Pulling permit Long Beach

Pulling a permit in Long Beach, CA is very frustrating. Count on it taking a long time.

They had 2 people in the Building Dept. helping others. Rather, one was helping, the other sat on her ass for a full 45 minutes not helping anyone. The last person she helped, she must have liked. She accompanied him to the cashier (that's where I was sitting), and all they were doing was talking about her kids. After standing in the line with him, she went back to her desk and just sat there.

I got frustrated after an hour. They post your call number on the TV monitor, indicating how long you've been waiting and when you are next up. I was scheduled to be 4th up. The person who was next up had been waiting for 2 hours. And I've heard that you can wait all day just to get your permit.

What is frustrating to me, is that I am self employed. I have no retirement. I work my ass off to keep up with all these government regulations and still try and make a buck.

This lady sits on her ass, doesn't give a shit about helping anyone, I get charged a ridiculous $620 for permit and temp license, to pay for her lousy ass retirement.

Am I pissed? You're damn right I am.

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Today is 10/22. I have completed the installation of the ac/heat system and yesterday requested an inspection. I was told the inspector would be there between 10-12 today. I arrived at 9AM and waited till 12 to call to ask what happened. No one showed. No one called.

After 2:30PM the City of Long Beach would not answer their phone. The recording said, "Due to the high volume of calls, we cannot get to you right now". Or some such bullshit like that. I waited for 20 minutes and then I called my wife and she tried to call and also could not get though either.

Finally after waiting till 4:15 I left. So I waited all day in the garage, and the person never showed. Never received one phone call, or was I able to get in touch with the city. To say I'm pissed is an understatement. I don't know much about the city of Long Beach, but I have a feeling this is standard fare. I feel I should be compensated for a wasted day.

Finally the supervisor called, (my wife was able to get to him), and told me the inspector had showed. I said he didn't show, I was there all day. Turns out, he came by after I left. If I knew I only had to wait one more hour, I would have waited. But I can't tell you the frustration when they don't have the decency to call to let me know what's up, and then they don't answer the phones (and I know it's on purpose, they don't give a shit), so I certainly didn't think they'd show up 5 hours later.

So tomorrow they tell me between 12-2. OK.
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10/23 The inspector came by as scheduled today and everything went OK. The inspection passed, and everything is done with. I may edit my post above, but for now I'm going to leave it. I was raw emotionally, and I just let it hang out in my writing. Give it a few days, and I may change the anger of my post. But everything I said is true.

Have a look at this.