Bad Organization: US Census
If you read my other blog, I'm no "The US Census is the Devil!" Glenn Beck supporter. In fact, I was looking forward to the census. Unfortunately, we live in a very active household where we get lots of junk mail and - long story short - the census form made its way into a trash or shred pile at some point.
Two weeks ago, I received a visit from a census worker. I expressed my willingness to complete the form and camaraderie with her cause and function. But I was about to get a call from a client and was shooing the dog from the door and didn't have the time or fortitude to fill it out on my front porch. I asked her if I could just fill it out, explaining the situation, and she said no. However, she informed me we could do it over the phone. Sold! "I'll call you tomorrow after 1pm," she said.
And that was 2 weeks ago.
I don't have her number, so I can't call her to complete it. She has never called me back. So I called the only number I could find: The US Government.
The gentleman on the phone explained that he could not just send me another form. He kept reiterating that the woman should've called me back and was surprised that I didn't have her number, as though I should have anticipated her failure to do her job. He said he'd take my information, but was worried about her contacting me afterwords. He mentioned not being counted twice if we did that and she called (oddly, my least worry at this point).
I suggested I'd wait for her to contact me for another week and if not, call back.
The Right is all a-flutter about how filling out the census is an invasion of privacy. We actually want to fill it out. Why isn't there a standard "If you lose it, we'll give you another one" policy? People are f'ing busy these days. Things fall through the cracks. Why the supposed protocol on an obviously badly-planned system?
I'm calling Bad Business on the US Government for the census. There's enough negative publicity coming from audible conspiracy theorists. The last thing you need is busy, working people who misplaced a piece of paper to turn against you too.
Two weeks ago, I received a visit from a census worker. I expressed my willingness to complete the form and camaraderie with her cause and function. But I was about to get a call from a client and was shooing the dog from the door and didn't have the time or fortitude to fill it out on my front porch. I asked her if I could just fill it out, explaining the situation, and she said no. However, she informed me we could do it over the phone. Sold! "I'll call you tomorrow after 1pm," she said.
And that was 2 weeks ago.
I don't have her number, so I can't call her to complete it. She has never called me back. So I called the only number I could find: The US Government.
The gentleman on the phone explained that he could not just send me another form. He kept reiterating that the woman should've called me back and was surprised that I didn't have her number, as though I should have anticipated her failure to do her job. He said he'd take my information, but was worried about her contacting me afterwords. He mentioned not being counted twice if we did that and she called (oddly, my least worry at this point).
I suggested I'd wait for her to contact me for another week and if not, call back.
The Right is all a-flutter about how filling out the census is an invasion of privacy. We actually want to fill it out. Why isn't there a standard "If you lose it, we'll give you another one" policy? People are f'ing busy these days. Things fall through the cracks. Why the supposed protocol on an obviously badly-planned system?
I'm calling Bad Business on the US Government for the census. There's enough negative publicity coming from audible conspiracy theorists. The last thing you need is busy, working people who misplaced a piece of paper to turn against you too.
Labels: bad business, Census Silliness, customer service crap
posted by Ricky Shambles @ 6:41 PM
1 Comments:
At 8:38 PM,
Professor Chaos said…
That's weird. We got our form in the mail, filled it out and sent it back, then about a week later, we got another one. I didn't know whether to send that one in as well or throw it out. I guess one of them was yours. Sorry.
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