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.