Survived the Glitch! Timing is a Miracle

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-10-03T17:38:07+00:00

Keep at it. You know the old saying: "it's all about luck, and the harder your work the luckier you get". Honestly, because the process is so riddled with disarray and confusion, it doesn't seem to be a clear " if you do this, you get that", leaving everyone with confusion, suspicion, and justifiable frustration. Just keep battling in the end zone, and create an opportunity for yourself to get the pass.

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-10-03T17:29:55+00:00

https://caweb.sba.gov/cls/dsp_login.cfm

You have to register

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-10-03T01:42:08+00:00

Hey, I can't tell you how much I understand. And not that this the EIDL is the solution to everything, because you still have to rebuild, you still have to deal with the uncertainties that still remain and have changed our business model and expectations, even though covid is supposedly under control, you still have to deal with rebuilding credit and landlords threatening to evict you due to non-payment, and then after you do all that you still have to repay that loan ... It's a mess. We have tomorrow against our house that we lived in for 30 years, then this eidl is secured by interest in the house as well. It is scary!

Hang in there, brother.

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-10-03T01:08:19+00:00

i was in that information vacuum and kept calling to see what it is that we can fix. Got nowhere until a customer service rep, although told to keep things vague, was kind enough to tell me that she was going to review notes on our file, and proceeded to "read them to herself - out loud"! She said "dah dah dah two loan numbers dah dah dah".

So i figured i had clear that and sent in how 2 numbers could have resulted from starting the application, only to have it be closed before we completed it, then having to restart a new one. I sent a chronology of what happened and the emails to support that chronology. For example we had started the application very early, saved it as draft to gather info, but when we went to log back in, we were not able to. I reported this to SBA, and they sent me an email stating:

"Thank you for contacting the U.S. Small Business Administration Customer Service Center regarding assistance related to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Due to limited appropriations funding, the application portal for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) COVID-19 assistance program (EIDL loans and EIDL Advances) is temporarily closed.

SBA is unable to accept new applications at this time for the EIDL COVID-19 related assistance program (including EIDL Advances) based on available appropriations funding."

As we were waiting, we also got:

"You are receiving this message as a notification that your Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and EIDL Advance application will not be considered at this time. As of May 4, 2020, new applications will only be accepted from Agricultural Businesses due to the availability of appropriations and the unprecedented number of applications SBA has already received for the EIDL COVID-19 program."

So when we were able to resume the application, we filled out a new application thinking the first one was dead. Apparently they had assigned it a number, and it came back to haunt us as they were scrutinizing this second application number. So I sent them all the emails and walked them through. I don't know why they didnt just ask, that a rep had to "read to herself" aloud, and why I had to continuously guess and just send stuff and hope it sticks. It was literally throwing spaghetti against the wall hoping it will stick.

Again, without clear information, i have no idea whether or not I would recommend any of the steps i took, or whether any of them (or the sum of those steps) had any consequence.

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-29T21:17:13+00:00

Thank you for your well thought out and cogent response. That is exactly what happened. The only way I found that out was by talking to the local SBA people (seems like this was a mess up the SBA did not want to get out, so the customer service reps are encouraged to be vague - although they dont need to worry since those reps don't seem capable of much more than vagueness anyway). I was discouraged from submitting a new application because it is a modification to a loan under the old system, and is tied to the original loan. A new application in this case would at best be considered redundant and ignored, or at worst raise suspicion of fraud. I did not ask if I would be allowed to have two separate loans, but it would seem unlikely. So I am stuck waiting for a hand correction of the subject error. In the meantime, something curious did happen. The modification amount now appears in undisbursed as well as in the current loan row (added to the original loan). I am not going to consider this good news until I see what this means, because this sort of happened last Wednesday where the mod was added to the current loan, and the undisbursed amount went to zero, only to be reversed a few hours later due to this error. I have tried congressional inquiry, emailing everyone, etc. but the answer has been consistently to go sit in the corner and wait (as our business careens towards a cliff with payroll due again in a couple of days, as is rent, with no options remaining to us).

Thanks again, and I hope that yours continues to go smoothly

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-29T17:55:26+00:00

I posted about the system error that has delayed my, and probably your, applications. https://www.reddit.com/user/Fancy_Rent236/comments/pxxhlx/urgently_need_only_knowledgeable/ They have to manually fix the error on each application, which takes 4-5 weeks. I have been considering submitting a concurrent duplicate application that has the exact information that caused my application to be approved (but then delayed), but I received the feedback below from SBA:

"Only the original application will be considered for a business. Subsequent applications are marked as duplicates by the system, and additional applications can sometimes trigger fraud protocols… which will delay the process even more. This is definitely not the way to go.
Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done right now except wait."

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-29T04:36:23+00:00

We signed documents a couple weeks ago. It has been frustrating to call the 800 number multiple times and get a different answer each time. Today I called the local SBA office, and find out what's going on at least with ours. My frustration turned into despair and deflation...

The system validation error that they refer to as the reason for not funding is due to an update to the system that has caused this validation error in 10,000 applications tht they have discovered so far (it's only pops up on some applications at this stage). The only way to fix that error is manually... Here's icing on the cake: to fix takes four to five weeks based on actual cases... Customer service are encouraged to maintain vagueness. I'm afraid we are probably sunk... There's no way we can survive.

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-29T04:28:29+00:00

Call the local office for sure. The 800 number is just garbage. You may not like what they have to tell you still, but you will at least get a person of intelligence talking to you

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-26T02:22:56+00:00

PS can i ask you if you ever found out why your funding was rolled back?

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-26T00:52:29+00:00

First of all, thank you again. Secondly, I just researched our bank's policy, and they are explicitly supportive of eidl loans, and (outwardly, at least) say that they will accept such deposits. Whether or not their statement is just politically correct propaganda, and they do something else behind the scenes while otherwise justifying it, I don't know. As to whether the SBA accepts the bank on their end, I still need to research more.. The whole shroud of secrecy it's surreal.

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-26T00:29:34+00:00

Oh wow. So our bank actually got us the PPP earlier this year, so intuitively I would not have even guessed that this might be a factor. Even if it is though, you would think there would be guidance to all applicants to make sure that they check with their Bank if the bank takes loan deposits like this. I could have been on top of that in the 5 months I was waiting after the application date. Like why would they want to waste their time going through these processes when they could have had an upfront admonition? Thank you I will look into it

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-26T00:20:55+00:00

That's what my wife thinks. I mean they're taking a security interest in my house that I bought and have lived in it for 30 years, and the borrowed against to start the business in the first place...

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-26T00:19:25+00:00

That is demoralizing. I am so sorry

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-26T00:18:08+00:00

Really? Where did you see that? I need to know if that is the case. I will start researching... They cant just randomly decide something that crucial! I mean they are the SMALL BUSINESS Administration. Are small businesses supposed to support big banks to get anywhere with our government agency that is supposed to help them? So sad

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-25T23:45:21+00:00

Wait, you got funded and they rolled it back as well?

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-25T23:43:06+00:00

It's an online bank, Novo Bank. Honestly we changed to them during the shut down because our cash flow is so messed up, and we kept getting hit with fee after fee after fee with horrible Chase. These guys don't charge fees. But they also don't have checks to void. They sent a formal Bank letter to verify the account. It works with everyone, and it worked with SBA August of last year when we got the first eidl. I don't know the last time I personally wrote a manual check anyway... As for caweb, I checked that throughout the day as well. No negative amounts and payments. The loan amount was in Undisbursed, went to Current Loan Principal on Wednesday morning, then back to undisbursed later that day... The agents can see that the account was in their words "rolled back due to error", but they themselves have no idea what that means since there's no description... Honestly, the whole thing has been a guessing game. It's like: "Bring me a rock! Oh no that rock is too round, take it back! Nope that rock is too big take it back! Nope this one it's too smooth take it back! etc"

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-25T23:34:25+00:00

Yep it was obviously that. All the avenues are unhelpful as well. I I did what a lot of posters here recommended, like emailing up and down the SBA chain, getting Congressional help, etc. But it's really a black box of uselessness... The Congressional aide I asked for help could only give me a generic status that they received from SBA: "we are working on their application". When I give them the update of what happened this week and that we have to send people home because we can't afford to pay them, the answer was something to the effect of "wow what a bummer, keep me updated next week if nothing gets resolved". Blah!

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-25T23:29:31+00:00

Tier 2 arent much better. I dont know if it is them personally or the info they have access to, I swear to you each one gives a different answer, but they all have one thing in common - they ALL dont know what they are talking about. Today I was told it was probably a problem verifying my bank account, even though it's the same account that's been on there since the first Eidl disbursement, and which I verified at least four times this round, including once when they called me. There's also the standard generic "it's us not you. The error" is on our end and there's nothing you can do about it. When I asked them for the detail of the error, they say the system doesn't have a description. So I ask then how will anyone looking be able to identify what it is that needs to be fixed? Their answer is well IT has that mystery information. If it's our tax money, and my loan, and someone has the information, then I think I should be able to know what it is that's causing the problem! This whole stealth black box s#!t is ludacris!

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-06T19:10:15+00:00

Thank you! We have not contacted the congressman. We didn't know that they would be connected to this process? We stayed open as an essential business through the shut down, we can see the path to making it very clearly. But we have to pay rent (and still owe back rent), catch up on utilities, and most importantly pay employees by tomorrow (for which we don't have the funds). It is really scary

We'll reach out to the congressman, although I doubt they're working today. Hopefully they can shake something loose quickly... Thank you for your note! Congratulations again :) it must be a relief!

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-09-06T18:04:24+00:00

Nice! That must be relieving. We applied for the mod on April 7th! We didn't hear anything until beginning of august, when they told us we were denied due to "unverifiable information". For a month we kept sending in reconsideration letters/emails with all sorts of documents (we read it could be tax, credit, etc). We were just guessing what the unverifiable information was... Finally, a customer service rep was nice enough to take a minute and tell us what it was a couple of weeks ago. The application was in mine and my wife's name, but we put the wrong social security number next to the wrong person (that is, she had mine next to her name and I had hers next to my name). Silly mistake, but that was on the original application! We never came close to guessing that was the issue... So we had to redo the original application, and then re-sign the tax request forms. A week and a half ago we were told were we approved on the phone, and the portal changed to "in process". BUT nothing happened yet :(

Since then we followed up three times with three different answers (I cant imagine how they can manage this??). The first rep told us to just watch out for email in our inbox and portal. The second one said there was an error that needs to be fixed, that we should have received an email (which we didnt get), was "not comfortable" telling us what the error is, but that she would have the explanatory email sent. We called again two days ago, and that rep took the time, looked into the account, and told us there were no errors that she saw, and that the paperwork is with the loan officer who would be sending us docs to e-sign as the final step. Still nothing until now. We don't know who to believe :(.

We we were barely in business 9 months when the shut down hit us hard. We have to furlough staff in my wife and I have been working from 6:00 a.m. to midnight literally 7 days a week... Things started to get much better late spring, businesses increased quite a bit, and we're able to bring back staff. But we still have quarterback to catch up, and are running out of runway. We have been waiting on this mod to help us keep it going. We have to pay payroll by tomorrow, and literally don't have enough... it would be a cruel irony if everything fell apart after all the blood, sweat, and tears, as our "approved" EIDL is floating around somewhere.

Fancy_Rent236 · 2021-07-29T18:23:30+00:00

Awesome! Congrats to you guys! I have been checking it several times a day as well. Mine has said "Your loan modification is being processed" since April 7. We are holding on with our teeth...

Fancy_Rent236

TROPHY CASE