"Do I need to call security?" Topic

No, ma'am. I'm simply trying to find out how I can avoid driving down to the Maryland MVA (Motor Vehicle Administration) a fourth time and not getting a license.

This was after being told that the telephone utility bill I brought with me wasn't good enough because it wasn't "the type of bill we take here" and offered the list of acceptable documents (which is also online). Then I pointed to the verification of address section and asked, where it explains which bills are acceptable and which are not.

I was genuinely trying to figure out what is and what isn't acceptable, since the other two times I have tried to get my new license, I met with the same, "That's not the rock we want." issue.

And, of course, the bill I had in hand – the unacceptable one- was the same one I had used last time as proof of residence to register my car.

Thank goodness you didn't try to vote!

Ask for a supervisor next time.

Ah, yes. The red tape of bloated bureaucracy.

Doctor X is right. Keep an "even keel" and good luck, etotheipi.

Thank goodness you didn't try to vote!

If they think they're going to abridge my right to vote come November, the state of Maryland will learn a lesson in short order.

I do keep an even keel, especially since I recognize that there are a number of first-contact service personnel who have zero control over the rules that govern their jobs and take loads of crap from irate people multiple times a day.

I was genuinely just trying to figure out what the additional criteria were before having to come back again.

And FTR, I really don't care what their standards are. Nothing that I have heard at the desk is particularly heinous or egregious. The problem has been, if you post what to bring on your official website and have printed handouts of what to bring, I shouldn't have to play discovery learning at the desk for the additional criteria.

For example, I can't imagine (and actually, I know otherwise from empirical demonstration) that West Virginia in the 60's is not the only place to not actually have the word "Certificate" on a birth certificate. But if you are going to reject the only legal version (there isn't some other one with that word on it) of a properly issued and notarized birth certificate, you should tell people when you say "birth certificate" is an acceptable document.

Ask for a supervisor next time.

Actually, Monday, I am calling for a supervisor from work at lunch to verify that this doesn't happen again.

They (for some reason) can't issue licences or enough licences at the moment; the staff at that office aren't qualified or they're out of budget for the photos or something.

The "ah you haven't brought X" after looking to see what you have brought is a well known dismissal technique. It's a way of manipulating the queue metrics; send a junior staffer out front to find something wrong with everyone's application and send them away.

Seriously; there are academic studies about these archetypal behaviours of organisations when placed under stresses.

No you need to be able to do your job in a way that helps the people you service get done what they need done and not blow them off in ways that would get you fired if you did not work in a government office.

Yell racism, or protest political obstructionism, next time, loudly.

That seems to work for some.