Richfield Motor Vehicle Office — Attraction in Richfield

Update* This location is pretty good. I find the service people here pretty terse, but having had my fair share of customer service employment myself, I associate that terseness with understaffing, bad training or a negative work culture. set by a not so talented manager (or further uppy-ups… as above,so below!) not setting the proper tone or creating service minded expectations.

They process orders fast, and get the job done. Occasionally the Lead will step out and address the waiting customers, which is good. However, a smile, eye contact and a “how can I help you today” is not fluffy. It is ESSENTIAL. It makes your day better, and everyone else’s as well. Be a leader, even if the manager(s) above you are not. It is quite empowering to infuse kindness into your job. Do a little more than reluctantly (resentfully?) completing a task. Trust me, we don’t want to be here either!

I soapbox on this because I have been served by three different women here. The transactions warmed up as we went along, but the initial lack of warmth or anything resembling a pleasantry from all three was noteworthy.

High expectations on my part? Ummm, no. Not at all. I’d like to rate this location 5 stars and I’d like to see your overall rating get higher than 3 stars. It’s not just getting the job done, it’s making people feel satisfied and having a go-to location that doesn’t feel like an emergency room visit.

*This is what “not very busy” means on Google for this DVS… entered location with service display on #68. My tab says #84… looks like there’s two people back there! We’ll see...

I'll start by saying the facility is well maintained, spacious with ample amounts of seating. I also want to give a quick thank you to the lady at the Information Desk, who was handing out the numbered tickets, she was very helpful. When I arrived, they were no longer giving tickets and were turning people away even though I arrived an hour before closing. However, she took pity on my situation after I explained it.

The day before, I had come to make a payment, but they weren’t accepting my payment method, even though the letter I had stated it was valid. They wouldn’t accept it and told me to return with the correct form of payment.

While I was putting my papers away, the person behind me, who was next in line, approached the desk. She was there for the exact same reason and tried to make a payment using the same method, but she was also turned away. The difference was that she was given a return letter to avoid waiting in line next time, while I was not.

Initially, I thought the lady i was dealing with was just having a bad day because her entire demeanor was unpleasent during her interaction with me. However, after seeing how she dealt with the person behind me, it became clear that we were treated differently. There are only two reasons that could explain why we weren’t treated in the same manner, both of which involve a form of discrimination. The public employee was African American lady, and the person behind me was a Caucasian woman. Make of that...

had to schedule out 3 weeks for a passport "appointment" then came in with my son's (13 years old) expired passport (expired 11 days ago) and had all of the paperwork and expired passport that this same agency issued to him 5 years ago. I was told that because he is under 16 I AGAIN need to bring in the same original birth certificate that they used for the first go around. I was there at 2:55 for our appointment after taking my son of school for this and taking off of work to do this and they would not let me go the 2.3 miles to my house to get the original copy as they said "they have to mail this paper work at 3:10pm" so ...you have a 3:00pm appointment that you literally have to mail out the paper work no later than 3:10 and I was not able to do the appointment and then bring the original back in so they can make a copy of the original ... to send it with the paperwork. The whole process is a joke that I can't use an already issued passport to get renewal passport...but then magically at 16 no need for a original copy. The whole set up is circus I know I will not be using that location for anything moving forward. Had a similar government appointment a week ago at Southdale and was in and out in 10min...