Benton County Division of Family Resources

"The Benton County receptionists are as helpful as they can be, but they cannot answer very many questions. Standard operating procedure now post-Covid appears to be that the receptionists take whatever documents you have, copy them, take notes about your questions, and then fax the paperwork and notes to *someone* *somewhere* in the state to answer your question... eventually. You can no longer talk to anyone directly in the office besides the one or two receptionists. My experience with this process is that the receptionists do the best they can, but usually the notes/docs get sent to someone in a similar department, but not the actual department that can answer your question. Like I said, the receptionists are probably doing the best they can, but they're not experts in all areas of FSSA. Overall, I find that the entire process of any FSSA or SSA office post-Covid is remarkably slow and torturous, unnecessarily so. It seems that almost no one is ever actually in an office, able to answer questions. I usually get shuffled between people over the course of a few days, and sometimes within a week, maybe two, I have an actionable answer. Their continued "safety precautions" are silly considering how many other industries are back to normal and working efficiently. The masks and plexiglass are ridiculous when people in front office still come to work obviously ill and not wearing a mask correctly. I just find it frustrating that we pay so much in taxes but don't get any answers until weeks later. Surely there is a better way."

"Counter workers not very knowledgeable about what bank forms are needed, and a little disrespectful."

"Keep getting calls for the appointments I have scheduled then they hang up immediately on me. Also I had an appointment at 10 am the past two days and they’ve been over an hour late each time . & when I even answer they just hang up and I have to call back and have it rescheduled. The only time they’ve never hung up is when they called me back on Tuesday to reschedule. I’d like to know if I can just do my appointment at the actual place. Because I’ve had enough of this. Still waiting for them to call today too."