From the desk of Memaw Kelly: My SBA Nightmare

Sometimes, there is comfort in shared experiences. I am coming to you with a question and to share what I am going through with the SBA. In February 2021, I received an invitation for the Targeted Advance. Once I completed the application, I printed the submission confirmation that came up on my screen. When I hadn’t heard from the SBA by April, I sent an email to request a status update and was told they would be in touch soon. By June, when I hadn’t heard from the SBA one way or the other, I decided to call. That was the first time I was aware of any trouble with my application. Apparently, on their end, their system was showing I HADN’T submitted my application. 

Fast forward to October and a million emails and telephone calls later, I was told my application would have to be processed manually because the submit for processing button wouldn’t populate. My daughter assisted me and followed whatever the representatives advised me to do: cleared the cache, cleared the cookies, tried different browsers, reset the password, tried different devices, responded to the links sent after I called, Nothing worked then and nothing works now. In November, I was told I hadn’t requested an EIDL increase. I did. Then I was told, I hadn’t stated the increase amount. I did that, too. One representative told me I wouldn’t get the grant without accepting the loan portion. Another told me I didn’t need to accept the loan, I just had to request it to be eligible for the Targeted Advance. That was a bridge I would cross when I got to it. 

Fast forward to December 18th when a Disaster Specialist told me I had until the 31st to get in what was needed. After that, processing for the Targeted Advance applications would cease. He said something to the effect of your application has been pending for ten months, since February, and I’m trying to get the money to you. He gave me very specific instructions: fill out a new 4506t and email it back ASAP, wait for 2-3 days and call to make sure it was received, then call back by 12/27 to see if there were any error messages from the IRS. HE was helpful. Everyone else thereafter wasn’t. The representative I spoke to when I called to check if the 4506t had been received, as instructed to do, told me it wouldn’t take 2-3 days for the document to be uploaded as I had been told. It would be 2-3 weeks. She also said processing for the Supplemental Advance would end on 12/31, not the Targeted Advance, and I hadn’t checked the box to receive the Supplemental Advance. When I told her there was no box for a supplemental advance in the original application, she referred me to the SBA’s website to answer any questions I had and that there was nothing she could do to retroactively say I wanted to be eligible for the Supplemental Advance. On the website, I discovered the Supplemental Advance was by invitation only, just as the Targeted Advance had been. I was so frustrated by the misinformation I wrote to the ombudsman (never heard back) and then the next day contacted my state representative. 

On 12/30, the representative I spoke to on the 18th sent an email to me to let me know that the 4506t hadn’t been received, even though I did, in fact, send it ON THE 18th. Because I was dealing with email (manual processing) since my portal wasn’t working, the 4506t I sent in on 12/18 was either ignored or rejected. I called the Disaster Assistance center on 12/30 after receiving the email, for help with the 4506t. I waited for over 20 minutes before a representative answered and he refused to give me any help. As a matter of fact, he hung up on me mid-question. 

With increasing despair and defeat, I responded to the email the representative sent to me earlier that day, and then sent in another 4506t. From my request to my state representative, I received a call from a loan specialist on the SBA’s high priority team earlier this month. She told me that I no longer qualified for the Targeted Advance because I never submitted the application via the portal, and it was still showing ‘In Progress’. She said the SBA would now treat the application as a NEW application, and they were no longer accepting new applications. I didn’t remember I had the printed confirmation that I had in fact submitted the application in response to the invitation, so I didn’t mention it to her at that time. She also said that I still had to go through the entire process of receiving a formal reply from the EIDL increase request as well as a formal reply for the Targeted Advance, even though it would be a denial. She said that the submit button wouldn’t populate until whatever needed doing to receive a reply for the EIDL increase was completed. That requirement was news to me. All I had been told was I needed to press submit for processing to have the Targeted Advance application processed. I was never told that button was dependent upon the processing of the EIDL increase. She also said that, because of the congressional inquiry, processing of my EIDL application would take an additional 4-5 weeks. Perhaps, several months ago, I would’ve been eligible for that loan portion, whether I wanted it or not, but my credit score has plummeted over the last few months. 

Fast forward to 1/25/22, I received a response to the email I sent on 12/30/21, stating I needed to press submit for processing AND submit a 4506t via the portal to be eligible for consideration for the Targeted Advance. There was no mention of the EIDL increase request needing to be processed BEFORE the submit for processing button for the Targeted Advance would populate. At any rate, that is still impossible because my portal doesn’t work. Not only did the representative from the 1/25/22 email completely ignore the portal issues I have repeatedly called in for, (or the fact I was told on 10/21/21 my application would need manual processing), but she didn’t respond until six days before the deadline. I am too intimidated to call, especially with the increasingly hostile reception I got. I fear because I contacted my congressman and sent a complaint to the ombudsman, my application will remain pending until there is no money available. I felt as if I had no choice but to request help BECAUSE of the way my portal issues, and thus my Targeted Advance application, was being handled. At most, it usually takes 5 days to receive a response from any email. Normally, it is 2-3. This time, almost an entire month went by before receiving instructions that do me no good since my portal IS NOT populating the submit for processing button. 

As it has with so many, the pandemic affected my business earnings, so I was relying on the Targeted Advance to advertise our books, to restock office supplies, to get our websites running again, to get a camera especially for when I go live to read my story, Underground Captive, and for countless other things that we need for our books. We can no longer find even a small amount to do any of those things from our personal income between the costs of mortgage, utilities, food, medication, animal food, toiletries, the list is endless. I know you all know what I mean because, in every corner, the world seems to be fighting to survive this nightmare. Now, I certainly understand there are so many others who are waiting for their applications to be processed. I might be 85 but my faculties are in perfect condition. I’m just as positive that my application isn’t the only one that’s been pending for 11 ½ months. I’ve been writing since I was 16 years old, and it was only later in my life that I begin to see any success, writing as Christine Holden with my daughter. I had two dreams before I pass on to Glory—have the titles to our house in my hands and to see one of our books on a bestseller’s list. While the Targeted Advance alone wouldn’t have accomplished those goals, it would have set me on the road to perhaps get it done down the line. More than that, though, it would’ve given me hope. I have been so stressed out, some days, it seems as if I will drop dead. 

After sending off my 9 pages of notes to a couple folks, I have been advised to seek legal counsel. I don’t want to do that. I only want this resolved. Thank you for reading my post. I had intended to go live on Facebook today, but my blood pressure has been high and I have been suffering with terrible vertigo. Hopefully, tomorrow, I will well enough to log on. In the meantime, please share this post, so I can hear the stories of others. For me and everyone else whose applications are still pending, it is a race against time. They are only being processed until the SBA runs out of the money set aside for this. Where I am concerned and according to the SBA, no one on their end ever got my portal to work so that elusive submit for processing button would populate so that I might’ve received the Targeted Advance. What is your SBA story? Did you find any help? Do you think there is any hope for me?