Today, after I got home from my brand new ten hour a week job, I decided it was a good idea to let the EDD know that I am not entirely and completely unemployed anymore. No, I have moved up in the world! I am now among the millions of under-employed people, who still need financial aide from Unemployment Insurance, if we want to, say, for example……. actually pay our bills.
I looked at the letter I got that informed me of the telephone interview, (the one I suffered through yesterday), and dialed the number sitting next to the word “English”. I got a recorded message, of course, welcoming me in English. Then I got to hear the same recorded message all over again, in Spanish. Would Cantonese be next, I wondered? No, it wasn’t. I was asked to “Press 1 for English”. So, I pressed one. BEEP!
Next, I had to listen to a recorded message informing me that people who have already gone through their Unemployment Insurance benefits, and have also gone through the second extension of their UI benefits can now apply for a third extension. There were lots of details about what months this was asking about, but, none of it actually applied to me. I guess this extension is called “FED ED”.
From here, things got confusing. I went through several layers of directions about which number to press for certain things. The problem was that not one of those numbers was for what I wanted. I was calling to let the EDD know that I had, in fact, obtained a part time job. Perhaps this isn’t actually something they want to know?
There were numbers to press if I was calling about child support payments. There were several numbers to press if I wanted to attempt to get an extension on my Unemployment payments. There even was a number to press if I wanted to attempt to fight a denial of my benefits. Numbers to press for everything, except what I actually was calling for.
Each and every time I pressed a number, I had to listen to a recorded message directing me to go online, and apply for Unemployment Insurance there. I’ve already done that, so this was not the least bit helpful. After several levels of “Voice Mail Jail”, misdirecting me around and around, I finally got to hear a recorded message that meant something.
I was told that “due to the amount of calls” right then, that there was no one who could help me. I was told, by this disembodied electronically recorded voice, that I should call back later. Oh, and I was also reminded about how to find their handy little website. Then, the pre-recorded voice hung up the phone on me! Strike One!
This was around 2:40 in the afternoon, today. I decided to call back after three, and see if I could get a better result. This time, the message started by telling me that they were receiving more calls than they could handle at the moment. I had the same information, once again, about potential extension of UI benefits. They directed me to their website at least four times, even going so far as to spell out “double-you, double you, double-you”. There was something said about how calling on Saturdays won’t work, and to, you guessed it, use the website instead. After that, the wonderful, helpful EDD hung up on me AGAIN! Strike Two!
At this point, I decided to call their Spanish line. I speak enough Spanish to ask my questions, and to understand the answers, if only I could connect to an actual, real live person! The Spanish line was just as (un)helpful as the English one. Now I was listening to the exact same recorded messages as before, this time in Spanish. All the same, right down to the “Dough-blay- ooo, Dough-blay-ooo, Dough-blay-ooo” for their website. After giving me exactly no help, for the third time in a row, the EDD decided to hang up on me, in Spanish. Strike Three! It wasn’t even 3:30 yet!
I call once again, this time in English, figuring that I have all day, and the telephone number is one of those 1-800 numbers that I will not be charged any money to call. “We are currently receiving more calls than we can answer….” I am sick and tired of hearing that!
Hey, EDD! How’s about you go hire a few of these people who are trying so hard to talk to you right now, and have a bunch of them answer your phones for you? Solve two problems with one simple action! Oh, right, that would actually make sense, and the government seems to be allergic to common sense. I am completely convinced that the EDD isn’t there to help any of us, and is instead, as one of my Twitter friends tweeted yesterday “just hoping (I) will go away”.
3:30, I try again. This is my fifth try today. It troubles me that I am here trying to do the right thing, to report to the EDD that I have a part time job now, so they can adjust my benefits however they see fit right away. I am trying to be honest, and not end up with an accidental overpayment, so I won’t have to deal with the EDD trying to take the “extra” money back from me later on. They are doing all they can to make this impossible for me.
I get the same recorded message, again, starting with the “we are receiving more calls than we can handle right now.” What happens if I press one? BEEP! The recorded message continues, as if I have not pressed anything. How about if I press zero? BEEP! The snippy sounding recorded disembodied female voice drones on. I am starting to hate her.
Shawn checks the website I have been directed to go look at countless times now, in two languages. Guess what? That’s right! There is absolutely nothing there that I can click on to inform the EDD that I have a part time job now. Not one thing!
I walk to the mailbox, hoping to find some good news. It’s illogical, considering that I have never gotten any good news from the EDD, well, at all, and I definitely haven’t gotten any good news from the EDD in my mailbox. As I walk, I wonder if, perhaps, the EDD isn’t there to help people, but is instead just a front allowing the government to do random psychological experiments on the American people.
How many times does the average person desperately call that phone number before giving up, resigned to their fate? How can we make that happen faster? What if we start by sending disconcerting and somewhat threatening letters to people in the mail? Does this make people try to call us less, or more?
There was junk mail in my mailbox, and a letter for someone who doesn’t live here. There was a random christmas catalogue, and a small box of something Shawn ordered. Once again, my financial assistance from the EDD is in absentia. This officially makes 35 days since I have signed up for Unemployment Insurance. Thirty five days of being ignored. Thirty five days of bills we are struggling to pay.
The clock says 3:53, and I am trying once again. I get the same recorded entity who refuses to give me any help, once again. No, I will not “Please listen to this recorded message”. I already know that once I hear that you have more calls than you can handle that you aren’t going to bother to try and help me this time around either. There must be just one person out there, trying to answer the phones in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese, as well as attempting to run the TTY machine with his feet, all at the same time. What are their phone operators doing over there, drinking? Throwing a party? C’mon already!
4:03… Same results. No help at all. Just a recorded message telling me that, boo-hoo, poor them, they have too many calls to handle right now! Cry me a river, baby.
4:05… I start hitting redial, like a teenager trying to win concert tickets from a radio station. Over and over and over.
4:08… To my complete surprise, I get the first recorded message voice. I’m actually getting excited! Perhaps this means they can help me now. I listen to the same message about extended UI claims, all over again. I press 1 for English, and am directed to press 1 again to “check my information” about my claim. Eventually, it asks me for my social security number, which I punch in. “This call may be monitored…” Oh, my God! Have I finally broken through the walls of Voice Mail Jail? Will I get help now?
I am asked to enter a series of numbers, once again. It wants me to enter something that is specifically printed out on the forms they first gave me. The problem? That particular phrase is listed twice, and there is a different number sitting behind each one of them. I try the first number, and hope I guessed right, holding my breath in anticipation. “We are receiving more calls than we can handle right now…” You’ve gotta be kidding me! I get hung up on again.
4:14, back to hitting redial. I get the snippy voice informing me of it’s woe over the excessive calls it is getting. Maybe they should, I dunno, answer some of them once in a while? I bet that would cut down the number of people trying to call for help. I get this snippy voice two more times, before getting the “good” voice mail entity once again.
Press 1 for English. Listen again to the stuff about extended claims. Back to the list of options. Pressing 1 got me nowhere, so this time, I press 2. BEEP! I get told about the website again. Not helpful, EDD, not helpful at all! I get directed to another level of Voice Mail Hell, and this time, it seems like I should press 4. BEEP!
One more level, and I’m guessing I should press 3. BEEP!
“This call may be monitored…” Yay! I’m about to finally get some help! “Due to the number of calls….” NOOOOO! Click! Hung up on again. I was so close this time!
4:18… redial until my finger falls off. I get the snippy voice mail entity three more times, until the “better” voice mail entity returns to me again. I follow the list of “press this number for… bla bla bla” commands, getting as far as I did before. This time, I press 4 instead of 3, just to see if that was the magic number I needed to press.
It seems to have worked. Huzzah! I am hearing voice mail options that I haven’t been told before! I decide that the best of these selections is to press *6, so that is what I do. That is what to press for, among a multitude of other things “overpayments”. I am trying to prevent an overpayment, so I think this may be the number for me. I listen to more options, but none of them are right. “Or, press zero for an operat…” BEEP! Could this labyrinth of voice mail finally have led me to an actual person? I can hardly breathe.
“Due to the number of calls ..” NOOOO! Why, God, why?
At 4:24, I go digging through the blue pamphlet, just in case there is some hidden information in there that might be able to help me. The table of contents says something like “Where is my check?”. I follow that to the right page, and look! A different phone number to call! See Jen. See Jen dial! Dial, Jen, Dial! If I can’t get an actual person to help me, maybe finding out where my check is at will offer me some solace.
I’ve got a new disembodied voice mail entity to listen to this time. I still have to listen to the stuff about extended claims, and the stuff about how to find their website. Eventually, I am allowed to punch in my social security number, and we are getting somewhere, I hope. I choose the first number beside the magic phrase. Incorrect! Click! *Sigh* I go through the process all over again, and this time, I pick the second number by the magic phrase. Correct! Yes, yes, yes!
It tells how to reset my “pin number” and I follow the directions until it is satisfied. I am informed that it takes ten days for the EDD to mail out a check. It’s been more then ten days, disembodied voice mail lady! I wait, as it seeks my information.
“There has been no payment sent out.” What? How can that possibly be? Beyond disappointed, I hang up the phone for the last time. I do not exist to the EDD, despite the forms I have filled out online, the forms I have mailed, the phone interview I did, and the fax I sent out. Something tells me I will be working full time before the EDD starts to send out payments to me, and then, it will only be so it can take them right back again. Thirty five days have gone by, and the EDD hasn’t even gotten around to starting to help me yet.
Tags: Unemployment Insurance
I had to go to one of their workshops on the 21st where they actually told me I needed to post or update my resume by the 23rd. Of course I went to the site on the 23rd only to find out it is down due to fraudulent activity. They have since cut off my benefits for failure to do so. My advice to anyone else is to go to the local jobs center and have them help you with whatever problems you have with these people. I was able to get through on the phone at the jobs center and they said if unemployment doesn’t reinstate my benefits they will call a manager for me.
It sickens me how unprofessional and incompetent these people at the EDD are.
I hope the people at the jobs center can do something to help you get your benefits back. The more I hear stories like yours, the more I am convinced that it is all just a big game to the government, and that they are set up to avoid helping people.