• JollyG@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    This is not that funny but I was amused watching it happen. One time I was at the DMV in a college town and a kid was at the counter trying to get his license renewed. From what I could gather he had it revoked because he was underage and had a DUI. Lady at the counter bounced the kid and a few minutes later, the kid came back in with his father and they were apparently from a rich family. Or at least rich by Ohio standards. When the lady at the counter explained that he could not have his license renewed because he had a court order against him, the father started in on the “Do you know who I am? I will buy this whole town!” routine, but the DMV lady was not having any of it. Both the kid and the father insisted that the judge did not have any right to take his license away from him and that it would be over turned on appeal so the DMV lady had to give him his license, because dad would make sure she got fired if he didn’t. But the DMV lady would not relent and issue a license. The father and kid were getting pretty animated, so finally the lady picked up the phone and said something to the effect of “Your kid lied on this form and is probably violating his probation, we can call the court right now and see what your judge thinks about that.” Which at that point caused them to sheepishly leave. When I got to the counter she told me that was not the first time in her career someone tried to do that to her.

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        One time, I had to get my ambulance license renewed (it’s a thing in CA). The lady asked for my state EMT license and I handed her my paramedic license (it says “paramedic” on instead of EMT-P. Paramedic is a level of EMT in the US). She looks at the card, looks at her computer, and hands my license back, saying “no, I need your EMT card. This says paramedic on it.”

        Not going to lie, I was pretty stunned that she split that hair. I asked her to please confirm with her supervisor, which she did, and we all went on our merry way.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      She’s weaponizing the soulcrushing banality of the DMV for good! Her deadpan face and stolid “I’m here all day anyway” refusal to give an inch, and then the little chink of sunshine through her castle wall as she helped you, a normal person who treated her with respect.

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Honestly, as someone who has held similar customer-facing positions when he was younger: it’s interactions like these that keep you going. It’s even better when it’s a government agency, because they’re not trying to turn a profit so they’re not going to bend over backwards to make a rich person happy.

        The best is when people like this demand to speak to a superior, and then the superior comes over and says the exact same shit the employee just did.

        • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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          2 days ago

          It’s also pretty great to be the superior and just stand there telling them No and not elaborating any more because it has already been explained to them.

    • bean@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      DMV isn’t a judge and has no power over a court order lol. It’s also ridiculous that employees have to deal with this kind of abuse in the first place. It sounds like she was bad ass though.