A local Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles branch suffered another computer meltdown Monday, less than two weeks after a massive server failure crippled DMV services across the state.
The automated queuing system at the Franconia DMV location was out of commission for several hours, making a normally unpleasant experience much worse for hundreds of DMV customers.
“The audio went down, so the customer service representatives were verbally calling ticket numbers in a busy office,” DMV spokeswoman Pam Goheen said. “It was different and a little slower than usual.”
Customers were not happy.
“I waited in line for about two hours,” said Phillip Smith, 47, an Arlington resident.
Smith said he asked to speak to a manager, who told him he could not be serviced until the queuing system was back online. Smith said he was eventually helped around 4 p.m. but only after people in line became increasingly hostile toward the DMV workers and dozens left in exasperation.
While Smith said service was interrupted for hours, DMV officials said service was merely slowed.
“The [Franconia] manager said they were still able to serve customers,” Goheen said.
