Allow me this bitch session

9 days.

That's how long it took me to get someone from the Massachusetts Dept of Unemployment Assistance on the phone. No joke. 9 days.

See, their service works like this.  You call a number. You pick a language. You enter your social security number. You get a message "Due to an unusually high volume of calls all our reps are busy so please call back later or on another business day."

Disconnect.

If you are lucky, you get to the step after the social security number and get to enter in the year you were born. Then you are told they are transferring your call. THEN you get the "We are experiencing a high volume of calls please try your call again later."

Disconnect.

So I'm good at following directoins and I call back later. I call an hour later. A day later. Various times for the next 9 days later.  Nothing.

Then, I get through to an automated system that tells me I am in a queue but will have to wait - 41 minutes.  So, I do. Actually, 43 minutes.

My complaint? I went through this similar process back in Sept after I received a check for vacation pay that was due to me in August after I was laid off but wasn't paid to me until September - and the women on the phone in Sept said "No problem. You didn't work this week so you can still collect.  It wasn't for wages earned this week."  Awesome! She was so nice and helpful. I only waited 5 days and 28 mins on hold (oh, I remember!)

Then suddenly 2 weeks ago I call in to the system to claim my unemployment and the money stops coming in. Money I use for gas to find a job. Money I use for food for the house. Money to pay bills, car payments, Diet Coke.  I've even stopped buying bottles of wine.  Now that's cutting back!!

The woman this time tells me the reason I'm not seeing money is because my previous employer paid me vacation pay.  I explained how DUA knew that from my call in Sept. and I explain it again. Then she tells me, sorry, they need an adjuster to call me. But she doesn't know when this will happen because the adjusters are helping to answer the phones.  Really? Really? Then they are doing an awful job because it took me 9 days to get a live person.

She said it could be a week, maybe two. Then she admitted she has no idea when they'll call.

Fan-fxcking-tastic. So in the meantime does anyone at DUA want to share their paychecks for all the overtime they must be making since it's so busy and help me pay for food for Thanskgiving, Christmas gifts, mortgage, gas and electric.

While I bitch, I am rather fortunate that our savings isn't down to zero (yet!) but I can not imagine families that rely on that check to LIVE day to day who are getting the same horrible customer service that I am - 9 days. NINE DAYS to talk to someone.

Who do I call about this?  Oh, never mind.