EXPOSED: VA Call Centers Block Majority Veterans’ Calls
ABC15 investigators just confirmed what most veterans’ have been saying for years, that the majority of veteran calls are blocked at ailing VA Call Centers.
In the call center industry, “blocked” calls are calls that do not get through to a call center operator due to a full call cue. So, blocked calls include calls that are dropped, calls that reach a busy signal, or ignored calls.
According to the ABC report, 55 percent of calls never got through to a representative in 2014. That number has increased to 59 percent for 2015.
Most veterans are forced to rely on the call centers for feedback about their disability claims, so failures at this level drastically impair a veteran’s ability to access information about their respective claim.
So what is the problem? Why is VA unable to answer calls in a timely manner or ensure the calls are not dropped, blocked or ignored?
Understaffing and limited phone call durations are at the core of the problem.
There are 736 employees staffed at VA call centers nationwide, but VA refused to provide specific numbers as to how many are working at any one time to help answer veteran calls.
Beyond this, VA maintains a policy that requires these call center employees to only spend 10 minutes per call. If they do not meet the guidelines, the employees may get fired or reprimanded.
How is that for customer service? Maybe the Disney customer service model will help VA at least answer more phone calls and stay on the phone until all questions are answered.
When questioned, VA told ABC:
“Although the number of “blocked” calls – an industry term describing calls that are not connected to a Call Center employee due to a full call queue – is high, demand for information from the National Call Center continues to climb.”
Arizona Senator John McCain provided a statement about the call center fiasco:
“If true, these allegations further add to the VA’s disappointing history of denying timely and quality care to veterans. While significant steps have been taken to fix our broken VA health care system, including passage of historic bipartisan reform legislation last year, clearly the VA still has a long way to go to earn back the trust of our service members. Our veterans deserve to have a department dedicated to helping them in every way possible, and I remain committed to making sure that the VA fulfills its promise to care for all of those who have served.”
Wow Bill, Angry much?
Are you a veteran? Someone who has served their country? Been at the mercy of superiors that all but “OWN you? Been at risk of prison if you don’t perform even if it goes against your beliefs? It could be argued that we have a volunteer army, but no one can fully understand what it is like to be in service until they are “actually IN service”. Is it possible that simply because you do not know the detailed facts of “ANY” veterans situation, you are jumping to some angry “ASSuming’ conclusion? It is always sad to see people jumping in about things they know little about, and painting everyone with a broad brush simply because they did not have the fortitude to sign up and risk their very existence to protect our nation. It is really not fair for me to jump to conclusions myself, so I will ask you directly…Do you think all the veterans out there should just die and stop being a burden on you now that they are no longer useful to keep you safe? Every veteran who serves is at risk of dying. No veteran knows what orders will be cut next to send them to their death. It does not matter in what capacity they serve, because everyone that contributes does so to protect the people in our country, or wherever else in the world the powers that be say to go. Every veteran that is awarded compensation must go through a lot more than filling out some paperwork to get that compensation and must prove many times over that they deserve it. Are you aware of the sheer number of veterans that have died waiting for the government to help them? Do you even care?
Yep, John, I care. I’m a Veteran and served 22 years and took a round to the shoulder, pain still there after all surgeries, messed up back from PJ and rescue. YOU are the one jumping to conclusions that I didn’t serve or don’t know what it takes to get compensation. So don’t you or any other whiny slacker lecture me on service. NO I don’t think all us Veterans should “die”, most of the guys I know are actual MEN and we know how to live without handouts. I’m PROUD to be a Veteran but I know being a Veteran doesn’t give you the key to the city and anyone who told you that is a liar, and anyone who believes it is an idiot. But if your gonna come on a forum just to talk about how evil and stupid the VA is, then why have anything to do with them at all? Yep, you have to file compensation and yep, it has to be VERIFIED just like anything else in your life! Your license to drive, to dive, to fly an airline. Have to be verified. you open up a machine shop or a garage, you have to be verifed you know what your doing. if you deserve it you can show it. Now this is real talk. Because I know guys that served well and guys that served sh1tty. Be honest. I know guys who get 70% for nothing and guys tht have real issues and get squat. I know guys who refused care up until they finally filed but by then they were too far gone for help, they died. That gets reported as “VA don’t care” but they never tell you how many appointments the jerk didn’t show up for. But bottom line if you hate the VA so much then why are you taking there money, yeah.
All I hear is a bunch of slackers here wanting to get money for free. Your just as bad as the welfare queens. Man up and stop the whining. Just want to sit on your fat ass and collect money, then badmouth the same system that gave you that money. I know a marine who did 3 years in administer office work (clerk) and got out with 70% due to anxiety. NOT ptsd. He never went anywhere, but he gets 70 and now wants more. Hates everyone, why? He got a jackpot. Why you hold up the flag so high if you say it lets you down all the time?
Today I was on hold for 1 1/2 hour only to have the call to drop. I really don’t know what else to do. It’s so frustrating! I have been trying to get my dependents approved sins 2013. Who do I call, who do I write just to get some answers.
Hire more people? Oh hell no, then that would take away Congresses ability to make more money for themselves.
VA DEATHCARE ONE BIG BIG FEDERAL RICO CRIME RACKET RUN BY @ FOR THE AFGE UNION CONTRACTS VETS YO ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SCREWED BY VA DEATHCARE FROM AFGE UNION HELL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I keep hearing/reading that the VA is “under staffed”. Then why not hire more people? There are plenty of folks out there that can do exponentially better and treat vets with the dignity and respect we deserve!!
I just need 3 of my expired prescriptions filled. These prescriptions were not expired when I first started calling the Chicago Heights VA Center. All I get is the voicemail of Donna Sanders lying to/assuring me that she’ll call back.
I guess it’s TOO MUCH TO ASK for a COUPLE OF MINUTES in EXCHANGE for the ELEVEN YEARS I SERVED…..
I read through some of the comments about the “Call Center.” My personal impression of the call center and the OIG is that they all sound like “Carlton the door man,” on the old T.V. program “Rhoda!” Maybe the “Mary Tyler Show?”
Wrenzola,
I go to the Myhealthevet site and request my meds so I can have a record of my request. The VAMC can always say they never received your call. I also copy and paste every secure e-mail I send or receive. Call me paranoid but if the VA decides to mistakenly delete all my e-mails, I still have them. Or if they see to it that I can no longer send e-mails then I still have the ones for me to use if I need to.
I guess you could say it is kind of a paper trail.
f8f
I have experienced mind numbing incompetence , repeatedly , at every level of the Veterans Administration .That said I have also experienced life saving care . Not quickly and usually with a fight for my care .Patience is hard to maintain . I continue to have the same knee problems I have had for almost forty years , service connected .Two scopes of original left knee injury .Dozens of physical thereby consults to no avail . Bilateral knee braces , bilateral orthotics . Major pain meds , muscle relaxers . Depression non treatment . Psych meds, for depression , many negative side effects .Everything we find meds that help they end up decreasing or stopping them . What a nightmare it has been .If you are capable of getting insurance , use it . If not , find a Veterans group , be active in your care and plan to fight every step of the way .
I know the feeling, been fighting the VA and it’s dirty tricks for 46 years. Everything from illegally withheld records to mixing up my C file with those of 6 other veterans.Latest dirty trick is over my orginal claim from 5, July 69 and 2 BVA reamnds 77, 83. The BVA and R/o Cleveland, Ohio say they can’t find them in my records, then under the FOi trhey send me coipes of these non existing records. All being done as they have never processed the orginal case or the 2 remands and would have to paY FOR THEM AS i WON THE CONDITIONS ON LATER CASES. oNE , MY SPINE TOOK 30 YEARS TO CORRECT AS THEY WERE DENYING MY CASE ON SOMEONE ELSES XRAYS. It’s all about deny,deny and hope they die. illegal records withholding was done with a rubber stamp reading; NOT TO BE GIVEN TO THE VETERAN OR HIS SERVICE REPS. this went on from 74 to 97, once released I went to 100% s/c on this condition.
It has gotten to the point where I’ve actually started to get up early (about 5:30 Mountain Time) to call if I absolutely have to. Any other time and I don’t get into the queue, and my call is dropped.
I was talking to a Mental Health counselor last year, and she tried to call BS on me for my statements about the apathy and incompetence I was complaining about. I turned this around on her. I convinced her to dial 800-827-1000 from her office phone and put it on speaker. Predictably (perhaps inevitably), the call received the “sorry — call volumes too high” message and dropped. She did this three times with the same result.
We’ve had a better relationship since then. I hope it also helped with her other clients. I’d love it if some congressmen had a staff member call the call center 2-3 times a week and log the results of whether they could get through or not. I’ll bet that calls are dropped a lot more than 58% of the time.
Secretary McDonald will be forced to resign within the next 90 days. Anyone you know who has everything from weak to irrefutable evidence photos, videos, contact with eye witnesses, or if you are a direct witness, or even an indirect witness, start posting here and on facebook, on twitter, on blogs, youtube, etc., evidence and proof that he is throwing lavish and very costly parties at VA expense, cruising around on luxury yachts, screwing out with loose women (and men), including underage victims, at resort and convention hotels, going to drunken parties where he and others are using street drugs and abusing prescription narcotics, which he is doing along with a lot more. Others high up and all across the VA are part of this, as are several members of Congress and the President himself when he has the time to show up. McDonald is the worst of worst double-talking weasel con man, a pathological liar, a pretend and make-believe Army Special Forces type captain, and a total idiot to announce on February 17, 2014, that he fully backs and approves the immediate gutting he pre-arranged and already carried out on the unanimously passed into law Marine Sniper Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act, he has already done the same thing to the Veterans Choice Card program, while he continues to carry out what many veterans advocates warned was an impossible conflict of interest as in: he is collecting thousands of dollars a day, overseeing the processing of thousands of VA claims a day through Xerox Corporation where he is still on their board of directors, claims that are automatically denied that should easily have been approved years ago, while badly injured and disabled veteran heroes and real combat vets (unlike his faked up medals that he somehow got for not ever being anywhere close to combat). He is personally paying secret bonuses to “control” and maintain and increase the veteran suicide rate, bonuses paid daily at a rate of about $150,000 a day, to a long list of hundreds of individuals at the VA, contractors, and others, to lighten case loads, under the scam of saying it is better for a vet to kill themselves quietly than do a murder suicide, when the truth is vets have very, rarely ever done the murder part. McDonald makes Shinseki and every previous VA Secretary, and every under-secretary, including Allison Hickey Undersecretary of Benefits, look like honest and competent executives, but none of them ever have been. The VA is ran by secret Unions and attorneys and corrupt Congressmen, stooges at the Office of Inspector General, judges who pretend to be flabbergasted when their orders are ignored by the VA to approve claims or expedite cases or stop the entire gypsy scam these terrorists are all running. Start posting anything you have, written or in photographic, audio and/or visual video forms, etc. McDonald is done. He will not leave without total destruction of his life which he and his associates, dozens of them, all richly deserve and are in the early phases of going through. He will be replaced by a new Secretary that will be approved by all of the major and many minor veterans advocacy groups, from the American Legion, to AmVets, to VFW, right down to Ben Krause’s Disabledveterans.org, by all of cooperating to come up with a real Secretary of Veteran Affairs, and I do not mean cheating on your wife and girlfriend type of affairs like McDonald is still doing. If this is too shocking and too harsh then go watch a relaxing movie or go back to work or whatever you are doing. McDonald and his mafiaso group of thieves and con artists just got their wake up call. Now get ready for a few plane crashes, car accidents, mysterious deaths, caused by these corrupt perverts killing each other, selling each other out in the media to make sure they stay out of prison, and these traitors killing themselves while them and their organized crime Union and lobbyist and corrupt congressmen and apathetic, veteran exploiting, anti-american covert terrorists. Have a nice day, from a former US Marine, Vietnam to Iraq 2 and beyond. and Semper frickin’ Fi Ben: i have a call into Lauren Price of veteranwarriors.org and other such groups who personally know me. Ben, You didn’t believe me when i told you long before any suggested it or even thought it might be possibly necessary, that Shinseki was going to be canned. You will recall me screaming at you on the phone from San Franciso International Airport well over a year ago when I was on my way to Brazil to get medical care and ptsd therapy because these perverts refuse to give it to me here even though i am 100% service-connected for ptsd. Get it right this time. I have major shit on all of these pricks, and many others I have handed it over to already have it to and it will be legally used for the protection of America and our veterans even if they kill my ass. Help take this SOB down, the only solution to the problem. We will get our guy in there, the Lord only knows, maybe it will be you! This is not a terrorist threat, this is not illegal anything I have said, and anyone who tries that gambit is full of shi_. This is be carried out in civilized, legal and productive ways, to eliminate the obvious corrupt and incompetent lying leadership who is only at the VA to serve their own hedonistic and personal financial and career move motives. McDonald is history! He was supposed to be out by Christmas for “family reasons”, but he was given one more chance. He blew it, he is not getting another chance to kill any more of us or steal our hard earned benefits! He is a lying, crazy bastard from hell with a real bad drug and secret drinker problem which will come forward soon enough, just the tip of the iceberg.
No brother it’s not quit that exciting …
He’s just a very incompetent running a crazy fucked up agency :0/
Just think it through ….
Do you REALY think those idiots could pull off half that’s stuff ???
They can’t even answer a fucking phone ….
I have been complaining about the Call Center system since it began. It used to be that when you called 800-827-1000, you got your regional office. If you had a question, they could retrieve your file and answer it. This was great for advocates who had a VA Form 21-22a in the file because the RO could confirm your appointment and answer your question about the client’s claim. Because the new digital records system is so far behind, the 21-22a is often not viewable and, even if it is, they tell you they have no way to confirm you are who you say you are. The Call Center system is a complete waste of taxpayer dollars and, now, we know that it is a failed system. Now, the problems are exacerbated by these bullshit evidence intake centers in Wisconsin and Georgia. Representatives from VVA went to the one in Janesville, Wisconsin, and came away with the belief that this new system was flawed in every way. In addition, since rating decisions are now being sent out by the evidence intake centers, as well as development letters, they have stopped sending copies to the veterans’ advocates. I have also learned from friends working for the VA that they have a policy of not answering correspondence from advocates seeking information or complaining about aspects of a case. I am starting to put together an IG complaint about all of these issues and will also be seeking pro bono counsel to bring a class action against the VA for refusing to comply with DVA regulations related to supplying advocates with copies of documents sent to clients.
Just to let you know. All the evidence intake center does is digitize paper docs and then send them back to the VA office. That’s it. They don’t send anything out to the vets. If someone at the RO told you that then they are full of it and are just covering their own ass with the blame torch.
They could transfer their triage call program people over. Their triage is useless and would suffice a recording that says, “Thanks for calling but we can’t help you. Please go to your local emergency room and you’re on your own with the payment if you do go. “
Don’t go to a VAMC emergency room I was seen by two unsupervised interns at the Philadelphia VAMC I had a experienced non VA nurse ( who use dot work for the VA but had to quite due to whistle blowing at a different VAMC) who told these two idiot interns who she was, her experience and that she witnessed to attack and it was gall bladder They refused to give me the test for gall bladder and told her and me it was a gas bubble between my chest and lung She went off on them and told me not to drink or take their prescribed mallow or I would be dead by taking the malox. The next day went to a private doctor and was admitted right into emergency surgery where they had to remove my gallbladder which the VA never ever paid fro nor after a letter of protest for malpractice/gross negligence and axing they contact the doctor and BRandywine Hospital in Chester County Pa they never did and closed the investigation saying nothing improper had happened .
The Wilimington VAMC is staffed by unsupervised interns and the VAMC in Coatesville Pa is staffed by 2 physicians assistants and nurses who bring down doctors from upstairs sometimes. THis is the best quality care?? Its a joke !! The VA will kill you.
I just got a note from a fiancee where the vet went in for a cold/flu and came out in a body bag from a Florida VA and who was worked on by some Indian doctors who couldn’t even speak english and probably weren’t even licensed out of some school in India or wherever Thats the quality of care !! Go to the emergency room at a private hospital !! At least you will be alive and get proper diagnosis and treatment .
Lee Horowitz, M.Ed, CAGS
US Navy- disabled Vietnam Era Veteran
Veterans Advocate/ Veterans civil rights advocate
[email protected]
Jesus, the freaks are out today…anyways the VA has always done this to VETERANS. Nothing has changed for the better except the fight VETERANS bring is stronger. The VA has made it through the most public scrutiny its ever faced and has gotten away with all its cheating, lying, deceiving and malpractice in front of Congress and the public taxpayers who foot the bill for they’re inequities. We need to raise the bar and push for VETERANS full accountability that will allow us to more easily bring lawsuits to the VA and its employees when they violate our rights as VETERANS and U.S.A citizens!
To understand the VA’s entire scam is all about smoke and mirrors, making themselves look good, burning through billion$ of dollar$ year after year, as the glorified government insurance and earned benefits company that it is, their sole purpose is to deny care, stonewall educational benefits, lose applications and deliberately create backlogs. Their favorite skill is coming up with new and better ways to orchestrate veteran suicides and they are currently working hard to double or triple the vet suicide rate. Take my VA claim for example: they have pretended for years that they are going to get me into a ptsd program but they never do. about 18 months ago they convinced me and my wife that I would be starting a new special program, but when we showed up they threatened to arrest me on their claim that I could not talk about classified or sensitive matters from my military service, and they were reporting me to the Dept. of Defense which they did and a threatening letter came from the DoD. foolishly after waiting 18 months while receiving many scam phone calls from the VA for me to come in for more ptsd therapy my wife convinced me to go ahead and set up another appointment. so I finally returned their call and they said they would call me right back with an appointment time and date. they also promised I would be able to finally speak freely about anything at all on my ptsd and the classified secret hell I served in the marines. a C&P examiner had told us the same thing last December and he also said he was putting me for regular aid and attendance for my severe physical and mental injuries, and that I was a danger to myself, and it would be expedited. so now, after I finally call and foolishly ask for help, no one even knows who Dureene is, the woman that has been calling me for over a year urging me to get an appointment. they just told me at the mental health VA clinic where she allegedly works that they never heard of Dureen, but they listened to some of this from me and my wife then said they would make sure, Gary said that, that they call back today, and if not, maybe tomorrow, with an appointment. notice the word “maybe”. so if they don’t call back today, maybe they will call tomorrow, but maybe they won’t. my case is nearly identical to marine sniper Clay Hunt’s case, and isn’t it ironic that Congress and the President all unanimously passed that suicide prevention act under his name into law last week and they have already announced they are diverting the funding for other more critical programs, Secretary McDonald actually said that in the national media! hey, your morons running the VA, what is more critical than a suicidal vet? well, guessing their answer, if they were telling the truth, but they sure can’t do that, this is the whole idea. they want to make it good while they cleverly manipulate anyone from me to you to any vet into suicide because that is just one less vet they have to worry about serving instead of having their $8 muffins, starbuck’s coffee, and hidden bonus program for killing us all off.
We vets are VFW’d & that RAT BasTURD living in MY white House with the rest of the trash & vermin he calls his cabinet & family! Kill all the Muslims & start with their leader! The one that sends our troops to their death but never leads them into battle is that glorious commander-in-chief O’Bozo the DC Clown, because he has never even fired a weapon at all, have the “King of Kenya” deported back to his home country on the next banana boat leaving port in 10 minutes!! The White House is part of the VFW = Veterans Fucked by Washington.. VFW
Something else that needs to be included in this blog is “white noise”. I believe that every VA phone number I call also has the random static “white noise” that’s played at different times. This noise is there to make you hang up because if you think about it, would you watch TV on a channel that has nothing but “snow” . I know I skip those channels and I’m sure that most people do the same. The VA uses this noise to get us to hang up because we get tired of hearing that noise and subconsciously our brains are telling us that this is annoying and we need to get rid of it.
I am currently dealing with a couple of VA offices that will not call me back. I talk to someone at each one and they say that their supervisor will have to contact me about my problems,that call never comes. I call them each day and write down who I contact and the time. If I ever do get to talk to a supervisor I will make sure he/she knows about this BS. I’m sure it will do no good because as we all know, they don’t care and have no reason to care. As long as they show up for their job, they have it made. Think about it, how many times have you wanted to complain about the service to someone and you have thought “who do I contact about this?”. I don’t know who or how one does complain about this except to the supervisor of the number you have called and I’m sure that is falling on deaf ears. I picture the supervisor of each one of these that I complain about just holding the phone so that he can only hear me and not talk as he is checking his/her personal e-mail, or planning his/her next vacation and when I finally get done he/she tells me they will look into it and how sorry (yeah right) they are about this. Click. This is another problem in the broken VA system that will never get fixed.
One of my problems deals with my request for a copy of my DD214 from the archives.I received the envelope and it was not sealed. The gum strip on the envelope had not been moistened and the back of the envelope didn’t have any markings to show it was sealed. This means that my private information was out there for anyone to get. My name, date of birth, Social Security Number, an old address, and my current address. This is a major problem and has me worried about my identity being stolen. It also states the return address is from a “Military Records Center” and the papers inside state that this is a document that needs to be protected and need to be stored securely. How can it be mailed to me in an envelope that is not sealed and yet I am told that this is an important document that needs protected. Thanks again VA for messing up another part of my life.
Okay, this has been going on. But what about the VAMC’s not answering their phones neither? I’ve called my VAMC dozens of times and been placed on hold anywhere from a minimum of 40 minutes and over and one time for two hours and 29 minutes. Knowing the extension number doesn’t do any good either. None of them ever answer or take any messages. I live 59 miles from the VAMC and whenever I have to try to contact anyone over there, I already know I’m not going to get that person on the phone. So knowing that, I then have to get in my truck and drive 118 miles round trip to the VAMC in order to talk to that person over there I’m trying to get in contact with. All this because of a lazy employee over there who sits on his or her azz all day long and won’t even answer the damn phone!
The same thing happens when you call the IRS with a tax question or Social Security to inquire about disability. The Republicans have ensured, through their budget process, that most federal govt. agencies are UNDERstaffed so that phone calls go unanswered. The following article was sent by a friend to me concerning the SSA’s future of eliminating disability benefits, like they are trying to do with disabled veterans compensation. Some disabled veterans are collecting SSD as well. This is being done by the Republicans with the support of the Koch brothers:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/17/why-no-one-talking-about-gops-plan-send-millions-disabled-americans-poverty
DNV – you really need to stop drinking the Kool Aid. Your assertion that the Republicans, in conjunction with the Koch brothers are underfunding the VA and causing staff issues is on the edge of being delusional. I could state stats of how the VA budget has increased by leaps and bounds. It has been pretty much what the VA asks for, they get. For several of the years in this decade the VA has not spent their total budget.
It isn’t the money. It is the people who work for the government. If you have no personal pride, no initiative, and don’t care, one fits right into the definition of a government call center worker.
Yesterday, I had to call the SS office over their SNAFU in changing direct deposit. I waited 43 minutes on the phone. The first 2 minutes 45 seconds was a recording that droned on and on about healthcare, applying for benefits, etc. The woman who finally answered was abrupt, talked down to me and told me I didn’t make my request until February 11. I told her that was not true. She said, “That is what my computer screen says and Treasury will reissue in three to five business days.” She then said, “If you have no further questions…… I told her hold on, I did have a question or two. When I finished she didn’t even wish me a good day – just hung up after I said I had no further questions. The point is she was anything but professional and sounded like she was pissed to have had to answer the call.
Also, yesterday, I had occasion to call my credit card company. I was talking to someone within two minutes. The lady was polite, explained what she could do to help me, made sure I understood the options, and thanked me for calling and being a customer.
See the difference? One person is accountable (the credit card company) and the other is protected by a union where she will most likely never be properly trained, nor will she care – the Union will protect her.
Call centers? I can’t even get local VA flunkies on the phone…but I have vowed to call, leave a message, give them a chance then escalate from there. After knee replacement surgery, I now have a scaly rash on my leg about the size of my palm. I told the surgeon when I saw him last September. He looked, then told me to buy cortisone cream. I did, it didn’t work. The PT guys have commented on it, and I showed it to the nurse assigned as my Primary Care when I saw her last month, who then marked my records as having no skin concerns…among several other false answers to questions she never asked. I asked the Patient Advocate that day to be reassigned, and nothing has been done to do that. I had another follow up with the surgeon who acted like it was the first he saw the rash, so I reminded him of him telling me to buy cortisone cream. He wants a referral to dermatology, but my VA doesn’t have a dermatologist, the nearest is Denver 4 hours away. The locals won’t do an exam because the VA pays too little. The surgeon thinks it might be a fungal infection, and it keeps growing larger. I’ve tried calling and leaving messages with the Patient Advocate to find out what the status is, and she won’t return her messages. She has until the end of the day when I will email old McDonald, Hickey and a few Senators. Lucky it isn’t MSRA or some other fast flesh eating infection. Maybe.
You too? I’ve gotten to deal with the Denver RO etc. and they’re no picnic. And for craps sake I hope they finish the Aurora hospital soon because the Denver one on Clermont is just gross. Where are you based out of? I’m in Southern CO
Grand Junction, CO.
If these guys at VA were to answer their phone it might disturb their game of computer Solitaire. Would you wanna do that? 🙂
BEN, bless you for your reporting this issue, but another thing they do if you call or as I did, hand it back to the IG. I am ten steps ahead of their game and I will not play well in their sand box. I AM READY AND WILLING TO TESTIFY IN CONGRESS ALL OF THE TRANSGRESSIONS EXPERIENCED, I FEAR NOTHING! WHAT? DO THEY HONESTLY THINK COMPLETELY SAFE? GUESS AGAIN! I MEAN WHAT I SAY AND SAY WHAT I MEAN, LYING IS A BIGGY AND IF YOU DECIDE TO QUOTE A PATIENT THEN DO IT RIGHT! ITS LIKE THE INTERN WHO SEVERAL DOCTORS SIGNED OFF AND I CAME IN AND STATED SHE DIDNT KNOW WHAT THE HELL SHE WAS DOING WHY WASNT ANYONE WATCHING? BIG MISTAKES THAT MAY SEEM INSIGNIFICANT TRULY ARE A BIG ISSUE.
Oh, YOU KNOW YOU ARE FLAGGED WHEN YOU DARE SAY WHAT THEY ARE. TOO BAD BECAUSE THIS ISNT ABOUT ME, I KNOW IT HAPPENS TO OTHERS!
I HOPE YOU HAVE LOOKED UP TWO THINGS;
1. TRAITS TESTING-I ACTUALLY HAVE AN E-BOOK ON THIS
2. THE MNPI-2WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE A LIE DETECTOR TEST NOR FOR PTSD.
3.THEY HAVE YOU TAKE A TEST AFTER THEY HAVE UPSET YOU BIG TIME, OR IN MY CASE PAIN THAT IS EXTREME I CANNOT MAKE ANY SENSE OF EACH WORD, I AM NO DUMB WONDER, ( no one is as far as I believe) BESIDES EVALS THAT SPEAK HIGHLY OF MY CHARACTER THEY REALLY DO NOT GET THAT EACH PERSON IS UNIQUE, THEREFORE ONE MUST BE TRULY CAREFUL AND ANALYSIS I THINK THAT DOESNT INVLOVE THE VA IS THE DAMNING EVIDENCE I SPOKE OF.
( AS I TOLD HER, I LOOK FOR FACTS AND STATS AND SAW NO CONSISTENCY OF TREATMENT. THE INTAKE PROCESS IS CRUCIAL, AND MINE IS LIKE READING SOMEONE ELSES STORY, GO FIGURE, 63% IS TOO DAMN HIGH, LETS SEE IF THEY CAN B.S., OUT OF THIS ONE. GROUPS ARE GROWING AND THE NUMBERS ARE RISING NOT IN FAVOR FOR THE VA.
JUST AN FYI-I DID THAT DAMN DO OVER, HARDER THIS TIME, ( and the evidence I had she stated they only told me to do this part-wait, I was told something else!) I HAVE FIBROMYALGIA AND YES I HAD IT WHILE IN SERVICE BUT NO NAME NOR CONNECTIONS OF SYMPTOMS KNOWN AT THAT TIME. WELL, MY EAR LOBES DEVELOPED THIS WEIRD RASH AND MY EARS NEEDED A GOOD FLUSHING OUT. HECK, I KNEW THAT! THIS DOCTOR PUTS ON GLOVES, LOOKS IN MY EARS AND STATE ITS AN INFECTION-GEE, I KNOW WHAT THEY ARE AND I HAVE HAD WAY TOO MANY SO I INSTANTLY IN A TIRED STATE OF MIND, “QUACK QUACK!” NOTHING FOR MY EAR LOBES AND I HAVE PEIRCINGS SO IMAGINE I WANT MY EARRINGS IN!
WELL, SINCE I HAVE DEALT WITH TOO MANY FLUNK OUTS I HAVE INSURANCE NOW AND THE NEW DOCTOR RIGHT OFF THE BAT STATED YOU HAVE WAX BUILD UP. YUP! BUT THEN HE ASKED ABOUT MY EAR LOBES AND TRUTHFULLY THAT INTERN I WONDER IF SHE FOLLOWED UNIVERSAL PRECAUTIONS FROM SPREADING ANYTHING? HE STATED IT WAS A PSORIASIS AND PRESCRIBED SOME MEDICATION, TWO DAYS LATER FOR THAT OH SO NOT FUN FLUSHING MY EAR LOBES ALREADY LOOKED A WHOLE LOT BETTER. CAN I SAY IT AGAIN? QUACK QUACK QUACK AND MORE QUACK QUACKS! DEFINITELY DAMN SCARY!
YES, LET DISNEY HELP OUT, THEY MUST BE PLOTTING FOR A VA RIDE YOU CAN COME IN AND NEVER LEAVE AS YOU ARRIVED-GEE. “WELCOME TO HOTEL CALIFORNIA OOPS I MEAN VA DISNEY!!!
I have had several hang up on me because I won’t give out my full social security #. VA Northern California Medical Operator by the name of Billy and some douche bag patient advocate Rubin Soto at Martinez, California VA Medical Clinic. As far as I know there useless, and harmful, FUBAR examples are in every corner at these facilities if not the entire VA! The VSO’s and NSO’s I have dealt with are useless…
Probably VA wide. The county VSO’s in our area are absolutely useless too. Claims to into their office and languish/get lost. It happened to us and many other people here already.
I agree with you skywalker, The local VSO is about as dumb as a rock.acts like it is coming out of his pay. so I also have gave up on the local VSO.
Gosh, can the VA do anything right? Apparently not. What a worthless bureaucracy, really. I gave up on 1-800-DIAL A PRAYER a while ago. It’s not like the representative can tell you anything (about a disability claim) other than, “It’s being processed.” Yay. Then we have the wonderful e-Bennies, which even VA personnel will tell you is inaccurate. I’m thinking more and more as time goes on the VA makes this system broken on purpose to discourage people away. I tend to think they follow this model:
https://demotivators.despair.com/demotivational/apathydemotivator.jpg
Funny, you call it the prayer number? I am blunt and call it what it is, “the 1-800 we don’t give a shit number! Hey, as stated! Sailor, Medical, screw with my head you think? Good luck with that one, it never has worked before on me!
Also-if you need certain information that the damn VA employees should do the “hunt and Find,” they say they will, but they do not, I checked my c-file. I SAY REQUEST WHAT YOU NEED AND GIVE THEM THE TIME OF ENTRY TO THE TIME OF EXIT, AS STATED, BRING IT VA! OH, I DONT KNOW ABOUT THAT CHECK THIS BOX IF THIS IS FOR A CASE BECAUSE THEN YOU CANNOT GET YOUR RECORDS AND THEY WILL LIE TO YOUR FACE. I AM MY OWN KEEPER, I TRUST THEM NOT, AND BY THE TIME WE GET THROUGH THIS DAMN MESS, OR AS I “MAYBE ADVISED,” I PLAN ON LETTING AN AWARD WINNING TV JOURNALIST FIRST DIBS TIME TO DISGRACE THE VA BIG TIME, I MAY COME IN WITH A SOUNDLESS CLAP BUT DEFINITELY YOU SHALL HEAR THE THUNDER, VIKING ODIN AND THOR TOO WILL ENJOY THIS ONE! MYTHICAL CHARACTER MAYBE, OR MAYBE NOT, “WE SHALL WAIT AND SEE!” GOOD LUCK!