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Escambia County officials are seeing first hand the problems folks are going through to receive claims. The county's claim wasn't processed because people working the system say they couldn't find the county's phone number.

June 10, Escambia County sent a letter requesting $9 million in reimbursements from BP. Thirteen days later, County Commissioner Grover Robinson received a letter from ESIS. It's a third party handling BP's claims.

"It basically said they couldn't process our claim because they didn't have our telephone number," said Robinson.

Robinson said it isn't difficult to find Escambia County's phone number. It was on the letterhead on every correspondence they sent them. If for some reason they lost it, they could have looked it up online.

"It's almost so funny, it makes you want to cry. It was sort of that response when we got it. I can't believe this. If it wasn't real life, it would be funny, if people's lives weren't depending on it," said Robinson.

The letter wasn't even addressed to a certain person. It said, "Dear Sirs." It makes it look like this may be a common letter sent out. Another resident told the county he received the same exact letter in the mail. Robinson said it shows them what everyone else is dealing with.

"The letter is a symptom of what everyone is receiving. We're being told one thing that everything is going to get paid, but in actuality, that's totally different. We want to see our citizens start to get paid. We have citizens in this summer season. It's essential for them to get paid," said Robinson.

The only phone number the letter had listed was a 1-800 number. FOX10 News called the number and a representative answered, and then we got passed on but no one would answer any questions and no one called us back.

So far, the county hasn't received a dime from B.P. They did receive just over $1 million from the state, but they're still waiting for about $4 million. Another $2 million is expected to come soon.

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