Salud Carbajal has never helped my business!
Michael Smith writes on Feb. 18 (“Carbajal has acted in businesses’ favor”) that he was surprised to read a letter claiming Carbajal has been bad for business (“Dear Congressman Carbajal, now is your chance,” Feb. 4).
Here are my two experiences with Carbajal’s office.
I own a small corporation in Santa Maria. I was a victim of a fairly large, very clever interstate credit card fraud scam a year ago and reached out to Carbajal’s office for help. No, they did not ever answer a phone call or ever return a message. I submitted one of their comments forms and never heard back.
Recently, as a result of Trump, my earlier tariffs exclusion expired and I only wanted Carbajal’s office to advise me whom to contact. This is a federal issue and last I read he is a U.S. congressman. Of course no one answers the phone, so I left a message. And of course no one responded. I again submitted a form and got no response.
Finally I figured it out—I called the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office in Washington, D.C., and a voice picked up in a couple of rings. He advised me to call the Counsel’s Office for Exclusions. Again, I got right through to a Washington bureaucrat on the second ring, and he was quite helpful about what I might expect.
The lesson, I guess, is it’s much easier to talk to Washington than your local congressman.
And I think the comment form on his website is nothing more than an email-gathering device.
Michael Guista
Santa Maria
This article appears in Mar 4-11, 2021.
