I was on Hold for 3 hours and 33 minutes listening to muzak and messages telling me that most things can be handled on line and that I will be asked to share personal information that they can share. I cleaned out my inbox that had over 3300 items. I found 2 that I wanted to respond to. I read several articles, ate lunch and was just trying to figure out what to do next when the SSA representative answered. I appreciated that she did not apologize for the long wait.
I explained what I needed and she said I can do that online. Essentially I just need to do a new application using my SSN. She stayed on the line until I was well into filling out the application. I did plead for her to give me an appointment anyway just in case. It was at this point I explained that I had heard from 2 sources that I did need an appointment and I had waited on the line for 3 and a half hour just to get an appointment. I was extremely pleasant. I was not upset with HER at all. I would have asked her some questions about how she was doing, but that would’ve just taken time from someone else.
I successfully filled out the application except I made a mess in the part about prior marriages that I am not sure now this happened. There is no data marriage one; marriage 1 looks like marriage 2 and marriage 2 looks like marriage 3. The system would not accept application like this so I entered the data in the right places for marriage 1 and 2, and deleted data from marriage 3 except there is yes/no button for one question that cannot be undone (or at least I can’t figure out how to do it). Thus I get error messages for all of the fields not filled in for marriage 3. While I can save the application, I cannot submit it because of the yes/no button.
So now I face another call and likely long wait or just keep the May 1 appointment.
Before the call ended, the representative asked me to make sure to cancel the appointment if I don’t need the time which I said I would of course plan to do. I asked her how to cancel and she said to call the national number I had waited 3.5 hours to get an appointment. REALLY.
I had assumed I would get a email confirmation of appointment with option to cancel. Clearly there are improvements to the software and overall user experience, but the 3 SSA representatives I have spoken with over the years have be very pleasant knowledgeable and professional.
While I had the time today to do the wait and get my issue dealt with, most people would not be able to wait it out. I could Hate the federal government because of this experience but I don’t. Imagine the outrage if someone wants to access mySSA.com and there is a ERROR message that the server is offline for updates. Constituents would call their Congressional members to complain and the members call While House.
No matter what the challenge there is significant disruption associated with trying to solve or improve the problem that will negatively impact constituents who will complain. There is disincentive at every level to change. So things remain outdated far longer to avoid the complaints from angry constituents complaining about how poorly the government works.
A real conundrum.
Tamara Unleashed 