A pleasant experience at a government office (really)

Visiting government offices (motor vehicles, passport, etc.) is usually a trying affair and tests my patience to no end.

Today I got my passport renewed at the passport office in Norwalk and am still recovering from the experience.

I first visited the local library (Stamford) earlier this week and was greeted by a short line and a very helpful and pleasant woman who explained everything to me in plain English. I found out that since I travel overseas frequently and can't wait the usual four to six weeks for my passport to be returned I could make an appointment in Norwalk and pay an additional charge.

I called the reservation line and went through the automated process to book time. Normally such decision trees drive me insane. The decision tree for the passport reservation was intuitive and helpful and allowed me to book my time this morning.

I arrived at the office this morning to find plenty of parking, no long line and very helpful security guards. The whole process took about an hour, which is a reasonable amount of time, and everyone I encountered was pleasant and helped through the process. (On one form I had not filled in the right info, an infraction that in previous visits would have sent me to the back of the line with a stern warning. Today the omission was pointed out and fixed in 20 seconds.)

After I paid (with a debit card) I then was told when I would get the new passport (this weekend) and given a URL so I could track its status.

I'm speechless. I can think of countless for-profit institutions that could take lessons from the State Department.