Well, it's not quite "city hall" but it's similar in that it's a well-insulated and highly-bureaucratic government entity, namely the Florida Department of Children and Families which administers the handling of the federally-supported SNAP assistance here in this state. SNAP, or Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program is, of course, better known as Food Stamps.
Not sure how it is in other states but here in Florida, this racket is fucked! I've found getting it initiated is easy enough if you meet their criteria. Especially during the height of the lockdowns, they waived a lot of the hoop-jumping like interviews and straight up approved you based on your application, I guess if you were deemed poor enough. What's "poor enough?" You can look it up on their site but it is pretty "poor" especially for a single guy like me. My stated finances are quite poor indeed though since I have no income or assets* (*wink). I be bellowing out the moody blues up in here y'all: "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot!"
But it's that ol' "wink" shit that's proly 'causin' much of my grief at present. There' gots to be at least one of them fat bitches that are unseen and unheard that be judgin' my fat, lazy, scammin' white ass, yo!
First off, let me tell you, they have that whole department behind a solid, and I mean SOLID iron curtain of isolation from the masses they supposedly serve! As of my experience with the last two reapplies, you fill out their report of income and expenses, which is submitted online and within a few days you get an email. In the past it stated your interview time. And if you ain't available for that, you're screwed. Can't call in, can't text, can't reply to the email, they want you to either mail in or fax your communication to them. Like we're still in the eighties! They had a general "customer service" number but I called it and, no fucking lie, the IVR said the wait time was 325 minutes!!! That's almost SIX HOURS!!! I tried to fax them, like they said, and no matter what time of day, even 2am, their fax line was "busy!" And Girl, ain't got no time for snail mail!
The only way I found I could get messages back to them was by uploading files to my case online. Not the usual .doc, .rtf or .pdf files though, .jpg (image files) were one of the only acceptable formats. WTF?
So here's the back and forth with my current reapplication which is deadlined "by April 14."
Shortly after my initial income and expense report using their online form, I get this attachment by email.
At the bottom of the letter, I add my reply (in blue) using my trusty ol' Irfranview JPG editor and upload it to my case. The file shows as uploaded correctly and its status was labeled as "Uploaded." The next day I checked and the status on the file was labled "Processed." Cool. That was quirky but relatively easy and I guess I'm all set. But no!
They then send me this notice. Again I add my texted words on it and upload it back to them. Uploaded. Processed. Fine and dandy. But there was more!
They still balked and sent me this, seen here with my reply which I again uploaded.
Been a few days now. The deadline is tomorrow. Guess what my next notice from them is going to be? "Due to no response from you, your claim has been declined." Yup, I know it for sure.
I'll update with an EDIT, but I guess you can't fight city hall. Am I gonna sue them providing the evidence of these screen shots showing they deleted my files? Hmmph. Y'all know, lately, I'm not the sue-er, i'm the freakin' SUED.