Find It, Fix It - Service Request Mobile App

You can provide feedback or request support by tapping Settings on the main menu, tapping About at the top of the screen, and then tapping Support and Feedback. This will begin an email in your designated mail app. The email will be received by the City and the app developer.

We review each request individually, whether it’s to make a suggestion, ask a question or request support. We use your feedback to drive improvements that make it easier to request services from the City. Requests for new features or enhancements to existing features are automatically passed to our technical support team.

If you are contacting us to request technical support or other information, our technical support team will investigate and respond to you with further information.

The list at the Select a Category step shows the services currently available in the Find It, Fix It app. If there is an issue that isn’t a match for any of the categories listed, you can select General Inquiry - Customer Service Bureau. Staff at the City’s Customer Service Bureau will review your inquiry and respond and/or direct it to the appropriate agency or City department. There are also additional City services available in our on-line Customer Service Request web portal.

You can suggest a service category for the app by sending us an email with your feedback. Tap Settings on the main menu, tap About at the top of the screen, and then tap Support and Feedback. This will begin an email in your designated mail app. The email will be received by the City and the app developer.

An accurate location helps us find the problem you reported. The location for a new report is selected using the map at the Verify the Location step. There are multiple ways to select a location on the map:

• If you have allowed the app to access your location, the map will automatically start at a location based on the GPS information from your device (indicated by the blue dot).
  If you added a photo that was taken with location access enabled, the map will automatically start at a location based on the location metadata in the photo.
  You can drag the map to move the location under the crosshair indicator.
  You can search for a particular street address or landmark. Tap the icon with the 3 dots in the lower right, tap Go to Address, and start typing the address. The app will suggest addresses as you type. Tap the correct address, and the map will move to that location.
  You can tap the icon with the 3 dots in the lower right and tap Your Location to move the map back to your current GPS location.

Once the correct location for your report is selected, tap NEXT to set the location and continue entering your information.

The 9th Avenue address is a default address in the app. If you are seeing that address as the location every time, and it does not change after several seconds, that may indicate that you have not allowed the app to access your location. 

If location access has not been allowed, you may see a pop-up when you start a new report asking you to allow access to your location. You can also go to Settings on the main menu, tap About at the top, and then tap on Permissions in the list below. That will take you to your device’s permissions for the Find It, Fix It app, and you change the location access there.

If you do already have location access allowed, then it is possible that your phone was having trouble getting a GPS signal at the location where you tried to report a problem.

You can also change the location in the following ways:

• If you added a photo that was taken with location access enabled, the map will automatically start at a location based on the location metadata in the photo.
• You can drag the map to move the location under the crosshair indicator.
• You can search for a particular street address or landmark. Tap the icon with the 3 dots in the lower right, tap Go to Address, and start typing the address. The app will suggest addresses as you type. Tap the correct address, and the map will move to that location.

The location for a new report is selected using the map at the Verify the Location step. The app uses the City’s geographic data to turn that location into an address to display in the gray bar above the map.

If the map started at a location based on the GPS information from your device or the location metadata in a photo, this may be pretty accurate if you are next to the issue you are reporting. But if you are reporting an issue located away from you – for example, graffiti on a building across the street – you may want to adjust the map closer to the correct location.

In some locations, the street address displayed may be different from other street addresses or mailing addresses used for the same building or from the address you expect.

Please select the correct location on the map for your report, and the City will receive both the address displayed and coordinates. If you include a photo or specific information about the location in your description, that will also help our City crews locate the issue in your report. A photo that includes the surrounding street or the opposite side of the street in the background gives a better indication of the location.

It is possible that you inadvertently selected a photo that does not have location metadata, or that there was a momentary connectivity issue with your device either reaching the app server or picking up a GPS signal.

You can also choose a location in the following ways:

• If you have allowed the app to access your location, the map will automatically start at a location based on the GPS information from your device (indicated by the blue dot).
• If you added a photo that was taken with location access enabled, the map will automatically start at a location based on the location metadata in the photo.
• You can drag the map to move the location under the crosshair indicator.
• You can search for a particular street address or landmark. Tap the icon with the 3 dots in the lower right, tap Go to Address, and start typing the address. The app will suggest addresses as you type. Tap the correct address, and the map will move to that location.
• You can top the icon with the 3 dots in the lower right and tap Your Location to move the map back to your current GPS location.

Reports of certain service types are only accepted for locations within their service area – for most types, a location within the Seattle city limits.

If the map at the Verify the Location step shows Out of service area instead of an address, it indicates that the nearest valid address is outside of the service area for that service type. This could be for one of several reasons: 

• The location may, in fact, be outside the service area.
• The location is within and near the boundary, but the nearest valid address is outside the service area, particularly when the location in on the edge of a large property. (Example: some locations on the south side of NE 145th Street along the north edge of Jackson Park)
• The location is near the shoreline, and the nearest valid address is a property beyond the shoreline. (Example: some locations along Fairview Avenue N on the shore of Lake Union)
• The City’s address validation is down due to planned maintenance or an unplanned outage. 

In the second and third instances, we suggest moving the location on the map slightly inward, until it displays a valid location. If you include a photo or specific information about the location in your description, that will help our City crews locate issue in your report. 
When there is planned maintenance that may interfere with the function of the app, the City will post a notice which you can see at the bottom of opening screen or by clicking on News from the main menu. Please try submitting your report again after the maintenance is completed. 

The Find It, Fix It app limits customers to 50 submissions in any 72-hour period, as a protection against spam bots. This error message will appear if you try to submit more than 50 reports within 72 hours. Once it has been more than 72 hours since the earliest of your last 50 reports, you will be able to submit a new report again. No additional action is required on your part. 

If you need to report an urgent or time sensitive issue and are unable to through the mobile app, please visit our on-line Customer Service Request web portal. All services available on the Find It, Fix It mobile app can also be reported via the web portal, without this limitation. 

The Find It, Fix It app is intended to providean easy way to report problems as they are encountered. To that end, the app does not require users to verify their identify or log in to use it. Although the app tracks the reports made from the same device and shows those under Submitted by You, there is no account associated to your requests that you can log into to view your reports from another device. 

If you have switched to a new device and installed the app without having restored from a backup of your old device, the app may not recognize you as an existing user or show your past requests. 

If you uninstall and re-install the app on the same device or if you get a new device and restore a backup of your old device, the app should continue to show your previous information.

For certain service types, the report may be closed soon after it is submitted, showing the status Reported. This status means your report has been accepted by the City and routed to the responsible department or agency; however, because the department or agency uses separate systems and processes for managing these services, we are unable to give real-time status updates in Find It, Fix It at this time. 

You can check on the status of any service request by calling the Customer Service Bureau at (206) 684-2489 (CITY). Please be sure to have the service request number ready to expedite the process. The number is displayed on the report and is in the format #22-00123456. 

At this time, it is not possible for customers to edit or delete reports after they have been submitted.
 
On the surface, it may seem that this could save the City time and effort involved with following up on a request that may no longer be necessary to address. However, due to technology limitations between the mobile app and our internal tracking systems, closing a request after it has already begun to be processed could result in inconsistencies among our records. The biggest concern is that a legitimate request could fall through the cracks and be missed by our staff. 

When a report has just been created, the status is Submitted. Within a few seconds, the report should be received by the City, and the status will be updated. If the status is still showing as Submitted after a period of time, it generally indicates some problem has occurred that prevented us from receiving your report. 

There are various circumstances where this may occur: 

• The Find It, Fix It app or the City’s related systems may be unavailable temporarily for maintenance. In this case, the report should be received, and the status automatically updated, once the maintenance is completed.
• You have selected a service type that does not have a specific service area, but you have selected a location far outside the city of Seattle. You may notice that in the map at the Verify the Location step, the location shows latitude and longitude coordinates but not a street address. We anticipate that in a future release of the app, these requests will be automatically closed as out of service area.
• There may be certain characters in the information you provided, such as < (greater than) or > (less than), that caused an issue. When this happens, the City does receive your report when you submit it. Our vendor reviews and fixes these issues as they occur, generally within one business day. We anticipate this will be resolved in a future release of the app. 

If you encounter this problem with a report, you are welcome to report it to us by tapping Settings on the main menu, tapping About at the top of the screen, and then tapping Support and Feedback. This will begin an email in your designated mail app. The email will be received by the City and the app developer.