Thursday, February 22, 2007

I Hate DTS

So I'm finally getting around to filing my travel voucher from my trip to Omaha, and I am discovering more and more why I hate the new Defense Travel System (DTS). The DoD implemented this system because they said it would be easier for us all to get paid after going TDY. Easier for who??!! I used to just go drop off my voucher and receipts with the Finance office, where all the wonderful finance professionals would take care of it for me and money would magically appear in my bank account a few days/weeks later. Now I have to do it all myself online where there is no explanation and no one to tell me what to do. For example, I ended up cutting my trip short by a few days, so I need to reflect that on my voucher only there dosn't seem to be any way to adjust your plane ticket info. I can adjust my hotel and rental car info but not my plan tickets. So now it keeps flashing at me and telling me that my dates don't match. Well, no shit! Now I could go ask the DTS "expert" in our shop, who is basically someone who was forced to attend the training and really doesn't know anything more about DTS than I do. Or I could try calling Finance, but it's nearly 2pm here, which means they've all left for the day to beat the traffic home (not that they answer their phone at any hour of the day, really). Even if I did get ahold of a human, they would probably refer me to the DTS questions website, which never has an answer to any of the questions I actually have. I just hate how the AF has moved to all these automated systems (a lot of our personnel stuff is supposed to be taken care of online now, as well) so it will be "easier" for people to get things taken care of. In my experience all that has happened is that the average person now has to spend copious amounts of time figuring out what to do to take care of requirements rather than just going to someone who's an expert in that area. Bleh says me!

5 comments:

Susanne said...

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alexis said...

susanne - HAHAHAHA.

I get to file my dual-country taxes online this year, I can only guess at the wonders of a government-sponsored system is like.

stef said...

susanne- you are hilarious

Maybe they should consider instating a customer service line. If they want to save money, they can always outsource it to India....

Pulisha said...

Sus, I would probably laugh at your comment if it wasn't so true!!! ;)

dee said...

I was laughing so hard when I read this. I'm sitting here right now trying to upload a measly 1.5 M receipt file. After struggling for hours to get the file JUST the right size to upload, now, of course, DTS is down....I've wasted hours on this and I'm so frustrated I want to stab myself in the eye with a pencil.

I feel your pain...