Who do you trust?

[Aquamoose]

I’m impressed. You ACTUALLY spoke with a LIVE person on the other end of the line with the government?

 

[Bird]

I’m impressed. You ACTUALLY spoke with a LIVE person on the other end of the line with the government?

You have to remember that was more than 30 years ago.:laughing: Even the city, for which I worked, had NO answering machines; all phones were answered by a live person, and if a phone rang 3 times, someone was going to have some explaining to do.

 

[dougtrr2]

I was an internal auditor for the Air Force. Ultimately, everything we did had to go back to a written regulation. Since you are getting conflicting answers I think you need to get back to the written source of the answer. Unfortunately, sometimes even the written source can be somewhat ambiguous. And if you are in a situation that crosses government agency lines they could have regulations that contradict each other. But ultimately you need to get copies of the pertinent regulations and then try to figure it out. At least then you have something official in black and white you can point to, instead of a he said she said situation. There are many instances of regulations changing, but the people implementing them don't realize the change was made.

Doug in SW IA

 

[Diggin It]

I’m impressed. You ACTUALLY spoke with a LIVE person on the other end of the line with the government?

Getting a real person on the phone at State or Federal Government agencies has not been a problems for me. Sometimes you have to worm through phone trees and wait on hold, but they really do come on the line ... eventually.


The problem is finding one that knows what they're talking about, gives correct information and is willing to help solve problems without becoming argumentative. I just had another one of those today ... highly belligerent ... 'we don't need to tell you how or why, you should have known'.

 

[mikester]

So, who do you trust when everyone is wrong?

Remember the saying Opinions are like a*h*les, everyone has one?

All you can do is collect the information and make the best informed decision you can.

 

[Jchonline]

Try and get it all documented. Record phone calls (tell ppl you are doing so) or get it in email/mail from them. Keep a running record of who you talked to on what date time and the content of that conversation. There are many digital tools today that will allow you to take notes and attach files (ie Microsoft OneNote). You can keep a clean record with recorded files. It is a lot of work but you have to ask yourself how much $$$ is this worth to you? Does the time offset it?

 

[fried1765]

Try and get it all documented. Record phone calls (tell ppl you are doing so) or get it in email/mail from them. Keep a running record of who you talked to on what date time and the content of that conversation. There are many digital tools today that will allow you to take notes and attach files (ie Microsoft OneNote). You can keep a clean record with recorded files. It is a lot of work but you have to ask yourself how much $$$ is this worth to you? Does the time offset it?

^^^^^^ absolutely correct!!!

 

[SPYDERLK]

This reminds me of the IRS. You can call and ask questions, but if it's later determined that the answers given were wrong, that's your problem. Having heard that, many years ago, I tested it. I, personally, bought a computer to use ONLY at my office at the police department, and ONLY for police work; no personal use AT ALL. So I called the IRS 3 days in a row, speaking with a different person each time, of course. One told me I could take the total cost as a deduction that year, one told me I could not, and one told me I could take a deduction prorated over 3 years.:confused3:

2 could nave been right

 

[Diggin It]

A lot of these situations can vary based on how the question is asked. If I ask 'Can I do A?', the two most likely answers are 'Yes you can' or 'No, you cannot'. However, the most correct reply might be, 'You can do A only if you do B first'. B might be something I'd never heard of, so how could I have asked about it?

When you're in the positions of the people I've been dealing with, they should be trained and aware enough to probe further if they knew there were other factors that could affect their replies.

 

[mllud]

Todays world has ran me off into the woods to play with my tractors. The cell phone stays on a table like a home phone use to. I do take it on traveling to town.
The recording systems you go through to get information are inhumane. By the time you get a humane your to perturbed to be nice. My lip bleeds to not blame the person on the phone.
Its just wrong to spend hours to deal with issues and not get the right answer.
Ill continue to stay in the woods and keep contact with the world to as little as I can.
I'm happy hiding the woods.
sorry about the rant.
Mike