Unfortunately, this is what the customer expects, but in the majority of industries the customer services people are lowly qualified, and can only solve the most basic of problems, otherwise they have to elevate it to higher up. This is why most customer services jobs are lowly paid, and don't require many qualifications or experience. Its considered a entry level job in most companies. Even big companies, that you would expect to have some sort of technical knowledge, do not employ those with technical knowledge. I'm hinting at technology, and computing based companies here.

Comparing the FBI with a lowly qualified staff member on a exchange is quite different. FBI agents are usually trained, and highly qualified. Support workers are not, and they don't have the software or the know how to decipher low quality images. However, I do agree with you that having exact specifications for the resolution is annoying, and does cause some problems. In my opinion, as long as all documentation is included in the frame of the picture, and its of readable quality, then there shouldn't be much of an issue with the resolution.