I don't know how widespread the problem is but I'm hearing of serious technical problems with Social Security's telephone hearings affecting several hearing offices in North Carolina and one in South Carolina. This could be just a regional thing. I hope that whatever is causing it gets fixed soon. My general impression, however, is that the audio quality on these telephone hearings has gone down over time.
I just had a hearing out of Paducah, KY and they said that they had been having the same issues (hence why our hearing was pushed back). I don't think it's a regional thing.
ReplyDeleteIt was national. And if you think it's bad now with managers on conference calls and ALJ's doing hearings- wait until they start video!
ReplyDeleteWe have had some trouble hearing the ALJ, but they're usually patient and repeat what they're saying. Initially, it was difficult to hear the claims reps from the local office, but they tweaked it the audio is great. I would hate to see them sink a bunch of money into some new technology that nobody wants. Hopefully, things will be worked out.
ReplyDeleteIn California, the entire day of hearings were canceled on Monday due to technical difficulties in West LA. It was so bad that nobody from OHO contacted anybody. The client and I had a hearing at 8:15 a.m. but stayed ready until about 1 p.m.
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, the audio for my hearings was pretty terrible with a terrible echo. But we got it through. Before this week, hearings were running fairly smooth. Hope this is not a trend.
I gave up a long time ago on the telephone SSA Provides. I use my phone to hold hearings and folks have no issue hearing me. I usually do most of the questioning. It is only way to keep the hearing to 45 minutes. The DRAP recording system is a problem. It does not record sometimes and the quality is awful.
ReplyDeleteI had a few hearings from back in April where the audio never recorded, so we had to do them over in August.
ReplyDeleteI find I don't have trouble hearing my client or the experts, but sometimes I have a hard time hearing the ALJs. There's either a lag or echoing.
The Avaya software is pretty kludgy; setting change/disappear for no reason, actions such as muting or raising/lowering volume sometimes work, sometimes don't.
ReplyDeleteAkron, OH has been had serious problems yesterday and today (9/1 and 9/2). I got through 1/3 hearings yesterday. 2/3 had to be postponed.
ReplyDeleteI just had a hearing with the National Hearing Center. Right when the judge started questioning the VE, the lines went dead. Then when they called everyone back I could hear maybe every 5th word because of the echo and dropped words. My case will be approved but if it isn't I would appeal based on the technology failure.
ReplyDeleteI just finished a hearing (Tulsa OK). We lost connection two times during the call. The case was a Federal Court Remand so we persisted and finished the hearing.
ReplyDeleteThe Audio quality was not good.
An Associate at my office just did two hearings and they called her back saying neither of them were recorded. One the ALJ converted to an OTR, but the other had to be rescheduled.
ReplyDeleteMajor issues at the Orlando FL OHO today.
ReplyDeleteSpeaker phone usage seems to correlate with the echo problem
ReplyDeleteI had a hearing start 2 hours late on Tuesday due to "technical issues". Columbus OH hearings office. I do think the audio quality has gone down. It seems like the volume of all of the lines is lower than it used to be, making it difficult to hear everyone.
ReplyDeleteHad a Columbus OH hearing yesterday and the quality was pretty poor. I always seem to have difficulty hearing my client.
ReplyDeleteI had another Columbus hearing today and it was probably the best quality I have ever had. So who knows.
If you think it is bad now wait until 10/1/2020, Systems cut the telephone infrastructure budget.
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