N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles — Local services in Durham

I went to get my license on Friday around 9am and the person who processed my information, a woman with dyed red long hair at station 3, was incredibly rude and condescending the entire time. I was so worried that she would be my driving test instructor but tried to reassure myself that she was probably just doing desk work. She was very condescending about how I wrote my name and about my signature and was just not nice in general. Think about it from the point of view of someone who's incredibly nervous about to take a driving test for the first time and the only person you've interacted with has been incredibly rude and condescending. It doesn't help your nerves.

Unfortunately, and great disappointment, she was my driving test instructor. when we left the DMV to go to my car for the test she yelled at all the people outside in a mean way telling them to go to their cars instead of just asking them like a normal person. I did not see signage posted indicating people needed to do so, but even if there was, there is a way to talk to people. One of the people was my partner waiting for me, so witnessed her speaking to all the people the way she did.

We got on the road and she told me there would be a blind left turn up ahead. I kept looking for the turn. Asked multiple times, is this it ? No. Is this it? No. And then we get on top of a big tree and she says this is it, not visible from behind the tree, then I had to slow down really fast to make the turn. Ok no worries, it wasn't visible and she's not great at giving direction and rude so it's hard to ask questions without getting condescending, snappy replies. Took the turn a little too fast because of it. I'm new to driving and make mistakes, I do not do well with this type of person.

We do the 3 point turn and was driving away from it about 10mph and she snaps "STOP" at me so I assumed it was the safe immediately braking part. So I do so. She gets mad and snaps again telling me to never stop like that again and she's so terrible to communicate with that I just apologized instead of trying to explain myself about my misunderstanding. She snaps at me to do the straight backing, my hands are shaking at this point, I'm sweating, I just want to get away from this person. I forget to turn my hazards on and miss a truck coming up behind us as I was so frazzled and upset by her behavior. I've been to multiple driving instructor paid lessons, I know how to do it, I just wasn't thinking straight because of the stress. Totally get why I failed the test, not mad about it, just kinda disappointed I didn't get it my first try.

We go back to the DMV/her desk. She talks down to me about how I don't know what I'm doing and taking the turn too fast/the hazards/backing. I've never been spoken to as a person the way she speaks to people. So I just take my stuff and leave, don't say anything. Go back to my car and immediately I'm crying because of her behavior towards me and the stress she caused. My partner who was with me thought it was because I failed but when I told him everything, along with him seeing her behave that way, he was justifiably upset.

My partner went inside and asked the front desk person for any contact email or number to speak to someone about her. He was reasonable and nice about it, the guy didn't have anything to do with it. The guy refused to give any email or number. He just said no, there is no one you can contact. Then the woman walks up and denies being rude at all. My partner was still just trying to get an email but she refused too. Is this something the DMV is just allowed to do?

If you need to go here for anything, just know that you will be treated however and apparently there is nothing you can do about that. If you are taking your driving test and get bad vibes from the person, it is way easier to cancel and go to another DMV. Go take it in a small town if you can. Ask for someone else if you get the red...

I rarely leave negative reviews but I want to warn people to avoid this location at all costs. How this place is even open and hasn't been shut down, is unbelievable. I can barely even verbalize what I just experienced. I walked out crying. I don't know how to quantify how horrible this place is. Perhaps negative 10 stars. Maybe expect the same or better treatment, if you were being processed for an arrest. I have never in all my life had a worse experience with customer service, not just at a DMV, but anywhere.

I had checked the NC DMV website and had called twice to make sure I brought the right paperwork. All of that was incorrect, according to this office. Not only was it incorrect, but they took no responsibility for the wrong information I received (claiming that they have no connection to the website or the call center who answers the phones). Um, ok, great. So how are we supposed to know what to do before we come in? When I tried to reason with them, they then proceeded to further blame me for the issue. What I experienced can best be described as verbal abuse and they offered no help whatsoever.

I waited in line outside with a back injury for almost 3 hours. I was lucky enough to have a metal chair in my car, but others, including seniors were sitting on the ground or forced to stand for hours. When I finally got inside, not only did I get turned away but in the midst of being mistreated by the staff, I had what I think was a security guard come at me about what was in my mason jar (water) and was then scolded because no food and water is allowed inside. I felt like I was being ganged up on by bullies in a horrible DMV nightmare. Apparently after 3 hours in line, when I finally get called inside, I am supposed to know to run to my car first (risking losing my place in line) to put my water bottle in there before entering the building.

So. We are to stand outside for hours, with no food and water in hand and then good luck if you even get what you came for. NO LICENSE FOR YOU!

After this experience, I went to another DMV in Durham (which turned out to only be for registrations and titles) where a very nice receptionist gave me helpful information on what I needed to do. I was in and out in minutes. Then I drove across town to the other DMV license office, where a very kind man came outside because they were closing and talked me through my situation so I knew exactly how to proceed.

So, anyone saying well they are doing their best, they are just short staffed, etc. NO. There is no excuse for this behavior or for mistreating people. If other offices with the same or less resources can be helpful, kind and courteous, so can they! The other offices I went to also knew exactly what I was talking about as far as my negative experience and nodded their heads with compassion. I was also told that some of the information I was given over the phone (from the call center) was in fact correct! These people are not good. Don't go here! Trust the negative reviews. If you are lucky enough to get an appt like 3-6 months out, maybe you will suffer slightly less.

Now that I have wasted my day and have taken even more time to write this review I hope it helps someone else to not go through what I did! GO ANYWHERE ELSE. Drive across town or drive to another city if...

As an NC local I have to give this office some appreciation. Once I figured out their walk in queue system, it was a very quick and easy experience to do a DL renewal. If you don't know their operation you will be frustrated. Please feel free to learn from my experience if you are trying to get served here.

They use a text message system to check in for the queue for each DMV license office. Keyword is text message, no app or anything. This is very hostile and dysfunctional on first contact especially when you compound the fact that getting an official appointment from the DMV website is pretty tough, but let me shed some light on how this system works. Officially the walk in appointments start at noon each day they are open. It is extremely important you know the texting info before, but just so you know a hint the system seems to start accepting requests at 12:05. You don't have to be physically in line at the door, you just text as mentioned on the instructions at the front door (for this location it was "U80 Get in Line" to 844-990-5095). Wait for a confirmation return text that it either didn't work "queuing service not available" or that "For service please reply with number 1-5" (note 1 is First time license, 2 is ID card, 3 is renewal, 4 is duplicate, 5 is other). Do not spam the texts until you get a response back and it will be slow around noon. This may cause you to get multiple places in line.

Once you get a text on which service, reply with your number, in my case 3 for renewal. Then you should get a text back with a ticket number. This is your place in line and they have a board with which tickets are being serviced by the Stations inside. Each Station has a DMV agent, so you are now waiting to get assigned to a station. When it is your turn you will get a text for which station number to approach inside. It will also be confirmed on the waiting board. So the key here is they don't want people in the lobby so once you have your text confirmation just wait until your station number text comes and go directly to that desk. This is the summary of their virtual line system for walk in appointments, hopefully that is more clear.

So when I got my station number, I got in front of the DMV agent and quickly got my renewal processed. One thing that is not clear from the website but for REAL ID you only need a valid passport, the other documents are not necessary if you have that and the name matches your DL, nice. From noon to completion was 30 minutes. Now the queue will fill up very quickly so I think attempting walking in after 1pm on your chosen day is very unlikely and the text queue will be full or unavailable. Long story long, come at noon sharp (early is of no use for their virtual line), follow their procedure especially getting ready to text at 12:05pm and replying to their text to get a ticket number, and you should be able to finish same...