Update: Driver waits 8 hours to renew license in Cobb County, Ga. and told to try again tomorrow

Even with a mandatory appointment, the state agency location on County Services Parkway had an unimaginable wait time to service customers. We had an appointment to wait! 

When an announcement was made that "The System" was down again which would worsen wait times, one customer went off and began to curse, saying she needed to get her car insurance and couldn't because she was unable to get her driver's license renewed.

Of the inside stations available to take customers, only 20% were manned. The manager said they didn't have enough people because they were out sick.

Three officers from the Sheriff's department were called in to stand at the front entrance around 5:30p.m. They said county and state tag and driver's license offices had been plagued with outages all day but couldn't explain why this office was claiming outages due to problems with the system which is not connected to county offices or why they had the same problem last week. It was unclear when "THE SYSTEM" would be repaired or if it was tested before being put into production.

One elderly gentleman who showed up at 9:30 a.m. was told after waiting 8 hours to go home and schedule another appointment because he probably wouldn’t be served due to the system being down. After I told them I was not leaving without my license and would sleep on the floor overnight if I had to, I was moved up in line. I was charged $32 for an 8 year renewal.

After waiting five hours, a 10 second eye test netted a 120 day paper renewal. After the wait, I was given a form that could have been used by my optometrist stating that I had vision good enough to drive. I took the vision exam without my reading glasses on and passed, but my renewal states that B-Corrective lenses required.

Form: DDS-MR 287 - Medical Report latest 102019.pdf

The media relations number I was given - Susan Sports at 678-413-8657 - had a busy signal each time I called to get an update on what to expect from "THE SYSTEM" moving forward. I was told by one customer standing in line that in her native France, you only have to get a driver's license once, and there is no renewal.