How did your last transaction with government go?

Be honest now, Don’t let preconceived opinions about efficiency or attitude of government workers color your answer. Gubment [sic] incompetence has become such an American meme I would just like to explore how closely the instinctive expectation matches real experiences of the Fluther. Of course, non US Governments count too.

Whether it was with a foreign embassy or your own Federal, State or Local government (or even Interpol if you were really unlucky), how did it go? Were you treated fairly? Were the people you interacted with courteous, pleasant, unduly rude or just businesslike? What sort of government transaction was it? Did it take more or less time than you expected? Given what was actually done, did the process move as quickly as it should?

Be fair now. Don’t grade the workers on how many forms were required or what information they had to ask for. That’s mostly decided by lawmakers. They have no control over that. Just grade them on how they performed the job assigned to them.

Oh, and the US Post Office doesn’t count. That is a private corporation, not supported by taxpayer funds for over 30 years now. Love it or hate it, the USPO is not government.

I’ll start this off by describing my last brush with the State of Massachusetts.