Montgomery County Gov't Sucks

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure if this is in the right forum, but I'm so sick of not being able to reach anyone, anywhere in local Montgomery County offices. I mean, this is COUNTY we're talking about. This is not the Senate or the White House, or even the state. Just local. Why do I have to call a central number to have someone call me back at THEIR convenience? No, I need the information when it's convenient FOR ME, like during my break at work or when I am otherwise available. I'm the voter, the taxpayer and the constituent. My latest foray into getting info was calling the rec department and getting an outgoing message that my call would be returned in 24 to 48 hours. Are you kidding me? At the county level you can't have someone answer the phone in the REC DEPARTMENT? Come on. This is a stupid way to run a c county government workforce. Just stupid.

One caveat -- I was able to reach someone recently to ask about parking because the wrong number was posted online and someone actually answered and was surprise by my call. I bet that's been "corrected" by now and the number has been taken down.

We should be able to reach the people who work for us.

[Anonymous]

If this isn't the right forum, then what would be? I can't read the rest of what you wrote after the first sentence was SO idiotic.

[Anonymous]

So outside of 311, each department should have dedicated customer service reps, regardless of call volume? So they can meet an instanteous request?

Do you think that is the best use of tax dollars, considering staff costs are 80-90% of the overall budget already?

[Anonymous]

Just leave a message. I don’t think a 1-2 day response time is unreasonable. Agree with PP that it would be very wasteful to have instant customer service for every department and even if you did that, so many people would call the wrong department so centralizing things makes lots of sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just leave a message. I don’t think a 1-2 day response time is unreasonable. Agree with PP that it would be very wasteful to have instant customer service for every department and even if you did that, so many people would call the wrong department so centralizing things makes lots of sense.

My experience has been that the Virginia local government employees are much more responsive and accessible. I called a few random sub departments of the parks and rec in Fairfax to test this out and most of them had someone answer the phone almost immediately. This is not an unrealistic expectation for most departments as indicated by the response time for Fairfax county. Employees can multitask and you don’t need a dedicated customer service employee for every department.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just leave a message. I don’t think a 1-2 day response time is unreasonable. Agree with PP that it would be very wasteful to have instant customer service for every department and even if you did that, so many people would call the wrong department so centralizing things makes lots of sense.

My experience has been that the Virginia local government employees are much more responsive and accessible. I called a few random sub departments of the parks and rec in Fairfax to test this out and most of them had someone answer the phone almost immediately. This is not an unrealistic expectation for most departments as indicated by the response time for Fairfax county. Employees can multitask and you don’t need a dedicated customer service employee for every department.

Thank you. Plus this is as local as it gets. We should be able to get the information we need, when we need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure if this is in the right forum, but I'm so sick of not being able to reach anyone, anywhere in local Montgomery County offices. I mean, this is COUNTY we're talking about. This is not the Senate or the White House, or even the state. Just local. Why do I have to call a central number to have someone call me back at THEIR convenience? No, I need the information when it's convenient FOR ME, like during my break at work or when I am otherwise available. I'm the voter, the taxpayer and the constituent. My latest foray into getting info was calling the rec department and getting an outgoing message that my call would be returned in 24 to 48 hours. Are you kidding me? At the county level you can't have someone answer the phone in the REC DEPARTMENT? Come on. This is a stupid way to run a c county government workforce. Just stupid.

One caveat -- I was able to reach someone recently to ask about parking because the wrong number was posted online and someone actually answered and was surprise by my call. I bet that's been "corrected" by now and the number has been taken down.

We should be able to reach the people who work for us.

There are SO MANY of them still working from home! Hard to believe but it’s true. Drive by their house and walk by their house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure if this is in the right forum, but I'm so sick of not being able to reach anyone, anywhere in local Montgomery County offices. I mean, this is COUNTY we're talking about. This is not the Senate or the White House, or even the state. Just local. Why do I have to call a central number to have someone call me back at THEIR convenience? No, I need the information when it's convenient FOR ME, like during my break at work or when I am otherwise available. I'm the voter, the taxpayer and the constituent. My latest foray into getting info was calling the rec department and getting an outgoing message that my call would be returned in 24 to 48 hours. Are you kidding me? At the county level you can't have someone answer the phone in the REC DEPARTMENT? Come on. This is a stupid way to run a c county government workforce. Just stupid.

One caveat -- I was able to reach someone recently to ask about parking because the wrong number was posted online and someone actually answered and was surprise by my call. I bet that's been "corrected" by now and the number has been taken down.

We should be able to reach the people who work for us.

There are SO MANY of them still working from home! Hard to believe but it’s true. Drive by their house and walk by their house.

Our phones are on Teams. I can accept external calls now while teleworking. The quality isn't great. But at least I can talk to people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure if this is in the right forum, but I'm so sick of not being able to reach anyone, anywhere in local Montgomery County offices. I mean, this is COUNTY we're talking about. This is not the Senate or the White House, or even the state. Just local. Why do I have to call a central number to have someone call me back at THEIR convenience? No, I need the information when it's convenient FOR ME, like during my break at work or when I am otherwise available. I'm the voter, the taxpayer and the constituent. My latest foray into getting info was calling the rec department and getting an outgoing message that my call would be returned in 24 to 48 hours. Are you kidding me? At the county level you can't have someone answer the phone in the REC DEPARTMENT? Come on. This is a stupid way to run a c county government workforce. Just stupid.

One caveat -- I was able to reach someone recently to ask about parking because the wrong number was posted online and someone actually answered and was surprise by my call. I bet that's been "corrected" by now and the number has been taken down.

We should be able to reach the people who work for us.

Troll better

[Anonymous]

Try calling the Maryland (state not county) Dept of Taxation/Assessment. At my office today, I called the number on the assessment - they only answer phones 10-2. I would like those hours!

I agree with OP. 311 is great for calling about a pothole or a streetlight that's out. But horrible for most things you need a county government for