STILL haven’t received severance, and DFAS keeps passing the buck or hanging up on me

[Fiinch]

I separated 28 November and haven’t yet received my severance pay. I only have about one month left of savings before I am completely out of funds. I was told it would take up to a month, and I know I don’t have any debts.

Is this typical for tax season or something? What should I do? I keep calling DFAS, but they either throw up their hands or literally hang up on me during transfers.

 

[RonG]

I separated 28 November and haven’t yet received my severance pay. I only have about one month left of savings before I am completely out of funds. I was told it would take up to a month, and I know I don’t have any debts.

Is this typical for tax season or something? What should I do? I keep calling DFAS, but they either throw up their hands or literally hang up on me during transfers.

I suspect the Christmas Holidays and/or other considerations caused the delay. Calls lost during transfers does not necessarily indicate someone has purposely dropped a call. Most of the people who answer calls at DFAS or CRSC boards for that matter can only provide, "It is being worked on" because they have no additional info. I am not endorsing that standard reply, but it does happen.

No guarantees on the outcome, but you could send a letter of inquiry or complaint (via Fax) to the Director, Retired Pay,

Defense Finance and Accounting Service
U.S. Military Retired Pay, Attn: Roland Wadge
8899 E 56th Street
Indianapolis IN 46249-1200

Fax
Retired Pay: 800-469-6559
(That is the only Fax number I have.)

Ron

 

[Fiinch]

I suspect the Christmas Holidays and/or other considerations caused the delay. Calls lost during transfers does not necessarily indicate someone has purposely dropped a call. Most of the people who answer calls at DFAS or CRSC boards for that matter can only provide, "It is being worked on" because they have no additional info. I am not endorsing that standard reply, but it does happen.

No guarantees on the outcome, but you could send a letter of inquiry or complaint (via Fax) to the Director, Retired Pay,

Defense Finance and Accounting Service
U.S. Military Retired Pay, Attn: Roland Wadge
8899 E 56th Street
Indianapolis IN 46249-1200

Fax
Retired Pay: 800-469-6559
(That is the only Fax number I have.)

Ron

I agree that the dropped calls aren’t intentional. I just wish their auto call back worked, as they stated every time I called that it should if I’m lost in transferring. Sometimes it drops because of “excessive wait times.”

I will see about messaging the director. I will try again tomorrow in calling, but having this info may be a good fall back if it goes too much longer. Thank you for your help!

 

[RonG]

I agree that the dropped calls aren’t intentional. I just wish their auto call back worked, as they stated every time I called that it should if I’m lost in transferring. Sometimes it drops because of “excessive wait times.”

I will see about messaging the director. I will try again tomorrow in calling, but having this info may be a good fall back if it goes too much longer. Thank you for your help!

Calling DFAS. I often read of long wait times. I have called DFAS many times and never wait more than 5-10 minutes.
DFAS-Cleveland is in the Eastern Time Zone. I am in the Central.

Military Retired & Annuitant Pay

800-321-1080

8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET

I start calling DFAS at 0658 hours my time, and end up being one of the first answered. I probably call 10 times in those two minutes but it is worth it to me.

Full disclosure: I last called DFAS around January 2016.

Ron

 

[Padgettra]

I agree that the dropped calls aren’t intentional. I just wish their auto call back worked, as they stated every time I called that it should if I’m lost in transferring. Sometimes it drops because of “excessive wait times.”

I will see about messaging the director. I will try again tomorrow in calling, but having this info may be a good fall back if it goes too much longer. Thank you for your help!

I agree that the hang ups are not intentional yet they are really aggravating. I call a couple weeks ago (~25JAN) and the system disconnected after 30 minutes on hold. Third time I called back I told the representative what happened the first two times and then I was on hold for 1 hour and 20 minutes. I got to speak to a representative and got the information I was requesting. Man that was a lot of hold time!

 

[Fiinch]

I think the holding plus hang ups is what really got me! I took your advice, Ron, to call first thing in the morning. I got through, and was told that DFAS had none of my separation paperwork from PSD....awesome. So I went that same day to the DC PSD office and they did a lot of, “oops, not sure what happened,” but now the paperwork has been submitted along with a trouble ticket (not sure why, as it is addressed to NSIPS). I hope it is resolved soon!

 

[April1971]

I received my orders and am. Awaiting DFAS to makes a deceision in my PDBR case. What is a good phone number for them?

 

[RonG]

I received my orders and am. Awaiting DFAS to makes a deceision in my PDBR case. What is a good phone number for them?

Military Retired & Annuitant Pay

800-321-1080

8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET

Note: The DFAS computes and pays certain entitlements. They do not decide the outcome for PDBR cases.

Good luck,
Ron