How do you complain Paperwork separated

[ROMAD]

I submitted a fully developed packet and Faxed it to the intake center with 20 plus pages. My VSO looked today and it seems they have separated the packet and it no longer makes sense. I included copies of service treatment, and VA medical records with text highlighted and underlined but they are now labeled as individual documents with the title correspondence. How can they possibly get things right if they don't leave the evidence with the form you send in... or at least label the attachments so they can be referenced from the main application. How do I get this fixed.

[ShrekTheTank]

Well that is a cluster.  I always do the mailing portion and I upload everything on Ebenefits to my claim.  I believe you can also upload on VA.gov.  Never give them an inch!  I learned this a few years back when their decision made no sense and I was like what the heck did you look at?  

I would page number the corner of each page so they can see if they are out of order.  This way if you have to appeal all the information is there!  

There might not be anything else you can do but give them the entire document again.

[paulstrgn]

See if you can still upload documents through VA.gov for the claim, I know I was able to add pages to my claims in eBenefits. If nothing else make a new cover sheet stating you are resubmitting the evidence for your pending claim and (like Shrekthetank1 said) number each page. Also on the new cover sheet tell them how many pages you are submitting.

It's a pain but it's worth it to make sure they have all your evidence to your claim.

 

[ROMAD]

I did include a cover sheet with the total pages, but they separated the 0996 form, and the continuation sheet which was plain word document with all the facts and citations (They labelled this correspondence) and the medical records highlighted and underlined are separate and labelled Correspondence, nothing is in order like I submitted. I included copies of the records where they claimed I had not been seen for a condition. I did this for service treatment as well as VAMC files.... EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING.

[Vync]

@ROMAD They also jacked up my CUE packet I submitted four months ago. It got held up because the VA wasn't sure if they could move forward on what I submitted or if I needed yet another required form.

I work as a programmer in a company that processed electronic data like text files, PDFs, etc... When they get a bundle, they have to separate it out. Think of it like when you buy a house. You have a loan application, credit application,  property appraisal, etc... Every one of those documents has to be reviewed and classified/or split out into individual documents based on their type. Otherwise you just have a "bundle" PDF document that contains a variety of documents and can be difficult to search and manage. I am not familiar with the inner workings of the VA's document management system. I have seen some very smooth and well organized systems, but also have seen some that are rather awful. I wish I knew more about how the VA does it. Might have to dig into M21-1 and see if they have publicly accessible procedures for scanning/organizing/filing correspondence they receive.

[vetquest]

Romad, I would resubmit again.  They will tell you that they already have all of this information already.  Just inform them that the information is not in a comprehensive form that you submitted. Try to submit a table of contents with your document.  If they break it up again it will immediately become apparent that something is amiss.  I once submitted a packet with a table of contents and then references within the letter that identified the included information.