Been trying to get Mom signed up for Medicare since September!
Did all the stuff online to click submit and got the message that your application can’t be completed online and must be done at an in person appointment.
So I call for weeks sit on hold for hours finally to actually talk to someone who tells me to sign up online.
I explain the online application told me that was not possible and I must do it in person. She says there is no such thing as in person appointments due to Covid.
And someone will call to schedule a phone appointment.
Finally get a call on December 28th and the phone appointment is scheduled for February 22nd at 10 am.
So here it is February 22nd I drive 2 hours to have the phone appointment so Mom can be on the phone as well.
With the appointment confirmation letter in hand listing the date, time, and phone number we sit and we wait.
About 10:20 I pull up my phone to check some emails. Well guess what these morons called my house phone (I get emails of messages to the house phone). The number I specifically told them not to call and not to list as a contact number for my mother as it was only the number I was calling from at the time. So I called the local number they called from with no answer, called both 800 numbers on the appointment confirmation letter. One goes straight to busy and the other rang for 35 minutes with no answer and had to click over for another call hoping it was the local folks. No such luck. Called back and the number has been dining for 58:51 seconds with no answer!

What complete incompetent morons!!!!!!!

Are you dealing with the national number or your local office?
I could not get online, either, and I could never get through on the national line.
Once I looked up the number for the local office and called them everything went smoothly.

Dang that sucks!!!

I've been told that in situation like this to contact your US congress-critters office, they have people on staff that deal with this sort of thing, and the matter should be taken care of quickly.

Good luck to you and Mom.
.

Just an observation. When I first tried to sign up I got the same message. I tried again and got the same thing. For some reason I looked at my SS card and instead of my full name it only listed my middle and last name. My first name is the same as my Dad but have always gone by my middle name so when my parents applied for my card they only put my middle and last name on the application. I input that name as first name with no middle name and it went through. It may be a spelling issue also.

May not make a difference for you but make sure the name you are entering is the same as on her card.

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
Are you dealing with the national number or your local office?
I could not get online, either, and I could never get through on the national line.
Once I looked up the number for the local office and called them everything went smoothly.

Every number I can find. No one has answered the local number once since I have started calling in September but all the returned calls originated from there according to caller ID.

Today the local number rang for about 10 minutes then would hang up. The 888 number under the local number on the appointment letter was always busy.
The 800 national number just rang for nearly 2 hours. While using 2 other phones just dialed the other two numbers over and over.
Nothing!

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
Dang that sucks!!!

I've been told that in situation like this to contact your US congress-critters office, they have people on staff that deal with this sort of thing, and the matter should be taken care of quickly.

Good luck to you and Mom.
.

Will likely try this.

quote:

Originally posted by triggertreat:
Just an observation. When I first tried to sign up I got the same message. I tried again and got the same thing. For some reason I looked at my SS card and instead of my full name it only listed my middle and last name. My first name is the same as my Dad but have always gone by my middle name so when my parents applied for my card they only put my middle and last name on the application. I input that name as first name with no middle name and it went through. It may be a spelling issue also.

May not make a difference for you but make sure the name you are entering is the same as on her card.

I am back home and my brother is going to try to submit online again so I told him to check her card to make sure it is the same.

Every Congressional office has someone that deals with Medicare ONLY. I usually start with the most effective Senator who has been in office for some time. Post back and let us know how it turns out. Once she gets on Medicare and selects the options most of your problems are over.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Every Congressional office has someone that deals with Medicare ONLY. I usually start with the most effective Senator who has been in office for some time. Post back and let us know how it turns out. Once she gets on Medicare and selects the options most of your problems are over.

Shouldn’t this tell us something???????

Can you try setting up an account again online and applying?

No excuse for this. If you give it one more shot at doing it on line with no success, definitely time to contact your Congressman or Senator. Some advice on this. Avoid the temptation to contact more than one elected representative. If you contact both your congressman and senator (in the hope that piling on will get things done quicker) and they find out about it, there's a good chance both will stop following up. Trust me on that. Pick one representative and stick with them. Many of these Congressional staffers are very busy with a large case load, so don't hesitate to follow up if you don't get a timely response. And don't wait too long between follow ups. Some staffers are real strict with privacy issues, so they may insist on speaking with your mother. If your mother gives the staffer permission to speak with you on her behalf, that should take care of that.

Things have deteriorated significantly since I retired from SSA over 3 years ago. We have been chronically understaffed for years, but we used to make up the short fall with huge amounts of overtime. I had Saturday overtime and two hours of overtime available daily for years. The overtime stopped with the pandemic, and that has had a predictable result. But none of that is an excuse for what happened in this situation. None of it. I hope you get this resolved quickly.

Sorry to hear this.

I had a different issue, but same lack of service. I finally got so frustrated I called my U.S. Rep and complained.

Wow, did that get results. Some manager from the Chicago Social Security office took care of my issue asap, then called me at home to ensure I was satisfied with the resolution.

I guess I was lucky when SS time came around for me. I made the telephone appointment, they called within a couple of minutes of the agreed on time, talked for 15 minutes or so and that was it.

The only hitch was they wanted to know where I was in 1983 that I got foreign income for 2 months.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
I guess I was lucky when SS time came around for me. I made the telephone appointment, they called within a couple of minutes of the agreed on time, talked for 15 minutes or so and that was it.

The only hitch was they wanted to know where I was in 1983 that I got foreign income for 2 months.

Wasn't luck. The vast majority of interviews go just like that. As a manager I averaged about three bouquet letters or calls (this is what we call letters or calls thanking us for a job well done) for every one complaint. But if you're one of the complaints, all of the good cases don't mean a thing to you. And they shouldn't. SSA handles literally millions of phone calls annually. I don't recall the number of claims filed annually with SSA, but the numbers are huge. The vast majority go off without a hitch.

And some people think we need more state and federal juggernauts of stupidity overseeing our needs and lives.

Haven’t had any real issues with SSA. We were able to go in person to start it since that was prior to covid. Recently the wife wanted to shift her payments from my spousal payment to her own earnings after letting her account grow until age 70. Had to schedule a call (no local visits then) and only issue was a multi-month wait for SSA to call her.

They called as scheduled, she talked for a while, and they swapped her payments from me to her account with an immediate monthly few hundred dollars increase due to the growth in her account between FRA and age 70. A pleasant surprise was that since they delayed her switching by months, they sent a separate payment covering the delta had she been able to switch when she first requested it. Couldn’t complain about that.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I’ve called the local office 3 or 4 times (it’s in a larger town about 25 miles away) and have only been on hold for brief periods and have had my questions answered or issues resolved quickly and courteously.

I feel your pain. Our second child arrived earlier this month.

The hospital provides a form which is sent to the county for a birth record which in turn you use to get a birth certificate from the state. They also will send the information to the SSA to get a card issued. It went great for our first child a few years ago and figured it would save us some time again.

Well new card arrived within about 10 days and its got an error on it. There are multiple SSA offices here in the Twin Cities but only one handles card issues. After three call attempts (twice on hold I ended up in a silent purgatory) I finally get a cranky individual who wants nothing more than to get me off the phone. During the course of the call they finally tell me that part of the little ones name is too long and it can't be fixed. Funny thing is, he has less letters/characters than our first kiddo born a few years ago. What I don't know or was unable to clarify was what his actual record says not just the card because again bonehead on the other end just wanted me off the phone.

To get the issue corrected I need to provide a "corrected" birth certificate (was and is right, from the start, you fucked up SSA), certified medical record (but couldn't tell me by who and of what) and one of their completed forms, which I have no idea how to get because again they wanted me off the phone.

At the moment I've kept the earliest appointment I could get (at the end of March) but unsure if I need to call the national office and talk to someone or see if someone at one of the other local offices can discuss the matter more with me but not be an all out a-hole about it.

Thanks for allowing me to rant about this, hope you get some resoultion on your issue too Black.

I assume the birth certificate spelling is correct. If the birth certificate is spelled incorrectly (which sometimes happens), don't waste your time at this point with a visit to SSA. You'll need to correct the name with vital statistics first before you go see SSA. Save a copy of the birth certificate with the incorrect spelling. Get a new birth cert. Bring both to SSA.

When you visit the office make it clear that you are there for a name correction, not a name change.

To get another corrected card, you must present proof of identity for your new child. A birth certificate is not proof of identity. (That is a matter of law. You or me may not like it, but you can't use it as ID.) You'll still need the birth certificate, but it's not proof of ID. I won't list any items that you're not likely to have (such as a passport) but rather here are some items you should be able to get. There is no wiggle room with this. You must submit proof of ID for the child. Here are some acceptable items:

Certified copy of medical record (clinic, doctor, or hospital), immunization record, or letter providing extract data from the medical record showing, the applicant’s name and the applicant’s DOB or age (for certification by custodian, see GN 00301.030A.3. and for definition of extract, see RM 10210.420D.2 of this section)
NOTE: The issue date of the immunization record is either the date parents received the document or the date of child’s first recorded shot. Ensure that the document is less than four years old (see RM 10210.405C.5.).We do not accept immunization records from U.S. citizens who are over age 5.

If the issue date is four years old or more, check the date of the child’s last recorded shot. If date of last recorded shot is less than four years from the current date, use that date as the issue date and annotate in SSNAP remarks. If the date of the child’s last shot was four years or longer, you must request another document.
•

NOTE: Do not accept a receipt or a record of treatment recorded or maintained by the applicant or the applicant's family.

Health insurance or U.S. Medicaid card showing, the child’s name and:

a photograph of the child, or

the child’s age or DOB, or

the parent(s)’ name(s)

A health insurance or U.S. Medicaid card is unacceptable as a secondary proof of identity document, if it does not have a photo or biographical data.

(card must be current).

Certified childcare facility or other preschool or school record (must be for the current or prior year) showing the child’s age or DOB or parent(s)’ name(s). See RM 10210.410B.

Religious record (cradle roll, naming certificate, bris certificate, or baptismal record showing in addition to the child’s name, the child’s age or DOB, or parent(s)’ name(s)); or an Amish or Mennonite bishop’s letter as described in RM 10225.040.

Don't waste your time with a visit to SSA unless you bring ID for your child. You'll need ID for yourself, but your driver's license is fine. I'm sorry you are having this problem. I hope you are able to get it resolved quickly. My purpose in posting this is to make things go a little smoother for you. Since you mentioned something about the name length, here is some information about that.

The number holder’s (NH) first and last name on his or her SSN card must agree with the first and last name shown on the document submitted as evidence of identity or legal name. A middle name or suffix is not considered part of the legal name. It does not matter if the middle name or suffix is included, omitted, or incorrectly shown on an SSN card. For SSN purposes, a NH’s legal name consists of the first (or given name) and last (or family name or surname) that is used to sign legal documents, deeds, or contracts.

The SSN card has two lines for the NH’s name with 26 spaces on the first line for the NH’s first and middle names and 26 spaces on the second line for the last name and suffix, if any. Neither the first or last names shown on the SSN card should be reduced in length, unless it exceeds the 26-character limit. Therefore, omit middle names, middle initials, and suffixes if they prevent you from showing as many characters as possible for the first and last names.

Here is a link to the application form for a card. It's the SS-5 (the one on top). NEVER pay money for the form. Those sites are all scams: https://www.ssa.gov/forms/

When it came time to start my SS , I did it online in a matter of minutes .
The offices are supposed to reopen sometime in March .

Online can be a problem if you don't already have an account and you have a credit freeze in place.
I was unable to get access to the online system, and when I talked to an agent on the phone, they told me that was the reason.

I dealt with SSA last week, trying to sign up for medicare. I didn't want to, BUT, Blue Cross/Blue Shield was holding up my claims because I hadn't (illegally, I might add.) The stupid online form does not allow for people retired still maintaining health insurance. I'm retired civil service, one of the benefits is keeping your health insurance. Took all week tap dancing to get it straightened out, and I still don't know for sure that it is. Nearly everything in KY is "over" covid, except medical offices and social security. Ridiculous.