Social Security Administration — Attraction in Mission Viejo

Although my wait time has never been long I must give them only one star. I applied for benefits for my child in May and was told it could take up to 4 months for an answer. In September I received a letter from medi-cal stating that my child may be eligible for medi-cal since he was approved for SSI benefits. I hadn't received anything stating his approval yet so I gave it a couple more weeks. I went to the office asking if my child had been approved and I was told yes. They printed me a copy of the award letter. It had the wrong address on it. I pointed that out and was told they would fix the address. Mind you the address the award letter was sent to was nowhere on the application i submitted. The following week I opened up the bank account needed for the benefits to be deposited into and called social security to give them the information. Again I'm told that they still have the wrong address in the system. When I asked how long it would take to get the benefits I was told that checks had already been sent out over a month ago....to the wrong address. That information was not disclosed to me when I went to the office. They had only told me that the award letter was sent there. The rep tells me that he'll update the address and that the payments should hit the account within 72 hours. 72 hours later there was still nothing in the account so I call back. I'm told that the wrong address is still in the system and that the payments have not been cleared and won't be until they put tracers on the checks and get the results back on if they've been cashed. This can take up to a month. All of this because they chose to send the checks and who knows what else to an address of their choosing and not the address I listed all over the paperwork I submitted. Oh and I forgot to mention on the day I applied I was told that the payments would only be made through direct deposit and not...

When I arrived, there was no security guard at the entrance, everyone was able to walk right into the building. I found a check-in flyer taped to a column on the right and scanned the QR code to easily get a ticket number. This was a very crowded office (almost no availabile seats) on a Friday afternoon, mid-month. Parking was also limited, as the back lot is for employees, but I lucked into a spot right out front. Many people were parked on the street. I sat down around 2:45 and was called back at 4:17. Heads-up, numbers don't always get called in order (that was annoying a lot of people in the waiting room).

This is not even my local SSA office but I filled out an online application and it somehow got assigned a Mission Viejo code. The Fountain Valley office was much smaller, more welcoming, and less crowded when I visited them first (before knowing of the glitch that got my application stuck at this Mission Viejo office). If this IS your local office, definitely try to book an appointment because being a walk-in here isn't the move. Bring a snack, a water bottle, and a book if you try it. Oh and be careful, they close at 4:00. But shut the locked doors almost 5 minutes early.

I do really like how I received a text with my ticket number and another text telling me "It's almost your turn. Make sure you are present in the office and ready to be seen."

Once I got to a representative window, it was super fast (like done in 5 minutes). The woman helping me was nice and seemed surprised that I got sent to this office because the other one should have deleted my application and started a new one. Hopefully you don't end up in a similar glitch, but if you do, maybe request that they do that?!

I'm just happy it's taken care of now. -1 star for the 90 minute wait time. SSA should allow booking online for appointments, instead of needing to...

One star for the waiting time, another star for the clerk who actually got my information right and processed, the SECOND time!

I went to this office, dreadfully, back in September for a simple name change... The girl at the window who yelled my number and was ready to punch anyone in the face, had the audacity to process my name wrong. As I reviewed my receipt to make sure everything was right a simple misspelling threw everything off the track! I pointed it out and asked her to correct it (one letter), and she did. She actually shredded the receipt with the misspelled name in front of me and went ahead and re-typed it and made another "submission" with the correct spelling. I got a new receipt with the correction. Everything Ok. Thank you?

Two weeks passed. No SS card. On the third week I called the 800 number, which took literally one hour on hold, the clerk who picked up and looked up my info said "oh, there is nothing processed for you since 2015. I don't show any type of update for your name. Do you have a receipt?...Then you must go to the office again and ask them what is going on"... !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I could not believe it. I had the f%^&*#g receipt with my name changed and the date of submission from the local Social Security Office but IT WAS NEVER PROCESSED!! So, I was never there!!

Great! There goes hours of my job, that I have to make up for just so that I get taxed on my paycheck TO PAY for the ineptitude of certain government's employees. Great job!!!

Second time around, a few weeks later I go back. I switch everything, AGAIN. With the receipt on my hand from their office, I have to EXPLAIN to the person on the window that one of her co-workers did it wrong the first time. Her simple response "oops, sorry".

...

SS card did come the second time around, after ten days, during the...