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cruiser wrote:

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TroyJAllen wrote:

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Two months from a phone call to the award letter:)   Three weeks post surgery:)
How'd i do it?  I did it myself: NO Service rep, ect.  If you want something like this done fast and right: Do it yourself.  

There are several of reasons why your claim was processed so quickly.  It is highly unlikely that the fact you did it yourself had any bearing on the outcome with the possible exception of going to the RO in person and pleading your case for the claim to be expedited on the basis of hardship, and you could have done that whether you had a VSO representing you or not.

First of all you should keep in mind that what you are talking about is probably the easiest, fastest claim that one can file at VA.  As a Rating Specialist I could have knocked your claim out in about 15 minutes at most.  When you consider that a Rating Specialist has to do 4 claims a day that would have given me 7 3/4 hours to do those other three.  We called claims like this our bread and butter claims.  What this means is that anytime a Rating Specialist can justify working this type claim, they will do so in a heartbeat even if the claim just came in that morning.

Also you should know that ROs often do what they refer to as inventory reduction.  What this means is that they set aside a block of time, perhaps overtime on a Saturday, and they work as many quick, fast moving claims as they can without regard for whether they are old or new claims.  Their goal is to reduce the number of actual claims waiting to be worked to reduce the number of claims folders that are on the floor.  A claim like yours would be fought over by Rating Specialists doing inventory reduction because it is so easy to work.  I recently filed a claim for a client (I'm a VSO) and the decision came back in 6 weeks.  It happens but you can't always predict it.

A factor is also likely to have been the fact that you requested that the claim be expedited due to hardship.  This has nothing to do with having a VSO but like I said you probably helped your case by doing this in person.  It's hard to say.

There are good VSOs and there are bad VSOs; but even the good ones aren't miracle workers.  If you have a simple matter at hand you don't really need someone to help you with it if you know the ins and outs of VA regulations and policies.  On the other hand if you are dealing with something that is even slightly more complicated a good VSO can be worth their weight in gold.  I'm a VSO and if I am dealing with a problem case I can pick up the phone and call almost anyone I want to call at the Regional Office.  For example, the Service Center Manager is not only a friend of mine but also someone I trained at VA years ago.  While not every VSO has that level of access, some do and most have more than the average veteran.  Like I said, a good VSO can be a very good ally.

Cruiser