Susan M · Novato DMV

text: 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.
rating: 2
collection: Marin public-source records
source url: https://www.google.com/maps/reviews/data=!4m6!14m5!1m4!2m3!1sCi9DQUlRQUNvZENodHljRjlvT2toSFZEbEJUMVpoVG5wNlNIZEVWVk15YW5Ka2NXYxAB!2m1!1s0x8085bb7ea559cfad:0x437026f42c3c9649
observed at: 2026-10-11T00:07:18.526Z
published at: 2026-07-22T18:26:40.934473097Z

Google

Reviewer

★★★★★

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.