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In reply to the discussion: Easy cure for the Social Security issue..This is a no brainer. [View all]llmart
(15,534 posts)I did start calling the customer service hotline about a year beforehand. Now, looking back, I tell people that don't trust everything they tell you on the hotline. I had a somewhat different situation also and I got probably three different answers regarding that situation. Then I decided to make an appointment to sit down with someone in an office. I asked them my questions, and this is after thoroughly researching both online and in books, and got an answer that I didn't think was correct. While there in the interview, the person I was working with said she would go get her supervisor because she wasn't sure she understood since I kept coming back with the fact that what she was telling me wasn't what I had read. So she got a supervisor who pretty much confirmed what this woman I was working with said, so I figured OK, they must be right. I had exhausted what I thought was every option.
Now six years later it's always bugged me that I still didn't think they were correct and I went online to Social Security's website and asked my question on their blog. I got a couple responses from the person who answers the questions, and they agreed with me. However, I ended up telling that person that it wasn't anything I did to give me the incorrect amount when I applied, but that it was a supervisor at the local office who set it up that way even after I had pointed out to her I didn't think it was correct.
So, now of course it's too late to change and I've done the math and decided the amount wasn't worth dredging this all up, if SS would even admit that they were incorrect. The reason I kept pursuing it is that a.) I'm a persistent person and I like to know the facts and b.) maybe someone in SS will learn something. I tell everyone that you really can't trust what answers you get on the phone from SS, because it depends on who's on the other end.