If you have done a permanent change of station (PCS) recently, you've probably used the military's claims website Move.mil. Gone are the days of filling out forms through other means. It's now all through this portal.
But if you are using the system overseas, you may have experienced more frustrations than other users. And calling the help desk may not really help, after all.
That, at least, is what some OCONUS users have reported. And when they called the help desk they were advised that the system often does not work OCONUS and that they should go to their nearest transportation office for assistance -- an impractical solution for those who live far away from one.
But military moving officials say using Move.mil while OCONUS should be just as easy as using it stateside. And while there are system outages scheduled periodically during low use times, officials work to make sure they won't impact OCONUS more than OCONUS users.
"Move.mil and DPS works the same for service members both within and outside of the continental United States. Anyone with access to the internet should be able to access Move.mil, and with proper verification of identification, DPS," Air Force Lt. Col. Gina Prevett, the program manager for the defense personal property system at U.S. Transportation Command, said in a statement. "There are times, however, when the system experiences an outage or the user a network issue. We schedule system upgrades during off-peak times to minimize the impact on both CONUS and OCONUS users, but sometimes unexpected problems do arise, as with any computer system."
Prevett said if users aren't getting satisfactory answers from the help desk they can ask to speak to her, the product manager.
Photo courtesy Christian Schnettelker via the Creative Commons license.
