Military News
02-18-2010, 03:00 PM
02-18-2010 01:33 PM
The GI Bill telephone hot line is once again open five days a week, after improvements were made to reduce the number of calls that do not go through, Veterans Affairs Department officials have announced.
The Education Call Center number is 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551).
Created last year to handle an expected flood of questions about the new Post-9/11 GI Bill, the Muskogee, Okla., call center has been the target of complaints.
Because of a high volume of calls, VA officials admitted 90 percent of calls never made it through (http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2010/01/military_va_droppedcalls_012210w/), and that many callers who were put on hold hung up in frustration before talking with an education counselor.
Making it even harder to get through was a decision to have the call center open only three days a week — Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — so that education experts could be be reassigned every Thursday and Friday to help process benefits claims.
Effective Thursday, Feb. 18, the call center is now open Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time, VA officials said.
Veterans and school officials outside the U.S., who may not be able to use the toll-free hot line, may try contacting the Buffalo, N.Y., regional office for help. This will not be a toll-free call, but callers are to be placed at the head of the line for help.
The Buffalo customer service center numbers are 716-857-3196 or 716-857-3197. An overseas caller should enter “option one” when prompted to be put into a special queue that will route them to the next available representative.
More... (http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2010/02/military_gibill_hotline_021810w/)
[Clicking on more will open up a popup box with the complete news story from the news source. MilitaryWoman.org is not responsible for content.]
The GI Bill telephone hot line is once again open five days a week, after improvements were made to reduce the number of calls that do not go through, Veterans Affairs Department officials have announced.
The Education Call Center number is 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551).
Created last year to handle an expected flood of questions about the new Post-9/11 GI Bill, the Muskogee, Okla., call center has been the target of complaints.
Because of a high volume of calls, VA officials admitted 90 percent of calls never made it through (http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2010/01/military_va_droppedcalls_012210w/), and that many callers who were put on hold hung up in frustration before talking with an education counselor.
Making it even harder to get through was a decision to have the call center open only three days a week — Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — so that education experts could be be reassigned every Thursday and Friday to help process benefits claims.
Effective Thursday, Feb. 18, the call center is now open Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time, VA officials said.
Veterans and school officials outside the U.S., who may not be able to use the toll-free hot line, may try contacting the Buffalo, N.Y., regional office for help. This will not be a toll-free call, but callers are to be placed at the head of the line for help.
The Buffalo customer service center numbers are 716-857-3196 or 716-857-3197. An overseas caller should enter “option one” when prompted to be put into a special queue that will route them to the next available representative.
More... (http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2010/02/military_gibill_hotline_021810w/)
[Clicking on more will open up a popup box with the complete news story from the news source. MilitaryWoman.org is not responsible for content.]