Description
When citizens report issues, those issues are regularly closed without clear and helpful communication by CityLink staff. This leads to puzzlement, frustration, and disappointment by citizens who cannot understand why an issue was closed without being fixed. This has been an issue for some time and suggests that there is a real problem with training and with understanding the systems that CityLink staff and citizens are using. As many times as citizens have expressed shock and asked further questions on issues, without CityLink staff providing any helpful response, one would think that someone in CityLink leadership would regularly monitor issues reported on SeeClickFix or the CityLink311 app, and take corrective action to improve communication. This remains a great disappointment in how this service is run.
also asked...
A. Improve issue management and communication by CityLink personnel when citizens use SeeClickFix or the CityLink 311 app.
A. Improve Service
A. See, for instance, the comments on Issue 954496: https://seeclickfix.com/issues/954496-streets-repair. It has been closed and quickly archived even though, as of today, the reported issue remains a problem and is getting worse.
39 Comments
應答 City of Winston-Salem (Registered User)
關閉 City of Winston-Salem (Registered User)
Reopened Raymond Jones (Registered User)
應答 City of Winston-Salem (Registered User)
關閉 City of Winston-Salem (Registered User)
Reopened Raymond Jones (Registered User)
應答 City of Winston-Salem (Registered User)
關閉 City of Winston-Salem (Registered User)
Reopened Raymond Jones (Registered User)
See, for instance, Issue 874361, reported by SeeClickFix user "wolfman," who has been waiting since January 3rd for someone to provide an answer to his question, reposted here:
"Its confusing to see that the issue is "Closed" but the repair has not been made. What does "Closed" mean? That youre not going to fix the hole?"
http://seeclickfix.com/issues/874361-streets-repair
應答 City of Winston-Salem (Registered User)
關閉 City of Winston-Salem (Registered User)
wolfman (Registered User)
wolfman (Registered User)
wolfman (Registered User)
Reopened Raymond Jones (Registered User)
The staff of CityLink continue to make very clear the case for why this is an issue and why it remains unresolved and unfixed. This issue has now been closed for the third time, without explanation and without resolution. I cannot make a better case for this matter than CityLink is making for me.
However, SeeClickFix user wolfman is not the only citizen whose questions and comments have been ignored. Look what happened with Issue 954344, submitted by ridingsma:
"Bridge Falling Apart": http://seeclickfix.com/issues/954344-bridge-falling-apart
In spite of multiple reopenings of this issue, since it has never been addressed, it was eventually archived. Use ridingsma has had to reopen it as another issue:
"Bridge STILL Falling Apart": http://seeclickfix.com/issues/986912-bridge-still-falling-apart
At the very least, I would like it to be explained what this obsessive fascination is with CityLink that requires that they CLOSE issues in spite of repeated appeals by citizens to leave them open until they are fixed or resolved.
應答 City of Winston-Salem (Registered User)
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
They're not perfect, but the City of Raleigh offers some nice examples of how this should really work. See, for instance:
http://seeclickfix.com/issues/272557
http://seeclickfix.com/issues/979555-signals-signs
wolfman (Registered User)
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
Another example from the last day or so: a citizen submits a report and counts on the City to address it. Instead the City appears to brush it aside. This mindless automatic "closing" of issues unnecessarily ruffles feathers and leaves people confused:
http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/990195
Margaret Nystrom (Guest)
Margaret Nystrom (Guest)
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
And here's another: "Trash and Junk/Curbside Collection." A citizen reports an issue, and the City tells him the issue is closed, and SeeClickFix says the issue is fixed...and the citizen knows it is not and gets frustrated at the handling of his report:
http://seeclickfix.com/issues/1000365
Stoneshire (Registered User)
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
Here it is, a little over two weeks after this issue was reported, and it appears clear that CityLink still doesn't get it. Just ask SeeClickFix user Chuck, who has also expressed frustration at the closing of an issue without any kind of action or helpful explanation:
http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1014568
Margaret Nystrom (Guest)
Stoneshire (Registered User)
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
Issue management by the City of Winston-Salem befuddles even the president of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership, who has also had an unresolved issue closed without being fixed and without explanation:
http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1013473
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
Here's another example of problems with how CityLink manages issue reports: inputting the wrong address into the City's Service Request system (see http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1038691). I reported the issue using the correct address, directly entered into the browser of my home computer. CityLink changed the address to half a block away and on the wrong side of the street. I reopened the issue to ask for the address to be corrected. I emailed CityLink and the Director of CityLink and have received NO RESPONSE.
CityLink is a multi-million-dollar department of the City with a promise of "One-Call Resolution" that, time and time again, fails to deliver.
nystrom55 <small class="fwn">(Guest)</small>
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
SeeClickFix User Jim provides today's example of a frustrated citizen, who has taken the time to report an issue, which is summarily closed without explanation, even though the issue has not yet been fixed:
http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1068256
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
Margaret Nystrom (Guest)
Thank you for continuing to give us details on how www.SeeClickFix continues to ignore the very citizens it is supposed to serve. I find it incredible that NO ONE appears to be at the helm of this lost ship. And I again, as you mentioned, think it is going to take outside pressures to make them acknowledge that we even EXIST to them. So I am going to see if I can find them on Face Book. Keep up the good work, my friend. I hope others will take the time and effort to do the same, instead of just complaining.
Margaret Nystrom (Guest)
I looked for them on FB but could not find anywhere that a person could write comments. While exploring, I did come across this article that explains their process and reasoning for closing complaint reports:
http://www.journalnow.com/news/ask_sam/ask-sam-city-s-smartphone-app-for-reporting-problems-modified/article_35f2f5ce-ea76-54bc-8148-692d87e3134f.html?mode=jqm
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
Let's add a couple more confused citizens to the record on this:
http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1095353
http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1094802
Raymond Jones (Registered User)
The City has hinted at some recognition of the confusion for citizens at the premature closing of issues before they're resolved, but we are still lacking concrete steps in that direction. So there continue to be confused and frustrated citizens who understandably--and as directed via SeeClickFix--reopen issues that have not been fixed:
http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1103454-high-grass-weeds
http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1105276-code-enforcement-other
http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1109467-high-grass-weeds
關閉 City of Winston-Salem (Registered User)