Social Security Administration

In today’s world you can do many tasks on-​line via your own computer. Sometimes, it’s nice to have a face to face conversation with a human being to have circumstances reviewed and questions answered. That face to face meeting was exactly what I needed to happen with the Social Security Administration.
After phoning the appropriate phone number I was a tad bit worried about the experience I may have during an actual meeting. If rating the phone experience alone it would be a 2.5 stars. This is based on busy signals, rambling messages, worming through the transfer system and the inability to talk to a live representative.
So I went to the Social Security Administration without having a scheduled appointment. I feared disorganization and long waits. Oh how I had misjudged this agency with wrong preconceived notions. I met my husband in the parking lot and we entered the building together. Upon entering we were greeted from a distance by a security guard who pointed to a registration machine. Wow, a nice clean touch screen system, where you enter your Social Security number, then follow the prompts for reason for visit, etc. At the end it spits out a small paper tag with your registration number. We had a seat in the clean lobby and proceeded to wait for our number to be called.
Within 10 minutes we were called to window «number» B. We met briefly with that employee who determined we needed to meet with a case worker who could further answer our questions, print out our options, and assist us with evaluating the whole picture. So we went back to the lobby area to wait. I figured it would be another 10 – 15 minutes. Wrong again. We no more than took a seat and we heard our last name announced and were told to go to window number 11. The case worker was a delightful, intelligent young lady who understood our questions and was armed with computer print outs of our collective Social Security data. She plunked the information we presented into the system and printed out our options. We were not rushed to make a decision but advised to take the information home with us and decide what works best with our current financial situation. She informed us because we had shown up in-​person to make the inquiries she would generate a letter that was good for six months to make that date be the application date. WOW, my head is still spinning with this positive experience. Now we have a phone number to call to make an appointment or we can complete our application process on-​line.
A true five star experience with a government agency.