E-government or how the Cossacks received a passport

Everyone knows the old Soviet cartoons from the series “Like the Cossacks (did something there)”, however, my story is not from the Soviet past, but from the most recent, present, modern.
This story was inspired by a topic about vulnerability in the public service system of the Russian Federation , and although this story has nothing to do with security, it reveals from the inside all the problems that I had to deal with when trying to apply for a passport through a notorious portal. Perhaps this will help someone save a lot of time and nerves.

It all started quite banal: my passport expired in the fall, but I did not see the point of immediately running and making a new one. since March 1, 2010In our country, it was planned to issue biometric passports of a new generation for a period of 10 years, and, as it became known a little later, from April 1, this could be done through the gosuslugi.ru website. I am a lazy person, I don’t like to stand in line at the Department of the Federal Migration Service, and besides, I have the opportunity to personally see the work of our electronic government.
Registration went smoothly, in the morning of April 22 I received an “offline” letter with access codes, and here it started ...
After 15 minutes, killed to fill out the questionnaire, “fitting” the photo to the desired format, I received a response from the system “There was a technical failure, try again later.” Fortunately, a hotline telephone is located on the site in the most visible place, by which the girl with a sweet voice replied that everything would be fine. After N-attempts (fortunately, when updating to F5, POST-form data is sent again quite successfully to myself) in the evening my profile was accepted by the system. A notification of the following content was sent to the email address:

Hello!

Your application is registered on the Portal 04/22/2010 20:49:33.
Application number XXXX.
To track the status of the application, you can follow the link.

At that moment, it never occurred to me that I had to take their word for it and follow their instructions clearly. Nevertheless, a week passed, the second one was coming to an end, May stood in the yard, not a rumor from the site, although both mail and a mobile phone are indicated, and then I thought: “Let me go to my personal office! "...
And here the fun begins: on April 23 I was left a message with the following content:

Invitation. The application is accepted, you are invited to take pictures on 04/28/2010. at 15h. 30 minutes. in room 4 at the address XXXXXXX OUFMS of the Russian Federation for the Moscow Region in XXXXXXX, you must have: 1. The application in one copy on the form in the established form 2. The main document proving the identity of the applicant and his photocopy 3. Receipt of payment of the state fee for issuing the passport 4. Military ID a note on the completion of military service upon conscription or an appropriate certificate from the military commissariat at the place of residence (stay) stating that the citizen was not called up for military service on the day of submission of the application or was not sent to alternative civilian service bu 6. Information about the labor activity specified in the application, the annex to the application, certified by the head of the organization or its personnel divisions (bodies) at the main place of work (service,

There was no limit to my indignation, but pandering is not our method! I’m calling the familiar hotline number with a request to clarify the situation, as well as tell me what to do next. In response, the same sweet female voice pointed to the perpetrators of this outrage: this is my department of the OUFMS, and although I tried to explain that the department is the department, but your portal provides the services, I haven’t heard anything intelligible in response.

I did not stop at the sim. In the personal account was quite useful (as it seemed to me at that time) function - "Appeal". I described the situation, said that it would be great if your customers received at least some notifications, whether it was mail or a mobile phone, and calmly began to wait for a reaction (it was May 8-10 in the yard).

May 18, I receive the following letter:
Hello!

The status of your application No. XXXXX has been updated:
Invitation. The application is accepted, you are invited to take pictures on 04/28/2010. at 15h. 30 minutes. in room 4 to the address XXXX OUFMS of the Russian Federation for the Moscow Region in XXXXX, you must have: 1. The application in one copy on the letterhead of the established form 2. The main document proving the identity of the applicant and his photocopy 3. Receipt of payment of the state fee for issuing the passport 4. Military ID with a note on the completion of military service upon conscription or an appropriate certificate from the military commissariat at the place of residence (stay) stating that the citizen was not called up for military service on the day of submission of the application or was not sent to alternative civilian service 6. Information on labor activity specified in the application, in the application to the application, certified by the head of the organization or its personnel divisions (bodies) at the main place of work (service,

To track the status of the application, you can follow the link.

- Sincerely,
Administration of the Internet portal of public services.

And again an explosion of emotions, but this time - positive. It really was already even funny. Knowing that this will not lead to anything, but I nevertheless answered, quoting directly to this letter with the following text: “But nothing, that 3 weeks have already passed?!”. To this day, I have not received an answer ...
Let's not forget that I also left the appeal in my personal account. I thought that, probably, as with the statement, they only write on the portal, however, having gone there, the “Appeal” section was not found by me at all. Probably "reduced".

In general, as a result, I passed as all normal people "offline", and as for the portal itself - either the skis do not go, or I ....

PS To date, the status of “Suspended due to the failure to appear for photographing within 15 days from the date of submission” is in the application’s personal account. I wonder why this is? ..

UPD 07/08/2010
And here is the letter with my appeal, it took just 2 months and a week to register it. I wonder when the answer will come? Are there really so many hits?

Hello!

Thank you for the offers on the work of the Unified portal of state and
municipal services.
Your message will be considered when preparing proposals for the
development of the Portal.

This letter was sent through the call processing system,
you do not need to reply to it. If you have questions, redirect them through the portal
.

Sincerely,
User Support Service of the
Unified Portal of State and Municipal Services
www.gosuslugi.ru