I still think I went to a Bizarro World DMV office. I don’t want to jinx anyone or my own future visits, but that really was the nicest and fastest experience I’ve ever had with DC’s DMV.

I got up kinda early and gave myself a haircut and a shave, just in case. I was only changing my address and since my Drivers License is nearly up for renewal, I didn’t think they’d bother with a new card or photo, but it didn’t hurt. Plus I was hoping that looking relatively clean-cut would help bring out the better service since I have had some nasty people in the past who seemed to have hair triggers. I killed some time at the apartment, then killed a little more at Starbucks. The SW DMV office is pretty close to my workplace, so I got there maybe 20 or so minutes before opening. There was a small line, but full of pretty friendly people.

They let us in, got us through the metal detector and up to the information desk. This is usually what gives people the most trauma. It seems that you never have the correct information or not enough of it, etc. even though you get it straight from their web site. Turns out only 2 people ahead of me got “turned away” and that was only so they could make a phone call to the right people to fax in some information. They were even told to skip the line when they came back! My address change was as easy as showing my old DL and a Pepco bill though I still had to fill out the form for a “correction.”

I still didn’t have to wait very long and the first guy was helpful and friendly. The second woman who took my money was the same. I did wince a little when she shredded my old license since I looked so thin in that photo. She even reminded me that my DL is up for renewal in under a month, but that I can do that online. $7 paid, photo taken, new card handed over and I was outta there. I’m now regretting the shave a little bit since I didn’t have anything to hide my chubby face, but I guess the license gives me some motivation to lose weight.

Compared to previous visits, this was a walk in the park. I’d planned to take a 1/2 day to get this done and I was out of there in under 30 minutes. Now to make it through the workday. It is a gorgeous morning out there and I’m hoping that it stays somewhat nice for the afternoon. There was someone behind me at Starbucks this morning loudly wishing for 90+ degree weather again. I shot him an evil glance with a grin. I am perfectly fine with the breezy moderate stuff, thank you!

I am still waiting for it to be a good day. Not that I have much faith in a Monday morning at work, but ya gotta try. I felt exhausted all day yesterday and nothing seemed able to give me a boost towards getting into the day, not even pure laziness and sloth.

I went to Tonic for breakfast and I think my usual/favorite server must have gotten a new job or be on vacation. My last two times there, I was served by very “cute” girl servers that were kinda… bad. Yesterday was the worse of my two experiences though as I was seated, order taken, cups filled once and from them on, I didn’t see my server again. No refills on coffee or water, no “how is everything?”, nada. I sat for a good 20 minutes after I was finished with the meal before she came over and said “can I get you anything else?” I admit that I did not tip well, and considering the amount of attention she paid to me, she probably thinks I’m an asshole for doing so. But this is one reason that I hate eating alone: you often get horrible service. Tables of 4 and 6 that were seated after me were getting more service and attention–and actual coffee refills. I wasn’t hungover or anything, but still you don’t nurse 8 ounces of coffee for an entire meal, sheesh.

After breakfast I headed home to find out that our building is now completely elevator-less. We normally have 2 working, if slightly glitchy, elevators so when one goes down it’s not the end of the world. But one had been down for at least a week with no acknowledgment from the condo board and the remaining working elevator was the more glitchy of the two. The doors hold open longer than normal, sometimes refusing to close at all on some floors. If you didn’t have experience with the car, you’d have thought it was broken. Well… now it is. When I tried to leave for breakfast, the car was just traveling to the called floor and then returning to the lobby without opening the doors. When I got back from breakfast, it wasn’t moving at all, and as I walked up the 7 flights of stairs to my apartment, I noticed that every single floor’s elevator call buttons were lit up. This morning, they were still lit up and the one on my floor was fairly hot to the touch. And still we’ve had no e-mails or posted notice from the condo board. I won’t go so far as to say they suck but… right now their level of response does.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wouldn’t you know this morning the woman in Starbucks didn’t offer me a receipt? Then another woman, after the first had just ripped mine off the top of the long printout of abandoned receipts, took it and was about to throw it away while they’re both staring at me like “What?!” She uncrumpled it and handed it over. It’s not that I plan to go back in the afternoon for a $2 iced grande drink, but you never know… I might!

On the train this morning, I had my first experience with a car specifically being called out. Normally the conductor will say, “This is an 8-car train, please use all cars, all doors people.” But today the announcement came, “People at the second car, please use other cars and other doors to get on.” And it was well-warranted because when our green line train rolled into L’Enfant, tons of people crammed onto the car. The reason for this is that when it gets to Navy Yard, that car/door is right at the stairs/escalator and people crowd the door like nobody’s business. So much so that they’ll barely let someone in at Waterfront station that comes first.

I also saw someone nearly get knocked out. Because every one was crowding in and some people weren’t holding onto the train poles and the train was kinda “jumpy” this morning, there were a few “whoa!” moments. During one of them, one woman’s lunch bag swung around and clocked another woman right across the chin. I only saw it happen out of the corner of my eye, but it didn’t look like it was pleasant and sounded like it was a solid soda can hit. The injured party tried to laugh it off, “Wow, what have you got in there, honey?” but she kept rubbing her chin until we got to our stop.

I called up Bank of America to request a credit line increase. I’ll do the mini-rant in reverse and say first-off that I was successful. Now for my issues:

• Discovering that their online page for Credit Line Increases is broken.
• Entered in my account info and finding that none of the options were “to request a credit line increase press…”
• Waiting through a list of 9 options to find that out and still not be offered a means to speak to a representative.
• 23 minutes on hold after pressing 0.
• Hearing the same 3 muzak songs over and over while on hold.
• Hearing the same 3 ads over and over, one of which asked, “Did you know that you could perform many services using Bank of America’s website such as applying for a credit line increase?” *aaaaaaaargh!
• Upon reaching the representative, having to give my account information… again.
• Having to give additional information as part of the application that, after asking, I found out she already had access to and didn’t really need for me to verify.
• The amount of an increase I qualified for still barely makes the card worth it, even as an emergency card. — That could be due to my shaky credit history, however.

About the only really good thing I can say is that the representative was polite and somewhat efficient in taking care of what I needed and getting me off the phone. But is it any wonder people hate them so much?

Dear Metro,

Please stop trying to shift us all over to SmarTrip cards if you admit that using one to ride the bus leaves you wide open to get screwed up.

Thanks,
urban bohemian

A few months back our office told us that they were finally entering the modern era and giving us transit benefits. There was a little dog & pony show and lots of incorrect and redacted information, etc. but overall it seemed like a good plan. I signed up for it in March, which meant my benefits would be available in April. In one of the group meetings the representative insisted that we wouldn’t have to do anything and the funds would be applied to our account. This is incorrect, however even going through the appropriate procedure, I wasn’t getting the funds downloaded to my SmarTrip card. So I decided to poke around and find out what was going on. I left an e-mail to my HR reps to ask for a POC for our benefits company and then contacted WMATA themselves. Here’s where it gets interesting.

Sandy, a genuinely nice customer service agent, confirmed that my card was registered and I told her my problem and she asked me when was the last time I used it. I told her just this morning and she said that nooooo, they showed my last use in Feb 2006. Wha-huh?! I told her that my current card was a replacement for a non-functioning card and that I’ve had it for quite a while. I rattled off my past 3 addresses and eventually she confirmed that I got it when I lived on Hobart St, which means I’ve had a SmarTrip for ages. There was a lot of time on hold and a lot of keyboard tapping and lot of “Hm..” on both sides of the call, but she was able to give me detailed directions on what to do next. I had to go to a station manager and get an internal code from my card.

Read the rest of this entry »