i've dealt with dfas (from a vendor perspective), and you're right... when something goes wrong, NOBODY in the normal channels know what to do. you have to go through endless "try this person" or "that person" queries within DFAS, and it eventually took concerted efforts from both the contracting office, and the local contract administrator office to press DFAS for action. When it doesn't go wrong, it works fine. I gather that, overall, things go ok considering what a fucking mess they have to deal with to make it all happen. I'm betting that if we worked in that office, we'd be amazed that anyone gets paid at all.