Page 1 of 1

DPS lost my paperwork and terminated my application

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:52 pm
by Tristor
I applied in Janurary, took my class in February, sent in my stuff in March. I did digital fingerprinting through L1 and sent in the paper form that L1 gave me which had the required information to retrieve the fingerprints if they didn't already have it on file. I sent in all the originals as requested, and kept copies. I also sent in paper fingerprint cards (they did them for free during my class) In June I received a letter from DPS saying they couldn't process my application because they didn't have my fingerprints and they'd terminate my application after 90 days. I called them multiple times, and each time told them what I had sent, they stated they didn't receive any of that. Then they said they had it. Each time I was told to take no action and someone would followup with me. I've called in probably 10 times, each time told someone would contact me back, no-one ever did. They lost my paperwork, and now they've terminated my application and are telling me due to the timeline that I need to re-apply, retake the class, and then resubmit, at my expense.

Do I have any recourse? I'm very upset about how this has been handled. Apparently the people on the phone don't have exact information about what is or isn't present in my package (i.e. they don't know exactly whats been lost). I'm not allowed to talk to the "investigator" that has the package, and they aren't able to give me a straight answer so I can proceed. So I get stuck in limbo until they time me out. On top of that, they're making me eat the cost of the class, application, and mailing fees. I took the extra expense of mailing the package registered mail with delivery confirmation and signature return. I have all that documentation, but because they've lost it after receipt they're pushing it back on me to resolve.

Re: DPS lost my paperwork and terminated my application

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:02 pm
by AEA
Contact your Legislative Member and see if he/she can help you out. They have done wonders in the past on less serious matters than this. :tiphat:

Re: DPS lost my paperwork and terminated my application

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:05 pm
by tbrown
Since you have receipts, I would go up the chain until someone resolves it.

Re: DPS lost my paperwork and terminated my application

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:08 pm
by Bulldog1911
AEA wrote:Contact your Legislative Member and see if he/she can help you out. They have done wonders in the past on less serious matters than this. :tiphat:
Yes, call your REP, they WILL do something.

Re: DPS lost my paperwork and terminated my application

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 6:18 pm
by n5wd
Tristor wrote:Do I have any recourse?
Office of Inspector General, Texas Department of Public Safety

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/OIG/complaint.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good luck!

Re: DPS lost my paperwork and terminated my application

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 8:42 pm
by Tristor
I called back in today and got far enough up the chain to somebody who was able to have the inventory pulled based on the information I gave them from my mail receipt. They're supposed to call me back tomorrow before 3PM with a followup, as I guess it takes some time to find and pull the inventory. They said the issue was that the fingerprints they get from L1 and the information from the application hasn't been matching up correctly in their database and its an issue on their end, they changed the status of my application back to "pending", so I guess at least I have some more time for them to figure it out. Supposedly this is an issue that has been fixed, but I got caught in it because I used the digital option before it became mandatory and it had some hiccups in the beginning.

For anybody else out there, make sure you keep a copy of your L1 receipt when you do it because it has a control number on there they can use to re-order the fingerprints if they become lost in their system.

We'll see what they say tomorrow.

Re: DPS lost my paperwork and terminated my application

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 8:43 pm
by Oldgringo
tbrown wrote:Since you have receipts, I would go up the chain until someone resolves it.
...all the way up the chain including the Goobernator.

Re: DPS lost my paperwork and terminated my application

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 11:55 pm
by knljr
yikes - i'm about to send mine in...this is my nightmare. hope you get it sorted out man...