Just sent this to my State Senator White and Governor Peter Shumlin:
On Friday, Dec. 30th at 3:50 p.m. my mail was delivered with a notice from ESD telling me I had to schedule an interview with them by January 4th or lose my benefits. It was too late then (they close at 4) and they were of course closed on Monday the 2nd, so I started calling yesterday, the 3rd, at 8:30 a.m. (they open at 8:15). In total yesterday I callled 8 times, spending 2 hours and 20 minutes on hold waiting for an agent. I left 2 messages as instructed to do so.
This morning I began calling at 8:12, with the same results- no agent to speak to, endless muzak interrupted by an autovoice advising me to call early or late for quicker service, several beeps as if keys were pushed, advisement to leave a message where an agent will call me back within one business day. I have called 4 times this morning, for a total of one hour and 35 minutes of holding. I left another message expressing my concern that I haven't been able to schedule an interview.
Should ESD not respond, I'm afraid I'll lose my Food Stamps and Medicaid subsidy. As I only receive 775$ in SSDI a month to live on and have bills to pay, this worries me. Actually it more than worries me, it kept me up half the night and is giving me the pukes.
Please advise me of what to do. I will continue calling in hope that I'll reach an agent but after 12 calls and 3 messages left... I just hope allowances are made for the backlog of calls and the inavailability of agents to field the calls that must be coming in.
Thank you for your time, in advance.
This is what it's like to be "in the system" in the US. Yeah, we're having a great time in the land of the gravy train.
MYSTERIOUS GARDEN
11 months ago
Posts
4 comments:
I just hate those electronic phone answering machines, press 1 if you are slightly pissed, press 2 if you carry a hand gun, press 3 if you plan to use it in the immediate future....for all other purposes please stay on the line and an imbecile will be with you shortly.
Do you have the equivalent of a local member of parliament you can contact and get them to intervene in your behalf? I find imbeciles relate well to each other.
With annoying Yanni muzak, too.
"Press 3 if you plan to use it" LMAO!
Yes, that's my State Senator, but I just got through by some miracle and sent this p.s. to her and the Gov:
Addendum:
15 minutes after sending you this email I reached an agent and successfully made the necessary interview schedule. The agent told me there are 96,000 Vermonters on benefits now. People who've been working the same job for 30 years can't make ends meet. They (the agents) are busy from the moment they walk in until the moment they walk out.
Well, at least that's done. I'm greatly relieved.
Thank goodness you got through. What idiots they are sending messages like that over the holiday season.
The timing was despicable. But I'm griddling up a burger and think I'll take it easy this afternoon. What unnecessary BS. I'm just relieved it's scheduled. Of course that's just the first hurdle.
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