Can you find your VA claim in this picture?
Odds are that neither can the VA clerks charged with maintaining your records at Winston-Salem, NC. That picture appears in Time Magazine’s Battleland and it was taken during an audit by the VA’s Office of the Inspector General.
The IG alerted VA headquarters to the problem, which has led to the relocation of much of the paperwork, and plans for better and safer long-term storage.
What? They needed to be told that it wasn’t a good idea to keep paper files (probably the only copies of paper files) stored like that? Seriously? An untrained ape could have told them that it was less than ideal.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
Well now I feel lucky that I got my rating after only two years.
Holy shitballs Batman! And didn’t NARA lose thousands of records in a fire once? This a different agency but it is still ridiculous.
Really, whats the chance of a fire ala 1973 St. Louis National Personnel Records Center? Surely there are duplicates stored in secure location…
~Double face palm ~
Zero, inStupid alert you used the term APE. It only 3o plus years to get my rating raised from the 40% they gave me when medically discharged from the Marines. Try to get help from a different VAMC. You will be told no. You are NOT regristered at this VAMC. They have puters , but do not know to maxize the systems. Joe
Joe, truer words have never been spoken. For several months my claim was being processed simultaneously by the VA networks in region 7 and 9. I kept telling them I’d moved, but my parents continued to get letters and phone calls (despite my updating my address and phone number.) I even got a letter addressed to where I now live in south Alabama telling me about my scheduled appointments at the VA hospital in Memphis.
Maybe Shinsheki can give all the VA employees berets and that will improve their productivity and knowledge. And Tammi Duckworth can clear out the backlog of GI Bill claims.
If you browse the web you can find stories about IG inspectors finding records in stored/hidden in ceilings, the bottom of elevator shafts, and more.
I had to send in copies of the same things 3 and 4 times because they couldn’t find them after I had sent them, then lets not forget just a couple years ago the mail clerks shredding the stuff before it was even sent up to the claims people.
If you have a rating at all consider yourself lucky.
Good places to get info about dealing with the VA are:
http://www.vawatchdog.org/
http://www.jimstrickland912.com/
http://www.hadit.com/
AND for our active duty folks who are in or facing a MEB/PEB
http://www.pebforum.com/site/
The PEB forum is run and moderated by straight up concerned Veterans that have been thru the system.
I hope I didn’t break any rules here by posting this.
Stu
Not sure what General Shinseki’s estimate is, but I believe it will take hundreds of thousands of troops to sort out this mess.
It wouldn’t even take a fire to destroy all those files, since there are sprinklerheads just above them. Even a small fire in a trash can might be enough to pop the sprinklers and douse them all.
“I’m shocked, shocked to find there’s gambling going on in this establishment!”
I think productivity would improve if they stopped wasting time and money by sending me a single brochure from one region detailing my benefits instead of over a dozen of each one they have from two regions.
Sprinklers don’t work like they do in the movies. Sprinklers activate individually and typically have to get to over 200 degrees to start to activate. The activating sprinkler is typically closer to 300 degrees by the time you get water flow. At 300 degrees at the ceiling you can pretty much expect that there is a pretty nice little fire going that is about to get a LOT larger.
It took me 4 years of waiting. But the back pay was worth it
Kevin, I have firm faith that the VA will find a way to corrupt the sprinklers into creating Niagra Falls every time someone burns their popcorn. I was at Cherry Point when someone ended up completely burning down the state of the art year old Base Commanding General’s building after leaving a coffeemaker on in a crypto vault. Despite this I’m convinced the VA would be unparalleled in the Asshatery Olympics.
I’m sure the 27,000 new people just hired can handle this.
Again…keep reminding me why I never hung around for retirement.
Stu, thanks for the links. I wish I’d known about them when I was going through the medboard maze. I’m gonna send the info to my old unit so hopefully other Marines in the same boat will have an easier time.
That stack of files and paperwork gives me the worst anxiety. As a VA employee, I can fully understand why veterans don’t trust the VA or come in with a sour attitude. Everyday working at the VA is a struggle to push through the bullshit and incompetence only to make no headway and end up right back at square one.
@13 Kevin- true, that’s how normal overhead systems work. Since this one is tied in with government though, I’m sure some snake-oil salesman sold them on putting in a “high tech, state of the art” solenoid-actuated sprinkler system that is controlled by particulate detectors, so if someone sweeps a broom on the floor vigorously it will set them off. Because if they store records there, normal systems aren’t good enough. Also because their clerk of the works got kickbacks on every unit that was installed, because his cousin owns the sprinkler company. After all, construction and rehab budgets are free money, and if you don’t spend it, you lose it.
Thanks for the links, Stu. I’ll be posting on my blog and on FB, too.
Hey I see mine, bottom row front second from the right. 11 months and waiting !!!
After all the horror stories that I have heard, I feel quite lucky to have dealt with some very good people at the VA. The rep that I started working with in Watertown passed away unexpectedly and the Ft Drum rep had to pick up his workload, in addition to his normal duties for a few months.
When the replacement came on ground, he called me and made an appointment to go over my files, and he had good notes from everyone else that had been working on my claim so he wasn’t clueless. He also made sure that I talked to the regional rep that was working my claim and that regional rep called me every 2 weeks to appraise me on the status of my claim.
About a year later, I was advised of my status and will be getting a monthly check for my rating after I get off this deployment.
I did get a check for the back dated claim though deposited in my bank account before I got the letter explainnig my rating.
I waited till I retired to submit my claims. Several serious and most are minor, all are legitimate. However after eight months all I have recieved is the same form letter each month informing me that due to volume my claim is still under review. I do have faith and I will keep you posted. Till then if I don’t answer, it is because I am half deaf. If I don’t move quick enough for your satification, it is because my back is shot, my right hip clicks, and my right knee sounds like a coffee grinder. I still run the mile in a half in less than 12 mins. Maybe that is why I am all jacked up. Eight months and counting, I’ll keep running and waiting! But while I am waiting, I certainly hope that veterans less fortunate than I are being cared for. I would expected those in greater need be cared for first! If that is the case … I can wait!