Vons Risk Management Will Deny Almost Every Claim Your PTP Sends In, What To Do!

  Hello, I have been fighting against Vons Grocery Stores out of Arcadia-El Monte, California and the Parent company Safeway Companies of Pleasanton, California for over ten years now.  I would like to help you with basic common sense and ideas because California has done their best to  destroy the injured worker and create a limbo of a maze for the worker to get lost in.  What can you do?  The first thing I would do is find one of the most competent lawyers and allow them to deal with your Vons Risk Management Adjuster, otherwise you will find out your adjuster will not pick up the phone and he will ignore your letters hoping you will die or go away in frustration.


  You must not do that, your goal is to fight Vons for every penny and every ounce of medical treatment you can gouge out of these Vampires and Emotional Zombies.  Their goal is not to make you better, their goal at the Vons Risk Management is to drag their feet on your medical and attempt to screw you out of anything you allow them to do.  I again remind you, getting professional legal counsel is the greatest resource you will have.  Your store director or manager does not care about you, why would they care about someone now making $9-$11 a hour when the average Injury cost the store $25,000 and this comes out of his bonus.



   If you are injured at work, do not be afraid to fill out the Workers Compensation Injury form, its the State Law in California and you have a right no matter how hard your manager and the people from El Monte beg you not to fill out the forms.  I had one manager force me to use my medical insurance in 1987 when a case feel from a rack and landed on my neck.  What a fool I was to listen to a manager, it costed me money and he got his whole bonus because I wanted to be a team player!


     I had worked for Vons for twenty years and I loved my job and fought hard to stop waste and fraud.  That really did not matter, all the company really worried about was the "Secret Shopper" Program and loss prevention would finally poke their heads in the stores once our inventory would come in short $50,000 to $100,000.   Calling Vons to report a coworker was stealing cases of expensive alcohol backfired against me, he turned out to be the managers friend and I ended up getting put on Night Crew for watching over the company's assets.    In the end, I look back on all those years of trying to work harder than most of my coworkers and realize what a waste of time and energy it was.  I would now advice the new generation to do as little as possible because you will endanger your job by working hard instead of dragging your feet looking for the Magic Secret Shoppers, you could have One Thousand Out Of Stocks but if you get a perfect score on the Secret Shopper Program your manager can turn the One Thousand Out of Stocks into 69 with a stroke of his wand!  My point, if your local store is this screwed up imagine how your Worker Compensation Adjuster (the job best suited for kids who loved to torture little kittens and puppies when they were a child!) is going to treat you.  Did I mention you should get a lawyer before you talk with your adjuster?  Did I tell you how many times my adjuster lied to my doctors and spent over $500,000 dragging his feet on my case?



  I remember one of the reports my adjuster from Vons sent me to.  The Defense QME billed Vons for close to $10,000 and the best things was he only spoke with me for thirty minutes.  Another QME I was sent to never spoke with me and billed Vons for $6000, it seems that Vons enjoys paying doctors to write medical reports who are mind readers or do not follow the rules of California.  My adjuster loved to send me to a QME who really screwed Vons hard, he would bill 40 hours of time at $250 a hour and he was another QME who spoke with me for less than four minutes.  Vons enjoy's paying these guys because all the money they pay doctors with no morals means you might get $5,000 for a arm you will get amputated as the adjuster continues to deny surgery, his goal is not to help you but to drive you insane and create pain and havoc.


  Please, before you are injured make sure you fill out the paper work to choice your own doctor, as I learned out the doctors Vons is happy to send you to are quick to send you back to work even if you are in need of back or leg surgery.  Preventing yourself a headache only takes you ten minutes filling out your personal doctor as your MPN care guide.  You will be happy when your doctor tells you to get rest instead of having some hack or quack send you back in crutches trying to run the cash register or stock shelves only making your back worse.  It only takes ten minutes to fill out the proper DIR and DWC forms to prevent Vons or Safeway from taking advantage of you during your time of pain and suffering.



   If your injury is going to keep you out of work for a month, get yourself a lawyer as soon as possible.  The research I have done has proven you will get more money getting a attorney than trying to represent yourself before some of the most wicked adjusters, I remember one of the sweetest adjusters who was promoted to Von's Risk-management Supervisor and her replacement Edward Scissorhands turned out to be a real demon out of Hell.   If you decide to trust a adjuster like Edward Scissor-hands, don't be surprised if he tells you to use your own UFCW Insurance and so he can save Safeway money and you end up paying for a injury Vons is liable to cover.


   Recently I was promised medical care after loosing my job and now I am stuck in a living Hell.  In less than a month after signing my medical Vons started to deny treatment they promised to honor, so do you still think you can handle Vons and Safeway without a lawyer?

  Get use to your adjuster at Vons not returning your phone calls or responding to your letter.  My adjuster while talking with him, told me I should commit medicare fraud by using my Medicare to pay for the Industrial Injury Vons was guilty of causing me.  If you believe Vons will take care of you, you are wrong.  I spoke with many attorneys who represent UFCW injured workers and they all said "Vons is the worst when it come to honoring their promise to provide medical care for you. How did I get fired, they dragged my surgery out for a year and according to California Law, Vons can fire you if they can keep you out on Workers Compensation past a One Year Deadline.