laws much better than him. My older daughter got her license in Novato years ago and it was no problem, they had multiple different instructors. I don’t know why they’re just stuck with him now.

Best DMV on the planet! Everyone here is great that I've encountered! In and out always. Only down side is the ppl that wait in line in the morning, after hearing that they they need to scan the QR code to mark a place, turns into lion's den and ppl try to scan faster than you LOL despite being in the back of the line initially.