[StBernard] Red Cross

[Westley Annis]

Whew!  That's about the best thing I can say after hanging up with the Red
Cross Relief line.

Here's a few pointers so that you can be prepared once you are able to
finally talk to them on the phone or in person.

1) Be prepared to wait.  But you knew that already.  Once I finally got
thru, I sat on hold for two hours and forty minutes.

2) Have your info ready and be patient.  The young lady that finally
answered the phone was nice as pie, but being a phone bank operator is not
her calling in life.  Although she was very thorough, she repeatedly asked
me to hold on, even just for a few seconds.  Either her computer was slow as
molasses or she doesn't know her way around a keyboard.

Because of my name, business name, street name, and city name, I spell
everything out for everyone that I have to give any of that info to. I've
got my own little rhythm of giving out two or three letters at a time, then
pausing so they can record it. Still wasn't enough time and I quickly
learned to wait for her to echo back the letters before moving on.

3) Have full names, ages, and Social Security numbers for everyone in your
household. They are double-checking names with Social Security numbers. I
don't know what the response is if you don't have the number available,
especially for a child, but better to have it and not test it.

4) They will ask for your zip code to verify you are in a disaster area.
Thankfully, this is done right after they ask for your name and current
contact number, in case you get disconnected.

5) You will be asked if you want to be placed in their database for others
to be able to find you, whether you've contacted FEMA, if you want the Red
Cross to share your information with oter relief organizations.

6) Have pencil and paper ready. You will be given a Western Union id number
so that you can pick up your disaster funds from any Western Union outlet.

All told, the entire process took me about twenty minutes once I actually
started talking to someone.

Although I understand the Red Cross is trying to minimize fraud as much as
possible, I think they could greatly cut down on the processing time if they
allowed the online entry of information. Once the information has been
entered, you could be given a database record ID number, which you could
then give to the operator when you called. She types it in, your records
come up, she asks a few questions to verify and everything is done in a
matter of a few minutes instead of half-an-hour.

This is growing pains for a lot of organizations. Hopefully they will learn
some lessons from all of this.

By the way, a second phone number that can be used to call the Red Cross, I
don't think it works any faster, but you can try: 800-733-2767.

Westley