I had a completely different experience with the SS Administration. Did the paperwork on line via the SS web site. A couple weeks later, I received a telephone call from a pleasant young lady in the Fairfax VA SS office suggesting that it would be financially better for me to delay my date of payment start by 3 months to January 2012 and she explained why. I agreed and she changed it on the spot. The first direct deposit showed up exactly when it should have.
I suspect there's a huge variation in quality of service between various SS offices and their typical clientele.