Child Support Distribution Unit -- Just a few of the things that don't work

Thank you, Attorney General Greg Abbott.  I could never vote Democrat, but you sure make it harder to vote for a Republican, in your case. (The Child Support Division of the Office of the Attorney General falls under Mr. Abbott.)

This is just a short list of some of the hiccups I've run in to; now I know how people in the prison system and immigration system feel: you're a customer of sorts, but they don't care about customer service, presume you're guilty/undesirable, and they have so much power over your future that you can't hope to improve things.

If they have an administrative glitch on their end, they do not call you about it -- they send a nasty letter about how you are behind, and you will be penalized, sanctioned, have wages garnished, etc.  
You are treated as a criminal and delinquent dirt-bag, rather than presumed innocent or given an honest inquiry.

There are child support division offices all around the state of Texas. But you cannot make payment at them (by check, money order, debit or credit card).  
Checks can be mailed to the CSDU in San Antonio only... of course, this relies on the USPS, and if USPS loses your check, it is the same to the OAG as if you never made payment.  Further, this means that if you're in a pinch, you can't wait until payday and walk in at your local office -- you have to mail the check several days earlier.
 
You also cannot, in this day and age, make simple and direct payment electronically, as you would with your utilities and other services.  
There is much made on the website of the new payment options.  Those all have serious limitations: you cannot pay by credit or debit card -- even with a surcharge. That's right, it's easier to make payments with walmart.com -- even with the Tx Drivers License division -- than with the OAG. There are a few third parties through whom payment may be made at locations such as Walgreen's; but these still require special payment on your part, and are limited to several hundred dollars -- potentially far below your monthly obligation; and these, of course, have fees.  So, why can the OAG not accept payment by online E-check, by debit card, by direct bank bill-pay, by credit card (with a surcharge) and even PayPal?  I think someone lobbied here to ensure that you can only pay through certain channels to profit certain businesses.  OAG is harder to work with than your local city water utility, which allows online bill-pay.

You probably cannot even log in to the web site in order to check your status. 
In order to log in to the OAG CSDU web site, you require a "CIN", and a "PIN."  They do not provide the CIN to you when your case is created -- you have to request it.  Call them on the phone, and ask "Hi, I need to know the login information for my account; can you please help?"  "We're not allowed to give that to you over the phone. We can only send it to your mail."  ...because USPS is more secure than phone?  And they authenticate you on the phone with only your name, your ex-spouse's name, and your social security name... all information that your ex-spouse would readily have.
 
They will not get you the information that they say they will get to you.   
I called and asked for my CIN at least twice -- never received it in the mail. I sent an email to their support email address, listed on their web site, and I never received any reply of any kind.

The "I can't log in and I need my CIN" web page does not work at all.  You enter the information they require (your SSN, birth date and child's birth date), and you get an error that "We were unable to ..."  There were several things that did not work on the web site.
 
Even when you actually have the information, they won't confirm it for you. 
They had me give them my Member ID number.  I gave that.  Then I said, "I can't log in; I guess I need to verify my CIN".  "I can't tell you if that is your CIN.  I can mail it to you.  You should receive your CIN some time in the next few days."  ...nobody at any time would confirm to me that the CIN is the Member ID number. ...that would have cleared up a lot. The real problem for me was browser-related.  Oh, and Google had sent me to the custodial parent login, rather than the non-custodial login... the difference is not obvious if you don't know that they are different pages.
 
They may not even talk to you about the status of your case.   
Call into the customer service line. "If you have an attorney representing you, then we cannot talk to you about your case; that is policy."   "But that doesn't make any sense: the attorney works for me, how can you not speak to me? ...and I'm only asking for information and help to log in through the website."  "We're not supposed to talk to you."

They leave your attorney on hold... at $250 per hour or so out of your pocket, and then give conflicting answers.
What they told my attorney about providing proof of payment was apparently not entirely correct.  But they did put her on hold until she had to hang up as a practical matter.