US Social Security Administration - Eureka, California

Myles M.

I went into this office because social security was sending letters to an address I no longer live at telling me that I had to drive to a doctors appointment 5 hours from where I live to prove that I’m still disabled even though I have a permanent medical condition. I didn’t receive those letters and so I missed the appointment so the social security administration sent me a letter saying they were cutting off my benefits. I went into this branch to try to sort out the confusion, and the first time I went into the office I brought in a doctors note from my primary care physician stating that I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta, and the person I spoke to took one look at it and exclaimed “oh, Osteogenesis Imperfecta, people with your condition don’t live very long!” She quickly printed out the appeal letter and had me fill it out, and I mailed it in that day.

That first person was very helpful, however several weeks after that I noticed that my benefits were not going to be renewed the following month, so I went back into this office and the second person I spoke to told me that the appeal letter I supposedly sent in was not received. I had to drive back to my place of work, print out the doctors note I brought in the first time and then drive back to the social security office, wait in line again so that she could print out the appeal letter again, and then wait in line again so that I could give her the appeal letter directly so that I could have a stamp on it saying that I actually filled it out on that date just in case this second appeal letter didn’t go through. I was in the office for 6 hours that day dealing with this, and the office closed abruptly before I was able to give her the appeal letter so that I could have a stamped date on it.

6 weeks after I filed the first appeal I still have not received communication that the appeal was even received. I went into the office today and explained this same situation, and the man I spoke to looked at my file and said everything was 100% groovy and that my benefits were still active. I asked him if he could print out something saying I would be receiving benefits next month and he said he could not do that which I found odd because when I went into the office the second time the woman I spoke to offered to print out a document saying I would be receiving benefits that month to put my mind at ease.

I explained to him that I was simultaneously receiving letters at the address I live at and at the address I no longer live at—I had the letters with me in the office during this meeting and he refused to believe that what I was telling him was actually true so he abruptly ended the conversation and refused to even look at the letters I brought in. He then made a point to turn his head away from me and stare in the opposite direction ignoring any plea I was making to understand the issue I was bringing to him.

This whole administration is completely dysfunctional. First of all, I had someone review my case 3 months prior to the letters being sent to the address I no longer live at and I have a record that my case was reviewed and that I would be having my benefits continued. Secondly, I can prove that I was simultaneously receiving letters at the address I no longer live at and the address I do live at. Thirdly, the letters being sent to the address I no longer live at weren’t even addressed from the social security administration. Lastly, I suspect this disaster of a situation is entirely a result of political turmoil relating to DOGE, which by the way is just a reverse acronym for the cryptocurrency also named DOGE which Elon Musk is a huge investor in—it’s just a psychotic marketing scheme to get people to invest in his stock portfolio. There is nothing efficient about what the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” is doing.

Meg M.

Very helpful staff here. I've been navigating a name change, and they make the process easy. The lines are usually fairly long, yet it is not bad considering how many people they are serving.

Autumn O.

Made on appt online for a new card, they had me in and out of the building in less than 15 minutes. Highly recommend making an appointment online ahead of time.

Jessina V. D.

Arbitrary rules, inescapable redundancy, remedial and terse staff. Not helpful, not friendly, impatient, not accommodating to persons with disabilities.

Caitlynn P.

Waited 2 and a half hours to update my last name. That was expected though, that's not what was annoying. At 12:30 the one and only clerk went to lunch and didn't say anything to us. I was hungry and stuck there too, dude. There's a Carl's Jr. In the parking lot, if I knew you were going to lunch I would've gotten a burger.

Otherwise, clerk was a nice guy.

Anita

This place is a joke! My daughters father passed away in early December and the so called, one time death benefit payment which is supposed to be to help w funeral arrangements still hasn't been issued to us!!! The appointment to apply for it wasn't until Feb and after telling the woman I talked to that I can't walk and would need the money put on our direct express card, she still mailed a friggin check! So after a friend returned the check to them they said it would automatically go on the card...That was nearly 4 mos ago and still no money! I have called them over and over and I've been told the money was going on right then, yet no money shows up. I was told the system was confused...Yes, you read that right, the system is confused! 2 weeks ago I was told that management was looking into it and give them 2 weeks. Here we are 2 weeks later and the guy said it was sent to the payment center so give it 30 to 60 MORE days!!! Let's face it....They have no clue what they're doing! And this is ridiculous when a person is already grieving the loss of a loved one and you have to go through this!!!!!! And the really funny part is that when I called the 800 # the woman told me the local office has the ability to do a critical need payment when stuff like this happens!!!

B

Zero stars if it was possible to submit. My application has been sitting with them for months now, all while I get to see "typically 2-4 weeks" for their step in the process to be completed and sent up to the next, in bold font right on my own SSA homepage every time I log in to check the status.

My "rep" hasn't returned a single phone call, communicated in any way, or provided any assistance/aid/guidance/help/recommendations/advice etc... whatsoever. Front office staff are friendly enough and seem to care, but are unable provide any actual info (not their fault), aside from confirming that they do indeed have in possession all requested / required documents.

I finally had to reach out to the National office to get this escalated, though in typical bureaucratic fashion that means additional time waiting with non-answers and more confusion.

I "hope" this is purely incompetence sadly enough, because at this point it feels like a complete absence of any desire or care to provide help to those who need it during extremely difficult times.

Justin B.

What of joke, but of course. Waited 20 mins on hold, and they they straight hung up on me. Tried again with the call back service and it was another 30 mins I waited. Then I was given a survey to fill out. Never given real service. Don't wanna call names but lady on the other end sounded half asleep the whole call