VA Mail Problems.

[Rattler]

 In one of the conversation last week with 800 Betty I found out that the VA is having problems with its mail system. So if they have issued an decision in your case and you have not received the letter yet. (At this point the 10 days do not matter) You can get them to email it to you. (I don't recommend it as its hard to open and I'm a retired IT Guy) Or they can Fax it to you. That's what I did as I have an online Fax account.

[Al329]

Called yesterday for a decision letter and code sheet. Asked for them to email it to me.

Email hasn't come in yet, so might call again today.  I wouldn't think it takes a day for an email to show... weird.

[brokensoldier244th]

Depends. National VA hasn’t  authorized the use of email for anything that pertains to veterans due to the lack of a standardized encryption that we could use that would also be user friendly to veterans. It’s in the works but nothing has been approved. 
 

800- people don’t work at or for a specific regional office so I’d love to know where they got their information. Yes the mass print/mail portal is having problems- what, I don’t know, they didn’t specify and I asked. I used to be an IT guy, too, mainly for hospitals. We are instructed to add 30 days right now to any suspended date where we are waiting on information from a veteran, and to not adjudicate Time based actions negatively (missed deadlines) until we hear otherwise. Nothing about emailing anything, or faxing, either. 

[Mr cue]

I think by the va add 30 days they no its a problem. With there mailing system

I had a email send you can not get them on your phone.

Told I have to use a real computer to get the email to download.

It was a waste of time I had them fax the letter

 

 

 

[pwrslm]

My last decision did not arrive after 30 days. I called the 800# and they emailed the decision letter same day. The last 2 times my claims took over a month by snail mail.

The second claim I made never showed so I requested they send it twice before I finally got it. Strange how the letters seemed to arrive about 3 weeks later though, and in the end I got 3 of them (over 3 months from the decision date). This was back in 2017.

 

I think the transparency needs to be addressed. The VBA hides too much and refused to communicate with claimants. They talk to VSO's all the time, but if a vet files his/her own claim there is no access to any information. Vets should be able to negotiate the claims system without help. The VA spends tons of cash and we are barred from legal help (lawyers) in initial claims. We need transparency.

[brokensoldier244th]

Nobody needs a lawyer for an initial claim. You literally fill out a form and submit the evidence afterwards- just don’t pick fully developed if it’s not because that assumes that you’ve submitted all you are going to. 
 

Nothing if stopping you from paying a lawyer to look at it but va isn’t going to likely approve Fee agreements for initial claims because it would result in many veterans getting very little by the time the fees are done, and most lawyers won’t accept them anyway because they don’t work in charity. This was made the rule after talking to lawyers, va didn’t draft it out of their butt. 

There is a process to getting vetted for vbms as a poa, and it’s not short.  I don’t know if self claimants can but if they can’t that’s congresses fault- they approve or deny (laws) the privacy and security rules for access to government systems. 
 

I’ve worked there almost two years. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve communicated and/ or gotten a response from a vso. 

[Mr cue]

Ok let's keep it real.

You can get any mail from DC or any other place in 5 days. 

Until they made the intake center mail would get to a veteran in 7 10 day. Now they have a 30 day rule smh.

If a veteran can't call the bva anymore is that helping or prolonging things.

Seen this new comp exam veterans are do exams in hotel ex ray in parking lots.

They send it out for these exam 67 time for the same opinion.

Why can't a veteran get a copy of his own exam. Us this not to prolong things and you will get a reduce letter before you even see the comp exam results. Does that seem like it helping.

The va a system is change guys and it will much harder and longer before some get the benefits they are owe.