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Thread: Arrrrggghhh!!!! Between the Post Oriface and the VA I have been reported as having disappeared

  1. #1
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Default Arrrrggghhh!!!! Between the Post Oriface and the VA I have been reported as having disappeared

    So my pension is in limbo until some drone gets off her/his ass and replaces my data in the system.

    Which means the payment I was counting on for little things, like paying the fucking rent, is being held up.

    And the monkeys at the VA cannot give me an estimate when things will restored. According to the people I've talked to, I've done all I can do to fix things. Now I just have to wait for the bureaucracy.


    And people wonder why I don't trust bureaucrats nor bureaucracies.

  2. #2
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Oh geez, Loki. That's awful.

  3. #3
    MOON GIRL FIGHTS CRIME Myrnalene's avatar
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    Jesus, Loki. Will you be ok?

    Please let us know what happens.

  4. #4
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Oh, I'll be okay - worse comes to worst I can get a temporary loan from my mom. But for obvious reasons I'd prefer to avoid that. At the moment this is just frustrating, not a disaster.

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    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    This blows but one question.

    Quote Originally posted by OtakuLoki View post
    And people wonder why I don't trust bureaucrats nor bureaucracies.
    Do people really wonder?

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    Wait, who posted this thread?

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    Living la vida broke-a Revs's avatar
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    What thread?
    Give me whiskey when I'm thirsty,Give me a cold beer when I'm dry, Give me root beer when I'm sickly, Give me a headstone when I die.

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    Jesus F'ing Christ Glazer's avatar
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    Just wait till they get ahold of your health care.
    Welcome to Mellophant.

    We started with nothing and we still have most of it left.

  9. #9
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Glazer View post
    Just wait till they get ahold of your health care.
    Duuuude, they already are doing my health care.

  10. #10
    Stegodon
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    [avatar]
    I see you, Loki.
    [/avatar]

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally posted by OtakuLoki View post
    Duuuude, they already are doing my health care.

  12. #12
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    I feel a little bad, here.

    Back in my father's day, when he was in grad school, he knew several med students, and biology researchers. He heard, several times, a bit of very macabre humor in those days: "Why pay for lab rats when veterans are free?" Certainly the reputation of the VA's care for veterans is pretty bleak at times. Even today.

    Which is completely counter to my own experience with the VA. Even this mess is simply a matter of bureaucratic inertia - not incompetence. Hell, the same piece of mail that triggered this whole mess was a shipment of my blood pressure medications. When the local pharmacy got the returned package they called me, verified my secure mailing address, and had it out to me within two days. My big mistake was not in following up to make sure that knowledge had gone through the whole bureaucratic organism. When my father's health took a dramatic turn for the worse, and by happenstance I ended up at the VA, my doctor hooked me up with the social workers at the VA, clued me in on some supplies the VA could help us with, and just in general really were a great deal of help and reassurance at a time when I felt the world was falling on my shoulders.

    Now, I believe my VA clinic cannot be used as a rubric for the whole of the VA system: for a number of reasons this clinic has a very pointed institutional interest in maintaining excellent relations with its clients. For the past fifteen years, every VA clinic closing list has had the parent facility, Canandaigua, on it. Each time the publication of the list is followed by a shit storm of protests from various constituencies, usually supported by the Congressional delegation making pointed comments to the VA's administration. So, I suspect my VA clinic is a bit more responsive than most in the system. But that doesn't change that I've always gotten very good care from them.

    Alas, the clinic here is only in charge of the health care, and the services available via the social workers. The administrative stuff that I need to get dealt with handled in a regional office, instead. Which doesn't have to worry about the closing lists. So I fear for the bureaucratic inertia I may have to wait through.


    (I do have a plan, however. If the payment doesn't go in tonight, I'll be going down to my local clinic tomorrow - and ask for knee pads and the name of the person in Buffalo I need to suck off to get this straightened out.)

  13. #13
    Jesus F'ing Christ Glazer's avatar
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    Dude it's the bureaucratic inertia by government employees that think they can't be fired (no offense Exy) that scares me.
    Welcome to Mellophant.

    We started with nothing and we still have most of it left.

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    Quote Originally posted by Glazer View post
    Dude it's the bureaucratic inertia by government employees that think they can't be fired (no offense Exy) that scares me.
    Ha ha ha, I work directly for legislators. No one in my office thinks we couldn't get fired -- if you piss off a politician, they are not quiet and retiring.

  15. #15
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Well, that five-to-ten days estimate has been and gone. Now I'm being told that the claim is *almost* done, it's in the final stages.

    And then they don't know when the money will be released. It might not be until the first of next month.

    Like I've said upthread: I'll be okay. My parents can help me. But I'm very frustrated for having to go back and tell them that the short term loan I'd asked for on the assumption that it could be paid off in a few weeks was gained under false pretenses. False not because of my intentions, but because I was fed information that has turned out to be bad.

    Grrr....

  16. #16
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    That is outrageous, Otaku. It's totally ridiculous that they can't deal with it faster than this.

  17. #17
    Clueless but well-meaning Hatshepsut's avatar
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    Otaluki, you have all my sympathy. I hope this situation doesn't last much longer.

    On letting the government handle health care, though, I'd rather be subjected to the tender mercies of an inefficient system that actually existed for the purpose of providing people with health care, even if they screwed up sometimes, than the absolutely evil, corrupt, vile, unspeakable system that modern American insurance corporations represent.

    I know what I'm talking about, believe me. My father died two years ago and we are STILL fighting with the insurance company over the claims for his final medical services. They have lied, dragged their feet, misrepresented the facts, deliberately misunderstood what they've been told, "lost" paperwork - you name it, if it was an excuse to slow down the process, they have done it. (Even worse, every time I call they say "Are you [name of my dad]?" You'd think after TWO FUCKING YEARS they could put a note in the man's file that he is DEAD. I swear they just ask that question so grieving relatives will feel worse when they call and won't be as sharp at advocating for themselves. They are scum.

    Sorry about that hijack.

  18. #18
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Well, it's Feb 22, and things are back on track.

  19. #19
    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Hatshepsut View post
    Otaluki, you have all my sympathy. I hope this situation doesn't last much longer.

    On letting the government handle health care, though, I'd rather be subjected to the tender mercies of an inefficient system that actually existed for the purpose of providing people with health care, even if they screwed up sometimes, than the absolutely evil, corrupt, vile, unspeakable system that modern American insurance corporations represent.

    I know what I'm talking about, believe me. My father died two years ago and we are STILL fighting with the insurance company over the claims for his final medical services. They have lied, dragged their feet, misrepresented the facts, deliberately misunderstood what they've been told, "lost" paperwork - you name it, if it was an excuse to slow down the process, they have done it. (Even worse, every time I call they say "Are you [name of my dad]?" You'd think after TWO FUCKING YEARS they could put a note in the man's file that he is DEAD. I swear they just ask that question so grieving relatives will feel worse when they call and won't be as sharp at advocating for themselves. They are scum.

    Sorry about that hijack.
    Good hijack and excellent rant and probably one we have all dealt with in one way or another.
    Quote Originally posted by OtakuLoki View post
    Well, it's Feb 22, and things are back on track.
    As in all resolved at last? If so excellent news.

  20. #20
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Yes, it is. I need a haircut.

  21. #21
    Aged Turtle Wizard Clothahump's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by OtakuLoki View post
    (I do have a plan, however. If the payment doesn't go in tonight, I'll be going down to my local clinic tomorrow - and ask for knee pads and the name of the person in Buffalo I need to suck off to get this straightened out.)
    Rather than do that, find out who the person is and go stand on top of their desk until it gets resolved.
    Political correctness will be the death of our country.

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