nicknack

Thanks Just. I am pretty sure that's why they did the move. San Diego is faster then Seattle. I think I am most upset that I wasn't given any notification. Which to me is the biggest failing of the VA. And I work at the VA Hospital so I know first had how bad communication is. Otherwise I have no other complaints, for the most part they have been good to me.

Ok thanks. I do disagree with the statement that writing one's Congressional Representative and Senators is useless. It at least feels good to vent to someone who is expected to do something about it, even if they do nothing.Kind of like venting to a bartender, or your pet. Lately I have had been getting better then average responses from the 1-800 number people. They did tell me that it is not unusual for it to be done when the claim is still in the developmental phase, but highly unusual when it is in the decision phase, such as my claim was at the time. At least according to the Monday morning reports the San Diego office is way more efficient then the Seattle office, so I will take that as some sort of consolation.

Ok thank you for the responses so far. The issue and question is not the time frame. My question has to do with moving a veterans file and records from one RO to another without informing the veteran, or not at the veteran's request. Has anyone experienced that? As for the time frames everything has been as I expected, I got what I applied for initially 5 years ago. And I can wait on the stuff I just recently applied for. With the exception of my paragraph 30 request.

I appreciate the responses so far. Thank you. But they don't actually answer my question. Just commenting on my background story. Which isn't the issue, I just wanted to provide it to bring us up todate My question again is has anyone else had their original RO decide to transfer everything to another RO without the Veteran's knowledge and while a claim was pending. Thank you Nick

Alright so I don't know where else to inquire as to the proper location for this question. Background. I was given 20% for lower left lumbar strain upon my discharge in 2005. In May 2010 I had a L4-L5 Laminectomy. Guess where my hernia was, you guessed it L4-L5 left side. It was the second time I had an MRI done and the second time a hernia showed up in the exact same area. Well in late June I called the VA about upgrading my claim, they told me about Paragraph 30 because I had the surgery. So of course I applied. The VA didn't officially open my claim until late July 2010. Anyways, at that time I was living in Minneapolis MN, my records were kept in the Seattle regional office. I had been under Voc Rehab for awhile, from Seattle to San Diego and finally Minneapolis. And I have never had any issues recieving VA mail at each new place, because I made sure they had the addresses prior to my actual moved. And I always checked in when I moved. Anyways in September I recieved a letter about ebenefits website, use it, it makes things a little easier. So I could of course stay up to date on where my claim was, also I had recieved a letter from the Seattle office apologizing for the delay in processing my claim. I called the 1-800 number and they at one point told me it would be decided in 16-28 days, this was back in September. According to ebenefits though it was still in the developmental phase so someone on the phone gave me wrong information. I moved back to San Diego November 4th, and didn't look at status for a couple of weeks. The week before Thanksgiving I see the status had changed to Decision Phase with an national average wait time of 16-28 days. Well December 6 I called to find out when it actually switched to the Decision phase, they told me November 2nd. Well on Dec 10th I sent an email through their iris system saying I want to talk to someone on the phone from the Seattle office to see what the delay was. I also started looking at the Monday morning reports online. Well I checked my ebenefits profile daily and yesterday on the 15th I see it had been changed to closed. The date said it was closed on the 14th. I couldn't get through to anyone on the phone that day, so today the 16th I was able to talk to someone. Apparently the Seattle office put a hold on my claim (it says closed on my profile) and forwarded it to the San Diego office. All my records and claims are in the process to be transfered to San Diego. Now in reality I don't mind that it will be coming here, what I am upset at is it made my claim process even longer. My new Congressman is Bob Filner who currently is the Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Comitte. He'll be the ranking minority come next congressional session. So I emailed him and my 2 Senators to complain and ask for their assistance to keep from my claim being placed back on the bottom. And also the Senators in WA state and the Congressman in Seattle district to let them know and to keep the Seattle office from screwing over other Veterans in the process. Anyways...has something like that happened to anyone else? Moving of the records and the claim like that? Or any advice for me? Thank you Edit: My question is about being moved from one RO to another without informing the veteran while a claim is in middle of being decided. Not about time frames given or who I talked to. Thank you for your insight and experiences but please I wish to focus on my question not anything else.