liveblogging my calls to unemployment
I can't get through to the Unemployment people even at eight o'clock precisely because of the volume of calls, and I have not received an answer to my emails.
I'm guessing that perhaps nobody in the entire state of California got their checks in the month of February.
On another front, I'm investigating doing some medical tourism while I am in Prague. I have three molars with chunks that have fallen out of them (yet another resemblance to Nanny Ogg!) and even with insurance I do not have enough to cover getting new crowns on them in the United States.
On yet another front, it rained last night! It rained a couple times in January, once in February and now once in March. This is when we're supposed to get all our rain. March is our last month of true rainy season: April and May are wind-downs, with diminishing chances of rain each week after the solstice. But my plum tree is blooming beatifully.
oops, I got in! It only took fifteen minutes.
now I am listening to a long, long recording about the sequester and federal extension to unemployment payments.
but no, crap, they only get me into the automated system. This is supposed to be the number that gets me the human being. No. wait, the human being is buried under "other," the last option after a bunch of increasingly unlikely options. No, they throw me out again. "Too many calls."
Dialing again. Have to listen to the whole lecture again and go through the whole menu again. Why can't I cut through the lecture since I've already heard it and it doesn't apply to me ?
This time I got further, I got all the way to "please hold for the next available operator" before they trhrew me out. I thinkI have time to try one more time.
Again.
My calls are going faster because I know the numbers I want in the menu, but they still make me listen to the whole sequestration lecture every damned time.
Again.
Again.
I am not really listening to the lecture but I have it memorized. There may or may not be a 10.7 percent cut in federal extension payments. It will be higher if it is implemented later. Don't ask any questions about it, it will be on their facebook and twitter accounts.
Again.
Just googled California unemployment benefits in the news. A Bakersfield television station ran a piece last month about how people aren't getting paid and they can't get answers.
Again.
I've run out of the time I arranged. But I'm calling one last time.
Well, screw it.
I'm just going to have to face up to the fact that I'm never going to see that money.
I guess it's a good thing I have a job now.
I'm guessing that perhaps nobody in the entire state of California got their checks in the month of February.
On another front, I'm investigating doing some medical tourism while I am in Prague. I have three molars with chunks that have fallen out of them (yet another resemblance to Nanny Ogg!) and even with insurance I do not have enough to cover getting new crowns on them in the United States.
On yet another front, it rained last night! It rained a couple times in January, once in February and now once in March. This is when we're supposed to get all our rain. March is our last month of true rainy season: April and May are wind-downs, with diminishing chances of rain each week after the solstice. But my plum tree is blooming beatifully.
oops, I got in! It only took fifteen minutes.
now I am listening to a long, long recording about the sequester and federal extension to unemployment payments.
but no, crap, they only get me into the automated system. This is supposed to be the number that gets me the human being. No. wait, the human being is buried under "other," the last option after a bunch of increasingly unlikely options. No, they throw me out again. "Too many calls."
Dialing again. Have to listen to the whole lecture again and go through the whole menu again. Why can't I cut through the lecture since I've already heard it and it doesn't apply to me ?
This time I got further, I got all the way to "please hold for the next available operator" before they trhrew me out. I thinkI have time to try one more time.
Again.
My calls are going faster because I know the numbers I want in the menu, but they still make me listen to the whole sequestration lecture every damned time.
Again.
Again.
I am not really listening to the lecture but I have it memorized. There may or may not be a 10.7 percent cut in federal extension payments. It will be higher if it is implemented later. Don't ask any questions about it, it will be on their facebook and twitter accounts.
Again.
Just googled California unemployment benefits in the news. A Bakersfield television station ran a piece last month about how people aren't getting paid and they can't get answers.
Again.
I've run out of the time I arranged. But I'm calling one last time.
Well, screw it.
I'm just going to have to face up to the fact that I'm never going to see that money.
I guess it's a good thing I have a job now.