Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles — Local services in Charlottesville

JUN 2025: So the first question one might have is why are we going to the DMV every year? This is a great question for my better half. But regardless, here we are registering a new trailer. I made an appt when we bought the trailer in MAY and the first available was in JUN. The email sent on the day we made the appt had the correct name, mobile, and email address, so I did not make a mistake here. The day before the appt, we received a reminder email but the name for whom the appt was made had changed to someone we did not know and had never met. The appt ID, mobile, and email were the same. What the heck, right? When we showed up for the appt we were told that because the name on the email was not correct, they could not honor our appt time. So in summary, we do everything right, they make in a change in their system, and the consumer suffers as a result of their incompetence. Nothing has changed in this agency. What a joke. FEB 2024: Bought a car from a neighbor who lost her husband and only his name was on the title. We were lucky to have a new employee in the Cville DMV and she was friendly and helpful. Those of you who live in Cville know this agency is hit and miss and generally we will drive to Waynesboro but because we had to meet our neighbor, we had to go to Abbey Rd. This was a positive experience but the employee said she had been there 1 month. It will take time for her to devolve as some of the others have. FEB 2023: So the DMV has finally streamlined. We generally drive to Waynesboro - it truly is worth the drive because one can make appointment for the next day or so. Cville traditionally does not have any appointments when you need them - when we need to DMV need them now and not 1 month from now. Who makes appts 1 month away? Psychics, that’s who. Anyhoo, now you can “reserve your spot in line” using the QR code. Oh my stars. We made the appt in the car on our way to the Cville location ON A SATURDAY, sent the text as instructed when we arrived, walked in right past the LONG line of people waiting to have their documents checked, and were called to the window. Did I mention this was in Cville? And we were lucky to get a relatively new employee who was still friendly and pleasant and not jaded and unhappy. That was a good day- very unusual but I thought it was important to update my DMV blog. FEB 2022: In the words of the venerable poet Paul Simon "Still crazy after all these years", the DMV has zero interest in streamlining their process to improve efficiency. We went in to title a new vehicle and 30 min prior to opening the line extended past the length of the building and had started to meander through the parking lot. I asked the third person in line what time she had arrived and she said 6am. Good gracious. We were finally allowed in the building 30 min after opening and Ms 6am and the two people ahead of her weren't even at the counter - other patrons were. How much sense does that make? Is it not first in first out? In the 90 min we sat inside and waited for our turn we watched how quickly one clerk finished with a patron and called up another patron. There was a lot of wandering around and chatting by the clerks, stepping outside for who knows what (a breath of fresh air?), and sitting at their stations for extended periods of time before calling another number. Patrons were standing at the counter filling our their paperwork - why weren't they sent back to their seats to do this so other the clerks could move others through ? When it was finally our turn, we submitted our stack of redundant paperwork and were finished within 7 minutes. It only took this long because our clerk was chatting with her neighbor about another patron and a group of clerks had to stop to argue whether the address on a W-2 was sufficient enough. I am astounded by their lack of leadership and lack of efficiency but more so by their lack of interest in...

I usually don’t post about things like this, but I feel like I need to to spread awareness about Officer Miller in particular. I went to the DMV on Pantops so I could get my son his permit.. we got there nice and early and stood outside in the cold for 30 minutes just so I could make sure that they would take us quickly. (We were 4th in line.) A few minutes before they opened, the security officer poked his head out the door and asked if anyone had appointments. There were a couple of people in line outside that proceeded to go in. Then, the rest of us went in…

I followed the people in front of me in line once we got in the building, then someone mentioned that we might be in the wrong line and might have to go to the line next to us because apparently the one we were all in was for appointments. (No one told any of us so everyone in both lines were confused.) When the receptionist was calling people for appointments, there were no more appointments so no one moved because at that point people were just going first-come first-serve. The three people that were in front of us (with no appointments) went with no issue…because she said it was ok.

Two gentlemen in line started to argue with each other so the security guard came over and started yelling at them. Then he started yelling at all of us and calling us names and threatening us. Then he said “this line is for appointments only- does anyone have appointments?” and everyone said no in the crowd. Then he looked at me and started yelling at me (unprompted) and told me I needed to go to the back of the line because I didn’t have an appointment and I responded that no one did but they had been calling people first-come-first-serve. I was confused, and explained that we had gotten there early before they even opened and were next. He told me that wasn’t his problem and it was not his fault that I couldn’t read. (Apparently there was a sign that no one saw, hence why everyone was confused..)

(I feel like if there is some kind of strict policy about this, I get that, but why did he need to speak to anyone that way?… also, if the policy is so strict, then why are you allowing some people to go and not others?)

I explained to him that no one in the line had an appointment so there was no one technically that was in front of us. He told me that we had to go to the back of the line so I was standing there telling him that that’s unfair because we technically were first and what was the difference in us just going versus someone else who didn’t have an appointment that was actually behind us in line? He said it didn’t matter and it wasn’t his problem, so we got in the back of the line (which was now a mile long.)

Finally, I was standing there, and I asked the folks that were getting taken ahead of us if someone would let us go in front of them since we had been waiting there for a while and had been there since before they even opened but he had singled us out. A nice gentleman said that we could go in front of him. My son and I proceeded to go in front of him and thanked him for being kind to us. Then, from behind us, this irate woman started yelling about how we pushed everybody over in the line and she doesn’t care because she CAN read- when literally all we did was just go get in the front of the line. The gentleman stood up for us and said “They were here first though.”

Officer Miller came back over and started yelling and screaming at us and saying how it’s not his fault that we can’t read once again and I explained to him how no one in the line had appointments and he did not direct anyone into the line so no one knew where to go or that there was a specific line and it was not fair that he allowed others to go and not us.

He proceeded to yell at me some more and tell me that I could go in the back of the line or leave, and so we left. My son was not able to...

I took my granddaughter to take her learners permit today... we were there for 4 hours and 45 minutes, we arrived at 10am and finally were able to leave at 2:45pm. There was only one representive taking the T-tickets.. and obviously she was not interested in winning a customer service award or working period. We were there for almost two hours, when I went up and asked were they doing the learners test today.. one woman told me that the testing computers were down and then this rep. said no they had been up for 45 minutes.. the whole time that we were there, this rep. sat at her computer taking no tickets. After I went up there a second time, she finally called ONE T-number, after each ticket she would take anywhere from 10-15 minutes before calling the next number, at one time for 20 minutes, she only sat there reading on her computer.. at 1:25pm, she took her last ticket and walked to the back and never returned while we were there. This was an awful experience, but unfortunately seems to be the norm for this DMV.. this location seems to be very poorly managed and short staffed.

There was an elderly gentleman sitting beside me he had A2, he had been there the same amount of time we had. It was almost 3 hours before they called A1.. then another hour before they called his number. He told me his back was killing him and he didn’t think they should make the elderly sit there this long. I totally agree!

Please investigate this site and train or...