Ever since I was laid off from my temporary position with the US Postal Service back in July, I feel like it's been a battle to receive my money from New Jersey's Unemployment offices. Unfortunately, for me, this is the second time in 3 years that I've had to rely on unemployment, but I have to say that the New York Unemployment offices seemed to be more organized than the New Jersey offices. You see, I collected in New York City without any problems whatsoever for almost a year and a half. I would log onto their site, answer their little questionaire, and within two days, the money would be in my checking account.
Now, since this is money that was put aside while I was working, I'm entitled to this money, so who would've thought that I would have these problems once I got to my home state of New Jersey? So, I would log onto their site to file my claim, and one of the questions was "Are you currently in school or taking job training classes?" and at the time, I was taking some online courses, which I paid for out my own pocket when I was working, to make me more valuable on the job market, so I checked "yes". At the time, I thought that my claim had gone through, and waited for the money to show up in my checking account as, I'd set up my direct deposit. After over a week of waiting, I decided to call Unemployment to see what happened to my money. Those of you whom are also unemployed, like me, can relate to this, THEY DON'T PICK UP THE PHONE! Everything is automated! You go through all the right channels, pressing the right buttons, only to get a message saying "Due to the high volume of calls, we cannot take your call right now. Please try your call again later or visit us on the web." So, I would try my call again later, and would get the same message all day long!
Frustrated after days of attempting this call, I finally found another number to call and suddenly, someone picked up! I felt like I'd hit the jackpot! I spoke to this person and explained that I hadn't received my money yet. He took my social security number to look up my claim and told me that my funds were on hold because I check "yes" to going back to school! My first reaction was "WHAT? When was somebody going to call me and let me know?" Then I told him that I've been trying to speak to someone about this for days, and his answer was "Your speaking to someone now!" Was he really going out of his way to be rude to someone who was probably vulnerable because this was their only source of an income?
This idiot on the other end proceeded to tell me that Unemployment had to call me and interview about the schooling, which wasn't a problem, only he told me the interview was 3 weeks away. Anxiety had started to set in as I asked him, "Why so long? Does that mean that I have to wait almost a whole month for my money? What about my bills and all the late fees that would incur because everything will be late?" His answer, "Not my problem!" I asked to speak to someone other than him, like his manager, and he told me that I was speaking to someone and he was the manager. This guy was impossible! I hung up angrily saying, "And I'm the one who doesn't have a job?" This dolt didn't sound like he wanted to be there from the beginning of the phone call, which raises my question to you Governor Christie....Who are you allowing these government offices to hire? There is an obvious degree of laziness going on at the NJ Unemployment office in a time where we need the best customer service possible from Unemployment. If so many people in this country are getting laid off, why is it that the smart ones are getting laid off and the idiots still have jobs? If these people at Unemployment don't want to work? Lay them off and hire the people who want to work, like me!
My woes with Unemployment didn't end there! I was finally interviewed 2 hours after my assigned appointment time 3 weeks later, and received a months worth of pay 3 days later. I was late on my mortgage payment, my truck and insurance payment, and all of my credit cards were late! Thank you Unemployment!
Like I said, my bad luck with this 'unorganized' office continued. I claimed my next 2 weeks online as I was supposed to, and once again at the end of the week when my mortgage was due, the money was not in my account again. What the hell is going on this time? I called and called and called, and this time the number, where I reached that jerk off from the last incident, was busy! After 3 days of trying to get through, that very same guy answered! I could not believe my luck and though I was angry, I remained calm, and explained the situation to him again. He, again, asked for my social security number to look up my claim. He told me that the claim never went through and that the last claim on file, according to the computer, was that month long payment that I just received! I could not believe what I was hearing! I told him that I had a confirmation number and everything to prove that I claimed. He told me that he hated computers and that it probably got lost that way. Once again, unorganized! I never had this problem in New York. Next, I asked him what to do next since I, apparently missed my claim date, though I had proof that I did it. He told me that I would have to drive to the office to fix the problem. Now, I was aggravated again, but I might as well just drop whatever it was I was doing on that day to drive to the Unemployment office to fix their incompetencies!
It took me about a half hour to drive to Camden, NJ, a lovely and safe little city! Yeah, right! I walked in and waited in line to speak to the receptionist. I kept on thinking that I claim online to avoid this, but once again, Unemployment's IT department must be so lazy that they can't work out the bugs on their website. Here's an idea! Fire the lazy and hire the people who want to work! LIKE ME! Sorry, anyway, I waited in line, only to have my receptionist leave for her lunch break and some older woman sat in her place. When I explained to her the situation and pointed somethings out on the papers that I brought, I was reprimanded for reaching over the desk. Yeah, because I'm so dangerous looking compared to the other misfits that I shared this room with. I was given a number to speak to a claims officer, who was also very friendly. (Once again, I say this with much sarcasm in my tone.) I was told by this lovely claims officer that I was confused as to what days I'm supposed to claim, though I had a paper from their office saying which days I had to claim. Then when I tried to show her my confirmation number, she shunned me away saying, "I don't care about that! I'm here to fix 'your' mess!" Woah! Now, this was my mess? So, Unemployment won't own up to their own mistakes. This was horrible! So, she fixed the problem and gave me a new claim date. If I have anymore problems with this office while I look for work, I might go nuts.
I hope that no one ever has to go through this ordeal. It just makes me want to forget Unemployment, but it is making me to look for work harder so I don't have to collect for long! Only problem is, it's really hard to find a job in this economy, but that's a whole other blog to write! Governor Christie, I am begging you, cut the dead weight that work in your government offices and hire people who really want to work, like me!!!
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