VA (Vets Admin) Phones Dispense Questionable Answers (WP/KR)

[Up2Late]

(Not only do the NOT "Support the Troops," but they apparently don't give respect out veteran's either.)

VA Phones Dispense Questionable Answers

Monday, January 9, 2006; Page A17

A veteran who turns to the Department of Veterans Affairs for information about benefits might want a second opinion. According to VA data, people who call the department's regional offices for help and advice are more likely to receive completely wrong answers than completely right ones.

To see how well department employees answer typical questions from the public, VA benefits experts in 2004 called each of the 57 regional offices, which process disability claims. The mystery callers, saying they were relatives or friends of veterans inquiring about possible benefits, made 1,089 calls. Almost half the time they got answers that the department said were either completely incorrect or minimally correct.

According to an internal memo on the mystery-caller program that is buried deep in the VA Web site, 22 percent of the answers the callers got were "completely incorrect," 23 percent were "minimally correct" and 20 percent were "partially correct." Nineteen percent of the answers were "completely correct," and 16 percent "mostly correct."

The program also found that some VA workers were dismissive of some callers and unhelpful or rude to others. One caller, for example, said: "My father served in Vietnam in 1961 and 1962. Is there a way he can find out if he was exposed to Agent Orange?" The VA response, according to the memo: "He should know if they were spreading that chemical out then. He would be the only one to know. OK (hung up laughing)."

(more at link below)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010800851.html?nav=rss_politics>

[salin]

1. yikes!

that is a horrendous record I would be interested in reading more/learning more - one would expect more varied (some "benefits experts" better than others) but this is a pretty consistently poor to awful performance. Certainly there is more to the story - no idea what but there has got to be more.

[thefool_wa]

6. Benefits Experts

is just a term they use to make you feel better. Most call centers consider anyone who has attended a training (whether they slept through it or not) to be an "expert" in the subject matter.

I wouldn't get too hung up on titles, they are all fluff.

[KT2000]

2. try calling ANY agency

about exposure to toxic substances. The rule of thumb is to get rid of the caller -period!
There is NO ONE who helps with exposure problems - past or present. Help = liability for someone.

[thefool_wa]

7. Do you have an example #

I would love to try this just for a laugh.

"OMG! A 50-gal drum just fell off the back of a truck in my neighborhood and broke open. It looks like just water in it but there is this wierd spikey icon on the side of the barrell and it says 'Amonium Chloride'. I washed my face with it before I called and now it burns. What should I do?"

That would probably get me a visit from Homeland Security :)

[KT2000]

8. EPA is good at hot potato!

regional and national. They would send out the police haz mat though - beyond that - not so much help.

[thefool_wa]

9. Damn

I don't want to go to jail for reporting a fake incident. Still, I'll come up with something.

[Up2Late]

3. kick n/t

:kick:

[Mountainman]

4. You should know if you were sprayed with agent orange.

It was called operation ranch hand. Every day 3 C-123 Provider aircraft flew over in a triangle formation and sprayed the chemical on my head at Long Bihn in 1967 and 1968.

[thefool_wa]

5. This is no surprise

I work in a call center and, no matter where you go or what you do, call center people are the same. You can count on about a 20% chance of getting the right answer whenever you call and you will never get the same answer twice.

Its a byproduct of the call center work culture, hiring practices, and the sheer size of the worforce involved in call center operation. It sucks, but I don't think there is anything that can be done (short of paying call center workers better and improving their workplace, but don't get me started).