Monday, November 22, 2010

How Service Requests Work in DC...Or Not

You can go to the DC Government's website to post a service request for a street light that's out, an abandoned car or some other problem that requires the city's attention. But what happens next? Here's one Cleveland Park resident's story about how his service request simply disappeared.
I opened an http://311.dc.gov service request on 24 Oct 2010 and it was closed ten days later with no notification or information to me concerning the resolution. I found no way online to determine what had actually been done, so I opened a new service request, asking about the disposition of the first, including my name and email several times. The second request was simply closed three days later, again with no information to me whatsoever.
When I check the status of both requests on the Web site, I see only "Complete" and the date.
When each request was closed, I did receive an email telling me the request was "completed" and inviting me to complete a customer satisfaction survey at http://app.dc.gov/cso_customer_satisfaction.asp. I filled out the survey, describing the problem, but that Web site throws an error: "Page Cannot Be Found. This page cannot be found or is no longer published." So I cannot even tell them how pleased I am to have been treated this way.
How or where or with whom can I find out what was done with my service request? How can both requests be closed without contacting me in any way? How can I tell them the feedback system doesn't work? Has anyone else successfully opened a request and received a satisfactory response?
The request numbers are xxx and xxx.
I have the feeling that the dc.gov service request system is an IQ test and the longer I stay with it, the lower I score.
P.S. Here's the text of the email telling me the request has been completed. Every time I read it, I get angrier at being treated in this manner. Neither the service request system nor the Customer Satisfaction Survey is functional.
"The District of Columbia government is pleased to inform you that your service request for Traffic Signal Maintenance with tracking number xxx has been completed. We would like to invite you to complete a Customer Satisfaction Survey to tell us about your service experience. Please click the link below and you will be rerouted to the DC.GOV website where your input regarding service will help us improve service delivery to our city residents and visitors. Thank you for contacting the District of Columbia government."

1 comment:

  1. I needed to call 311 again to have them check
    and see who did the closing. They can give you
    that information, and give you the contact number
    for who closed it or the department. I then
    called over to the group in question and using
    the service number i was able to ask questions.
    It does seem that the city employees need several
    classes in how to interact with this system and
    the people that opened the service request.

    ReplyDelete