And they wonder why people walk into government offices with AK47's!

[Sir Kenyth]

Veterans affairs (VA). I wonder if the main office has free packets of KY jelly by the door for when they stick it in and break it off? Probably not! I have all this GI Bill money that I'm supposed to be able to use to help with my school loan. I have to start paying the loan back in a month and havn't been able to even file a claim yet! Paperwork has been sent in by the school only to be lost mysteriously. I call and wait an hour to find out that they don't even have record that I'm out of the service yet (almost two years now!). I'm supposed to fill out and send in the required forms again. THEN, I'm informed that there's a discrepancy on my computer record of a year of service being "Unaccounted" for.

I say, "So what?".

They say, "We must have all service time accounted for with accompanying paperwork to prove it".

I say, "So what do you have to do?"

They say, "No, you have to send us proof of your term of service dates from 90-91."

I say, "How in the hell am I supposed to do that?"

They say, "If you can't find paperwork to support it you have to send a request to the national record archives. It will take about 90 days." (Right! If they don't "lose" the request!)

I say, "I've claimed VA benefits before now. Why is this so important now?"

They say, "You were in the military then. That's different."

I say, "What possible relevance does my one year in the reserves have to the school benefits I applied and paid for when I first joined the active military?"

They say, " *silence* "

I say, "Well?"

They say, "We just need the paperwork before we can process your claim."

I say, "Goodbye!"

I had to hang up before I started spouting obscenities! I'm going to bombard them with a half-dozen requests. One is bound to find someone inept enough to process it while missing that little discrepancy!

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Small wonder that a lot of war vets are loony dealing with this kind of crap constantly.

[khazadman]

welcome to the wonderful world of government bureaucracy!my father is retired from the navy(21 years) and has these problems all the time.we wouldn't have these problems if it was easier to fire these people for being incompetent.

[Ar-Cunin]

Welcome to the wonderful world of red tape - where doing nothing and covering your a** are all that counts. [img]graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

Sir K..Dude! Listen, save yourself a huge load of trouble.
What you do is document the whole thing, then send a copy of your paperwork to your congressman and ask for his intervention.
These guys live to be able to make these kinds of things work for their constituants...it could shave years off your fight [img]smile.gif[/img] Just some advice from someone who had a similar problem.

[Sir Kenyth]

Originally posted by MagiK: Sir K..Dude! Listen, save yourself a huge load of trouble. What you do is document the whole thing, then send a copy of your paperwork to your congressman and ask for his intervention. These guys live to be able to make these kinds of things work for their constituants...it could shave years off your fight [img]smile.gif[/img] Just some advice from someone who had a similar problem.

If I catch too much flak, I'll do just that. There's a chance I have a copy of my original orders or GI Bill agreement buried, which will suffice. I'm NOT dealing with the archives! For one thing, I think you have to know your orders # to even get a copy! If they have a DD reg. backing this, which I'm sure they do, even a congressman won't be able to do much. The fact still remains that I'll need the money and won't have it!

[The Hunter of Jahanna]

I had to deal with that crap when I first applied for my VA benifits. I finaly had to go to the local VA office with all of the requested forms and watch the 80 yr old expert loafer FINALY file everything and get my VA file started. It took a total of 5 HOURS for her to look at my paperwork , take it on a tour of the veterans affairs office and finaly do the job that she is SO grossy overpaid to do. Now I have my nice shiny VA I.D. card so I can go to the Veterans hospital and get whatever benefits I have comeing to me. If it makes you feel better , once you have your VA I.D. card it has all the info that they will need on it , so you can just go to the closest VA office and let then run it through the card reader. It saves you TONS of aggravation and paperwork.

[Cloudbringer]

Oh that sounds about right, Sir K! The department of redundancy department! I was an Air Force Brat my whole life. Even dependents had to fill out a ton of paperwork every time we did things! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Good Luck!

[ 06-12-2002, 09:47 PM: Message edited by: Cloudbringer ]

[/)eathKiller]

*hits head on desk* i've had to go through 17 years of this and i'm due for a good few more if i keep going to colledge overseas, and even when i transfer to the states im SURE stuff like this is going to end up happeneing to me STILL 0.o that's life I guess...

[Sazerac]

Let me tell you something even worse. The VA hospital in Alabama goes through the University of Alabama-Montgomery hospital for surgery procedures. My co-worker has a brother who has a bleeding, perforated ulcer and his condition is getting worse. He's been in three times to get surgery, only to be turned away because the facilities were "booked for that day". He had even been pre-opped! Reason? If UAM has a "paying" customer, they'll turn away the veterans in order to preempt their spot with the "paying" customer. Now that's an outrage. Someone needs to do something about that shite, and quickly! [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img]

-Sazerac

[khazadman]

much as i hate to say it saz,the problems of vets don't bother these people much.