A good journalistic rule of thumb: Readers who write in generally have a gripe.
So it was after the Globe reported Monday on Governor Charlie Baker’s efforts to reduce wait times and improve customer service at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. Several readers of the newspaper chimed in to say everything at the RMV was not so rosy.
Phil Marshall, an 80-year-old who lives in Orleans, said he needs a temporary disabled parking placard because he can barely walk and it’s hard to get from the car to the door of the places he goes. So he had his doctor fill out the proper forms and, 3½ weeks ago, submitted them at the local Registry branch in South Yarmouth.
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He waited and waited and finally called the RMV on the phone to find out what happened. The woman on the other, he recalled in a telephone interview, just laughed — “She said it takes five to seven weeks.”
Marshall is having surgery is February and expects he may well be better by the time the RMV gets around to sending him what he needs: “By the time I get my placard, I’ll have my knees fixed!”
Bob Rau said he went to the Wilmington branch yesterday. “It said wait time for registration was 5 minutes. Line to get a ticket at ‘customer service’ was out the door and down the mall. Waited outside in the cold for 30 minutes. When I could finally see inside, there were 100 people ahead of me — just to get a ticket. I left.”
Another reader acidly wrote: “So much for shorter wait times at the RMV.” He said his son, who had all his paperwork in order to get a replacement driver’s license, went into the Braintree RMV at 11:30 am and didn’t get out until after 2:30 pm.
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At a news conference Monday, Baker crowed about improved wait times, but officials acknowledged that there is still much work to be done.
In November 2014, when Deval Patrick was governor, 59 percent of RMV customers were served in under 30 minutes, according to the state Department of Transportation. Last month, 74 percent were served in under 30 minutes.
The Republican administration attributes some of the improved service times to a new queuing system — along with other changes instituted this year.
Senator James B. Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, said he hears both positive and negative responses to the RMV from his constituents.
He praised both Patrick and Baker for making strides in streamlining Registry service, but bemoaned the closure of some branches in recent years that, he said, has made it a schlep for constituents to get to the Registry.
“While it may be true that when you get to an RMV branch, the waiting time is reduced, you have more and more residents driving an hour to get to an office,” he said.
The senator, one of chamber’s most liberal, said he hoped the Baker administration would pledge not to close any of the 30 current branches and consider opening others.
Joshua Miller can be reached at joshua.miller@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jm_bos and subscribe to his weekday e-mail update on politics at bostonglobe.com/politicalhappyhour