United States Census Bureau
Reviews and Complaints

In late November 2021, I was contacted, as a previous staff member of the Burbank Census Office, with an offer to return to work for a new assignment - starting sometime in February. Within the following days, all my information was verified, actualized and approved. I invested $80 for required fingerprints, which after they were sent back to the Burbank Office, I was told they were not necessary. At any rate, I was given a starting time of late February, early March. In the mean time, I cancelled interest in other employment possibilities I was considering due to the fact that since I had a positive history of work with the organization, all look to be now a waiting period. I March, someone from a totally different out of state offices started asking for copies of my DD214 records, which were promptly dispatched. the same request became an issue, not only from the same person and the same office, but an additional on from a totally different state. This soon became an arbitrary change of mind by totally unrelated people from who knows what department. I spoke several times to my contact person in the Burbank Office, who then proceeded to be totally unprofessional by stopping all contact, thus I was left in the limbo file, no Census job, and none of my other options as well. This has to be the most deplorable way of conducting an important government office, and perhaps the reason the Census is not trusted. I have always performed to the best of my ability, without any complaints from previous managers. I need to know why I was shined off?

Unconstitutional to single out people for this acs survey, whether “randomly” or not, and require them to submit identifying information, answer questions which intrude on their privacy, and serve no point in gathering meaningful data.

Violation of privacy, unconstitutional to force compliance, nothing to do with the ten-year census.

Surveys should be anonymous, and not contain personally identifiable information. Why do that in a survey? Especially for a “random” selection of people?

Washington & California had their class action lawsuit against acs dismissed on basis that compliance was not practically enforced, yet survey states participation is mandatory, even though not everyone has to complete it.

Questions are senseless and intrusive, often ask for guesses ( how are renters supposed to know how old an apartment building is? They just guess!)

Health providers, ethnic background, birthdate, place of birth, name, phone number, marriage status, where they work, how much money they make, where they lived before, on and on. What kind of Surveillance State unconstitutional bs is this? This is not the ten-year census, or even appropriate survey. You need another class-action suit or petition or whatever it takes to stop or change this because as it is it is just WRONG!

I do not appreciate receiving a notification that the census survey that was received in the US mail was required by law. Many of the questions are extremely intrusive and I do not approve of providing as much information about my family as was asked. While the questions that were asked were answered this time, I do not feel that the questions regarding addresses for my place of employment along with financial information and questions about my children are not at all appropriate. The survey should contain generic questions. While I see that some of these questions are beneficial, I do not see how providing my financial status, along with my billing information is beneficial.

Frank M. Ali stopped by my house on 10/05/2021 at approximately 1646. Most people go to someone's front door and knock when they want to speak with the occupants of said residence. I do not appreciate your census worker "strolling" around the exterior of my entire house and nosing around on private property. Yes, he is on camera doing so. You may want to explain proper etiquette

Census Taker/Enumerator responsibilities
Census takers or enumerators are typically temporary employees of the U.S. Census Bureau. They work in the field and interview residents of an assigned neighborhood according to strict instructions provided by the Census Bureau. They are also responsible for recording the information they elicit through interviews with citizens and implementing quality control measures with regard to the integrity and accuracy of collected information.

Complaint

July 29, 2021 Shepard was denied payment for (14) hours she worked while trying to fix computer setup problems involved in logging into her training. She was told by payroll this was not considered Census work when she was paid in the past and had ticket numbers even given for the technical problems.

June 1, 2021- Password setup problems- or help desk qualifies as census work in the past and also when tech support requests you to wait an hour in order to try a new password or reset the password again is census work. The training is not done on a census laptop it is the employee's personal laptop or personal equipment. Many emails to and from census bureau tech confirm this employee was taking much of her time to fix this computer problem. She tried to change or reset password, but the prompt was delayed for several hours and when she received the email to "reset password" It took her to the recruitment 2020 census login and not the PES Census 2020 login site. This clearly was a Census Bureau problem that took many hours to fix. On her own time, she took it upon herself to approach other computer technicians .
Below an email showing tech supports from Goggle and Yahoo were also contacted and showed what could be the problem.

Julie shepard

To:modupe.[protected]@2020census.gov

Mon, Jun 7 at 4:20 PM

Tech Supports from Google and Yahoo

Link : https://recruitment.2020census.gov/resetPasswrd.aspx?token=udRfyW5XrnQFxjvGRKPk&c=census&l=en-US

Response: Invalid token; click here to go back to the login page.

"I believe my account is not active or suspended even though tech support says it is active. I did some research this weekend and found a number of tech supports from google and yahoo say the following reasons.

Troubleshooting Guidelines:

No user exists with these credentials

The user is In Active

They are using a wrong password

It DOES exist, but 2 users have the same e-mail"

(Work Hours and Equipment Maintenance Allowance )

Working from home and utilizing the employee's resources such as electrical is constantly being used to complete census tasks. Updates were written daily to keep the Census Bureau notified, and as of July 29, 2021 Patricia Shepard had been denied payment for these (14) hours. Bill Tellier, her supervisor, was notified and emailed the payroll sheets 308s on July 10th, but the supervisor refused to forward them for payment, since Shepard questioned his fairness over cases that were given to a few employees. Shepard has had problems with the supervisor.

She also has telephone and email logs along with other evidence showing clearly the time she spent was even more than 14 hours. However, payroll still refused to pay her stating the time was not considered census work. "We are not paying for you to just sit around." So, she is giving this to her chain of command with hopes they will do the proper thing.

In the past, computer problems were a normal nuisance, but we still considered this as census work. Now, you find newspaper articles stating,
"2021 Census Enumerators Chase Govt Over Allowances!" So, I will be eagerly awaiting your reply.

I filled out my 2020 census and I am not participating in this survey. I was told I had two days to complete or she would be back in a very threatening voice. The field representative name is Ana Laura Zamudio phone number is [protected] I am not participating in this survey so please take my address off of any list it may be on address is 19859 Caruthers Somerset Texas 78069 thank you HOMEOWNER MARY J. ROSAS

She came to my door and I answered regular questions. She then went to the apt. Below me. 10 minutes later, my doorbell rang again, it was her. She wanted to know who used to live in the apt. Below. I told her I didn't know. She kept asking, then I finally told her to contact the landlord, which she should have done in the first place. She then began to talk in a louder voice than before, and stated my full name, while the new people in the downstairs apartment were at their open window listening.
Very inappropriate! I am a private person, and like to keep it that way, but she went way over the line.

A woman, appeared tribal, came to our door and claimed she wanted to do our census report. My husband informed her it had already been done. Then she claimed they are trying to confirm the census and asked again if he wanted to. My husband told her no.
AI am seething with anger because it looks like attempted fraud is going on. Furthermore, you people claimed to have finished the census, didn't you?

Call from census person at 1:55 pm. Phone number [protected]. I explained that I already took the census online back in April. She lied and said I didn't. I said we don't answer the door or allow entry to anyone. She responed by saying she would "escalate" the matter. She needs to be reprimanded.
I called the Census bureu and they said she is not allowed to say that.
To be on the safe side, I retook the census online. My original user ID is [protected].
Bruce Mattsson
6910 Sheridan Road, Melbourne Village FL 32904
Cell # [protected]
Email is [protected]@gmail.com

Dear Sir/Madam:

I owned a small bakery/restaurant at 2109 Broadway W74th Street, NYC, Margot Patisserie.

Yesterday, a man named Wayne Goodman was sitting at our door on the cement ledge blocking part of entrance hindering us from cleaning and sanitizing when we were closing for the day around 4pm. I told him that we were closed for the day (through my window on the door, I was inside the restaurant cleaning). I asked him to please come back tomorrow for any purchase. My expectation was that he would leave. He refused to leave and told me that he was a federal agent and he was handling a federal matter and he could sit wherever he wanted. I was concerned. I went outside to find out what type of federal matter that concerned my restaurant. I told him again the restaurant was closed for the day. There were plenty of spaces (cement ledge on both side of my restaurant that he could sit or go inside the building lobby. He refused and told me to call 911 to get rid of him.

I found his behavior unacceptable. He was abusing his authority as a census bureau agent. He held himself out as a "Federal Agent" which typically referred to FEB or CIA. His refusal to leave and continual to linger at entrance of my restaurant after it is closed for the day was a very suspicious behavior suggestive of a possible crime. He was rude as he was yelling at me on the street that caused attention of passerby.

I urge you to please look into this matter and take this matter seriously. Small businesses like mine are suffering and going through a very hard time. The least that we wanted is to get bullied.

Please feel free to contact me via email [protected]@yahoo.com. I work at my cafe 7 days a week and 10 hours a day.

Thank you.
Jobie Yu

I filled out our census back when we received a post card in the mail telling us to go online and be counted.
Since then we have had 2 census workers come to our house. The first one was satisfied with the fact that we had already been counted online.
The second one did not he insisted knowing how many to count. So now I'm wondering how many of us are counted 2 maybe 3 times and what that is going to result in.

Yesterday, September 25th, a census taker pounded on my door. When I answered the door she asked me about my next door neighbor who apparently never responded to the census. I answered her questions and before she left she told me to make sure I voted. That's fine and I told her I was definitely planning on doing so. Then she said, We have to keep him in office. And ran off. She's a census worker (although I never asked for ID). Not a Trump campaigner.

I filled out the form answering the required question of how many live at my house and sent it in. Then a month later I get someone at my door asking the same questions. Told them I mailed it. Another month later someone shows up again. Out of frustration I tell them the number in my house and ask them to leave. I have received the forms by mail several times. Now census shows up at my house today (sept 25, 2020) asking information about my neighbors. What? I will never give someone else's info, especially to the government. I am not a spy or a rat and I actually value privacy of all us citizens! You, obviously do not. This is abuse of power, harassment, and unconstitutional.

If census shows up at my house again I will call the police and take legal action for harassment.

Name: Philip A Mclaughlin
Address: 224 14th Avenue, Nekoosa, VWI 54457
id: daay816545

I as well as other employees have not received a pay stub since the first week of august. Our checks are deposited into our bank account, however, i have also not been receiving the bonus pay i earned, I received only $100.00 of $800.00. No matter who i or any of us enumerators or field supervisors call, nobody has any answers, whether it is the Madison, WI office, or the Chicago office - they all pass the buck and say to call my supervisor or a different office. There is an incredible lack of communication and accountability. I sincerely urge you to contact my supervisor - Ginger Brown - she also is very frustrated. Her phone number: [protected].

Respectfully, Philip A McLaughlin

On 9.21.2020 at approximately 12:30 pm, I was driving pass my home. I noticed a gentleman standing on my door step. I then observed him opening my mail box and viewing my mail. I then circled the block in my vehicle to determine who this person was as I know he had absolutely no business looking through my mail. He presented himself as a US 2020 Census worked. He asked if I lived at address 452 A North Church Street Tupelo, MS 38804. Which I replied yes. I informed him that I recently moved to current address and had already completed my 2020 Census. He continued inquiring about previous tenants, however I informed him I had no clue who previously lived at my new address. I asked why he was going through my mail, in which I never received an adequate nor sufficient response. He would not provide his name. Although he left the attached document with me. I am not sure what your standards are but going through someone's mail is a serious invasion of my privacy and rights. I am not pleased at all. I am sure who can located who serviced this area. I would advise that this person NOT go through my mail again nor should he disturb any other citizens mail.
Jennifer Jones
452 A North Church St
Tupelo, MS 38804
662.231.9050

September 19th
This man came into my fenced yard to bang on my door. It says beware of dog on the fence. My dog runs away when out and it's a miracle she didn't get out or bite him. I answer the door and he keeps drilling me for information about my neighbors. I was sleeping and he just wouldn't shut up. Asked all the same questions as last time he was here and went through our gate then as well. Rude, obnoxious, I am still so mad at him coming into a gated yard with animals. What a jerk.

A census worker visited my house this evening asking about my neighbors, who were not home. I told him that he should come back later and ask them the questions himself because I didn't feel comfortable answering on their behalf without their permission. I told him this multiple times, but he was pushy and a little condescending when I didn't want to answer. He told me my answers are confidential then asked for my name. I didn't give it and so he wrote in his phone-thingy that I was refusing to cooperate. He acted disappointed that he'd have to make another trip out here to talk with the neighbors because I wouldn't answer for them. Is he not getting paid with my tax dollars to do this?! Good grief!
One more thing that bothered me was that his vehicle didn't have plates, just a temporary plate. Just made me suspicious and question if he was legitimate or not.
I think it is completely unprofessional and untrustworthy of a government worker to ask important census questions of a neighbor about a neighbor. How accurate is that?!

I received a call from [protected] in early Sept. from a woman with a very strong accent. She said she was from the Census Bureau and proceeded to ask me a host of questions I did not think were appropriate. Such as our individual income, interest income, property tax amounts, health insurance payments, electricity bills, etc. I told her I had already completed 2 census requests and didn't understand why I needed to do this. She said I did not complete the form correctly. I told her I didn't think she needed this info since the IRS had all that info on our tax returns. She kept me on the phone for at least 45 mins. I was very upset. I believe I was scammed.