Seaside DMV - Seaside, California

Tim H.

Terrible service by lazy employees who couldn't work at McDonald's.
Attempted to check in with a 90-year young man with a 1/22 appointment. We didn't have a confirmation number, so we were redirected to a computer to fill out the application from the start. The application was filled out a week prior, but she was not to be bothered by looking up a profile by name, DOB, or SSN. After obtaining the confirmation number, she issued us a customer # in 10 seconds.
Working with the elderly can be challenging enough, but lazy employees are just absolutely frustrating.
At least we were able to enjoy the DMV artwork.

96 J.

Out of numerous DMVs throughout LA, San Diego, and other parts of California this one has by far been the absolute worst. Trying to renew my license as active duty, the employee said my info doesn't match up and they have an issue but they couldn't tell me what the issue was. Absolute waste of tax payer's money.

Shelly K.

The first time I came, it wasn’t too bad. The person who helped me at window 10 was awesome and friendly. Today I had to come back and the lady checking people in was rude as hell. She’d audibly sigh when checking people in, raise her voice at others and give attitude to some if she felt they were saying or doing something dumb in her opinion. I understand it must get annoying to get the same questions and handle the same problems everyday but it’s her job so she had no excuse for her attitude. Completely unprofessional.

Robert A.

Foot traffic was managed pretty well at a glance. My wife has had issues with staff between attitude and navigating all the paperwork required for California. They do not work with her, and yet when I am present and can navigate the conversation & documents better, all of a sudden they are at least somewhat helpful. Maybe because the desk rep thought I was the same ethnicity as her? Also, these people don't bother to read/can't read. I had to show what seemed like one of the supervisors 3 times our address after she mistook it and where everything was clearly labeled, and I even circled everything they needed. She seemed exasperated and incompetent. Honestly, the fact that it was over soon and I got to leave was the only thing pleasant about this visit.

Caio S.

They don’t check your documents on the first step, so you wait 1 hour and 30 minutes to go to the second step to pay the fee and the lady says they don’t accept the California ID as proof of address, but when I submitted online it was sent be checked and was pre-approved, so why do we get there and they said it’s not accepted? I’m leaving my experience here so hopefully a supervisor will read this and put order on those employees.

Cynthia J.

Honestly just terrible. Lady was rude af. She spoke to me like I was trash. None of them explained anything clearly. They all need to be retrained. I work in customer service too so I understand the frustration, however that's no excuse to treat me how they did.

amaury L.

Came at my appointment on time. Was taken 30 minutes late. Worker shooting the breeze with her colleagues while taking my application. Did not let me take the test because the finished the picture at 4:31 and they don’t take anyone for the test after 4.30…. This is borderline scandalous….

Sean S.

I was really hoping to be able to give a better review for a DMV as I know they have a bad reputation in general. Unfortunately this one does have a valid poor reputation. The line goes efficiently enough for a DMV (not a high bar), which is why it gets 2 stars. The instructions for what to bring in the first place are unclear at best, I uploaded all my documents online, only to be told that I could not get processed because they needed to be brought hard copy in person. When I asked why we upload them at all if you still have to bring them, there was not a good answer. The employees at the front are dismissive of those in line and seem to have lost all empathy, to the point I have to wonder if they select for that. I watched as they poorly handled an elderly woman who was simply trying to understand what the next steps in her process were.

I advise making sure someone who can empathize and calm tempers at the front be placed there to help the situation.

I also recommend that it be posted that all documents must be hard copy even if they have been uploaded through the system. It also makes me wonder why that option is available at all.

Overall two stars for what seems like an okay process once you have brought exactly what you need, but it loses three since there are no clear instructions as to what those documents are for your process. The appointment process is a very long automated message that may result in a few dead ends before you get on the appointment line. It also seems rather inefficient to have people show up at the DMV the first time to understand they have the wrong paperwork and then go back and correct it.