U.S. Social Security Administration

Write a Review800-772-1213

CLOSED NOW - Opens at 9:00am

It's not surprising to spend an unusual amount of time listening to pre-recorded menus which ALWAYS seem unable, to understand what one is saying OR spelling, however when the time finally does arrive, if and when one is connected to a live person, is it out of the question to think that the behavior of this human will be any less impersonal than the recordings you've spent the last 15 minutes with?
Three calls were required to obtain my 84 year old Mothers Medicade card number.
After the series of questions asked by the recording, when the rep came on the line, I explained the situation and after asking if he might speak with her, I explained that I would be picking her up within the next 20 minutes. He said if I would simply call back and let him verify herself to him that there would be no problem, and we'd take it from there.
Arriving home, I called again, listened to the same announcements, answered the same questions, and was finally connected to another representative. Explaining again, he also said that it would be necessary to speak with her directly. Giving her the phone, one of the first questions asked was her social security number, no problem, and then asked her current address. Having moved only 2 months ago, at 84 she was unsure of the apartments street addresss. When she asked me to refresh her memory, the phone was handed back to me. I was told that since it was evident that she didn't even know her own address, it would be impossible for him to make to validate her identity. ( Had he heard my promptings to her in the background?
Also,there seemed to be an issue regarding her present and past address. What was on his file didn't match what she had repeated.'Could she give her last address, or the one before that? Exactly how far back did she need to go?
He wasn't allowed to give me that information.
After trying to convince me that it would be necessary to take her to the closest regional office and make my inquiries there, I begged for another try, hoping that the last address was the one which he had on file. She gave him the street number of our last apartment, but failed to provide the apt. number. Handing the phone back to me, he said that we could go through this all day, but it was evident that she didn't or wasn't able to convince him of her identity, so he was going to end the call.
At this point he assumed an attitude even haughtier than before so I asked his name and that of his supervisor. He informed me that WHATEVER action I took, it wouldn't make any difference. Whether he heard my closing remarks to him, I can't be sure,but they weren't " Have a nice day".
The third attempt was successful, but again the wait seemed unnecessarily long. The representative, although helpful, evidently hadn't been employed there long enough to realize that she could assume any attitude she wished, depending on her mood.
This is a GOVERNMENTAL OFFICE!
Next time you need to waste an hour, try your luck! You may be surprised, amused, infuriated like I was, but one thing is for sure, it's a phone call you're not likely to forget anytime soon.

SOMETIMES THE PHONES ARE HANGING UP ON PEPOLE HERE WHN DOING BUISSNESS; LONG WAIT TIMES IN OFFICES DAILY HERE WORK ON THESE ISSUES