they don't have an automated system? here you just call every week and they send a check.
This wasn't what I was looking for when I googled but it illustrates some of the problem:
Flawed unemployment insurance call center system costing California millions
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By Andrew McIntosh
amcintosh@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009 - 12
0 am | Page 1A
One in an occasional series examining government spending as California copes with recession.
Millions of failed calls to the state's unemployment insurance call centers are costing California taxpayers millions of dollars.
The Employment Development Department pays 5 cents to Verizon each time a caller dials its toll-free numbers to file or get help with an unemployment insurance claim and EDD staff can't handle the call.
Instead of getting a busy signal, callers – 25.6 million of them in December and another estimated 42 million more in January – get a pre- recorded message telling them that the department's phones are getting more calls than staff members can answer. The message urges callers to file their claims through the department's Web site.
That message service has cost taxpayers at least $5.7 million since 2004, state call center records show, but most of the tab – $4.6 million since the beginning of 2008 – has come since the economy sagged and the state's jobless rate hit 9.3 percent.
In January, the service cost the state at least $2.1 million because of the unprecedented number of callers dialing in to the message, according to EDD spokeswoman Loree Levy.
Levy defended how much the department is spending on the message service.
"It's an alternative to the traditional busy signal," Levy said. "Instead of getting a nasty busy signal, at least people are getting some information."
Jon Coupal, of the Sacramento-based Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, was incredulous when told about the rising costs for the message service.
"You've got to be kidding. Is that an appropriate use of department funds? What's wrong with a busy signal?" Coupal asked. "EDD should be immediately acting to stop the bleeding. If they can pull the plug on this service, they should. They need to look for ways to save money, not spend it like this."
After The Bee obtained state network call records and started asking questions about the message and its rising costs, Levy said in an e-mail that EDD is considering "options to reduce use of the message and the associated costs."
Levy said EDD also is looking to hire 402 new employees in the coming weeks to help handle the department's surging workload, including 81 workers in Sacramento, 60 in the Bay Area and 140 in Los Angeles, using a federal unemployment insurance grant.
After callers have heard the message once, they don't need to hear it again and again. But often, realizing they've hit a prerecorded message and haven't connected to the call center operator, they hang up and keep dialing, costing taxpayers a nickel each time.
Network calling records for the years 2004 through 2008 show more than 73.3 million calls placed to the unemployment insurance division's toll-free numbers that its own operators couldn't handle.
That total is in addition to the 42 million in January.
EDD's call center systems route callers to a "custom message announcement," also called a "CMA."
Every time that message plays, Verizon bills the department 5 cents under its CalNet telecommunications contract, state contract documents show.
People trying to file claims or ask questions must do so by telephone or the Internet.
So, desperate callers statewide are repeatedly dialing the 1-800 numbers over and over – sometimes hundreds and hundreds of times each, for days and weeks – before they get through.
Verizon spokesman Jon Davies declined to comment on whether EDD is getting value from its 5-cents-per-call deal when it is getting tens of millions of unsuccessful, repeat call attempts because staff members are overwhelmed.
"We just offer the service," Davies said. "If the customer feels it has value, it's up to them to decide how they use it."
