Laramie County Courthouse FAIL

I’ve never really been impressed with the people who work at the DMV at the Laramie County Courthouse.

Never.

Everytime we’ve gone in to register our vehicles it seems like they sneer at us, as if they’re bitter that we get a military discount.

I remember last year I had to go in myself because Tom was at K9 training school in Texas. I had to register my car and I walked in armed with Tom’s LES, his orders, and the Power of Attorney he had left me. I walked over to the counter, laid out my papers and politely said that I would like to register my car.

“You can’t do it without your husband,” the worker told me sharply and then looked as though she were waving the next person in line over.

“Yes, I can,” I spoke up.

She seemed startled and stared at me like I had a giant booger popping from my nose.

“No,” she began. “You can’t.” She talked to me as though she were talking to a child.

“Yes,” I said, mimicking her tone. “I can.” I pushed the papers closer to her. “I have my husband’s LES, a copy of his orders, and a Power of Attorney.”

She sighed and tapped her fingernail against the counter. Then she reluctantly called someone over.

“This lady,” she said, motioning to me rudely, “is trying to register her car without her husband who is in the military.”

The person who she called over looked at all the paperwork and said it was okay.

I wanted to go, “Ha!” but I swallowed it back.

See, since we’re military we get a discount on re-newing the tags for our vehicles. We only pay $15 for our car and $30 for the truck. If we didn’t get the discount we’d have to fork over around $100 or so for each vehicle. I’m not totally sure the price but I do know it’ll be a significant increase from the military discount.

Anyhow, we had to go back to the DMV yesterday. Tom wanted to make sure that I could still get the military discount even though he’d be in Korea.

Tom politely told the DMV worker that he’d be in Korea for a year and that he was hoping that I could still get the military discount.

“No,” the worker said snidely. Yup, it seems everyone that we’ve ever spoken to has had an attitude. And okay, I can understand that it’s probably boring answering questions and handing over license plates and such but still.

“No?” Tom repeated.

“No,” the worker repeated. Rudely. “Since you will no longer be stationed on the military base here, you are not eligible for the military discount anymore.”

“But I’m staying here on the military base,” I said. “We’re still getting military pay.”

The worker shrugged. She obviously could care less. “I’m sorry.” But she certainly didn’t sound it. You’d think she’d have been all, “Thank you for defending our country,” or something. But no.

“He’ll still be in the military though,” I tried again.

“Yes but, he won’t be stationed here anymore,” the lady told me. And yes, she had that tone as though she were speaking to a child.

“But I will and we’ll still be getting military pay,” I said.

“Yes but, he won’t be stationed here anymore.”

Was I speaking to a robot?

“I understand,” I said firmly so she comprehended that I understood THAT MY HUSBAND WOULDN'T BE STATIONED HERE ANYMORE. “But why wouldn’t I still get a military discount even though my husband is still military?”

“Yes but, he won’t be stationed here anymore.”

UGHHH!

It was like speaking to a brick wall.

Eventually she called someone over. They always call someone over.

“This lady,” the worker said, frowning at me, “doesn’t seem to get that because her husband will no longer be stationed here, that she won’t get the military discount. She doesn’t seem to get that her husband is active duty and that he’ll be gone, therefore no discount.”

Her worker friend didn’t even look sympathetic. Hello, my husband will be gone for a year. I’ll be staying here ALONE with my two kids. You’d think that one of them would have said something like, “I understand that it must be frustrating knowing that he’ll be gone for a year...BUT....”

But no. No one offered any type of advice.

Her worker friend just repeated the same thing:

“Your husband won’t be stationed here anymore so you’ll be expected to pay full price.”

I tried not to groan. “But our legal office on base said that we should still get the discount.” It’s true. We were there not too long ago so I could get Power of Attorneys and the person said that I should still be eligible for the discount.

“That’s not true,” the worker said unkindly.

I noticed Tom’s eyes were bugging out of his head throughout all of this. He hissed, “Let’s go,” so I dropped it and walked out with him.

“You could have been arrested,” he whispered at me.

“What, how? I wasn’t yelling,” I said.

“You wouldn’t drop it. They said no and that’s that. They could have called a cop over.”

What bugs me about Tom is he doesn’t fight for things. If someone tells him no he accepts it and moves on. If someone tells me no and I know it’s wrong, I argue. I learned that from my Grandma and my Mom, who won’t hesitate to argue when they know they are in the right.

So yes, I’ve disappointed with the Laramie County Courthouse. I’ve never met a friendly worker there so it seems like the staff needs to be trained in having some manners. And it’s not just me who thinks this, many people from the military base have been insulted or spoken rudely to.

We’re going back to the Legal Office to see if there is anything that can be done.

It’s safe to say that the Laramie County Courthouse has left a bad taste in my mouth and I do NOT look forward on going back when I have to register the vehicles.