ok - Long rant ....
1st - this is not about the people that I have talked to at the Agency - they have all been helpful.
2nd - IF I needed this to eat or pay rent or what ever - I'd be screwed !
I will attempt to describe the process....
You MUST have a NYS userID and Password,,, so go do that 1st.
Then. you go to the NYS unemployment WEB site - no need to call... You fill out the form. The usual information. along with Employer number from your W2 ,,, etc etc.. and of course this year there is a question about if you lost your Job due to COVID -19.... I did NOT! .. I'm seasonal employee at a STATE Marina,,,so Covid had no affect on that... I answer no. You hit enter and Poof - there is an error. You can't type that employer number as is,,, you need to remove the Dash .... ok,,, redo that and off the form goes successfully . You immediately get an email that you have an urgent message in you NYS Web site inbox.. Sign back in,,, and you are instructed to call a special number (BTW - this number is only good for this - NOT for claiming or any other information) You quickly get an agent who essentially reviews all the info you entered in the form. and Whoops ! The form is on a hold because I typed in that Employer number wrong the 1st time - yea - even though I corrected it and the form said "successfully submitted" - NOPE !! He has to reenter pretty much all the info,,,, and then he says ok,,, you are all set , for this form. and it's entered.
Wait - another urgent e-mail.... this one says - that one of the answers on my submission makes it possible that I am eligible for COVID relief (remember , I answered NO to the Covid question) I have to complete another form ,,,,, DID lose my job due to Covid 19 ? Were my hours reduced due to Covid 19 ? Did my business close due to Covid 19 ? Etc ETC,,,, 10 questions,,, all answered NO .... Submit that.
I get another email - I am not eligible for Covid 19 relief !!! NO SHIT !!
5 days go by,, I get letter in the Snail mail... that I am not eligible for payments because I did not earn enough money in the previous 2019 quarters and 2020 quarters,,,, the data at the bottom of the letter shows all $0 ZERO dollars earned for 2019 and 2020 !!! OK what fresh hell is this ?? Now begins the Calling in phase and know that each time I say -I need to call in to the number - this is the Process. and all except for ONE time - I called back 75 - 100 times ....
CALL BACK PROCEDURE :
You call,,, enter 1 to continue in English.
-there is a message about NYS being approved for Covid 19 benefits - approx 90 seconds,,,,
- It tells you they need to collect a little info before they can proceed with the Phone call -
- You enter your Social Security number ,,,
- Enter your phone PIN ... Did I tell you - you must have a phone pin.... ??
- Did you receive a letter asking you to call this number ? 1 for yes, 2 for no... If you enter 1 it tells me - that they have no record of a letter asking me to call !! WTF - why ask !?
- have you received a payment yet ? 1 or 2
- have you claimed your weekly benefits ? 1 or 2
- Are you calling to check on payments ? , status of Payments, or status of your Claim , 1,2 or 3...
Next - wait for it ! you have been on this call for about 3-4 minutes at this point....
"We are experiencing an unusually high call volume - all our agents are busy assisting others - Please call back LATER !" and they DISCONNECT YOU !!! - I shit you not !! Once this happens 20 times,, you get good about entering SSN and pin,, and can get the call duration down to about 90 seconds .... and mind you Every time you speak to an agent - you have to give Name ,address, phone number, email, Mother maiden name. Social security number all over again!
Ok - I get thru to an agent- they review my claim.... lo and behold , the System did not recognize my EMPLOYER Number !! The employer number that the last guy entered !! and OH - my employer is NEW YORK STATE !!!! so let me get this straight , the NYS unemployment system , did not recognize the NYS employer number !?!!?!?!?!?!? WTF !!! Ok - Reentered ,, and then she tells me that she can see the data repopulated correctly and gives me the Payment dollars that - IF approved - would be payed . OK
2 days later - get a new letter - they need Identification documents ,,, a NYS Driver License, Social Security Card , Birth Certificate or Passport.. No way any of the other people I talked to could have told me this ?? You can scan them in and send via Email - Great.. I take photos and attach to an email in the NY WEB Site. The MAX size is small so I need to send three separate emails...
I call a day later I CALL BACK to check on status - 78 tries,..
The images were too fuzzy , and they can see writing thru the hologram on my Drivers license. Guess they were not that fuzzy if you can read thru the hologram !! but - OK,,, and they need the BACK of the documents also..... The back,,,?? yea - the blank backs !! OK what ever
I SCAN - via my printer - and give them fronts and backs of the documents, again several emails due to the small image size that you can attach ......
2 more days pass - I call back - 100 tries ,, no good,,, 73 tries ,,, and Get thru ....
1st guy says he needs to review the Claim,,, and puts me on hold,,, comes back and says it looks ok,, he needs to send it to the Identification / Fraud team to review (that is who looks at the images) .. Ok, puts me on hold again,,, 5 minutes into the hold - I hear the number ringing again,,, another guy answers ,,,,, he has no Idea whats going on - i give all info again he is not in that Customer Service group , but he will send an email to them to review the Claim.
1 Day later I call back - not really trusting the last guy,,,, 50 plus calls.... Again go over the whole thing,,, she puts me on hold to review the claim...... you guessed it - 3 minutes later the phone starts calling another number - I get another Agent ! I am nice,,,, figuring that these folks can tie up this claim up for months / years if you were to piss them off !! I ask her NOT to put me on hold,... She agrees,,, reviews the Claim..... Ok all looks ok,, she is able to see all the images that I scanned,, the Forms that were entered,,,, BUT , BUT - it's on HOLD - needing to be sent to the Identification / Fraud team to review (that is who looks at the images) . She is able to do that !!! Finally ! she also tells me that this can take between 10 days and TWO Weeks to review ! but I need to make sure I claim my Benefits every Sunday so that If/When they approve , I will get payments back to The Last week of November ..... Ok - so this whole process has taken between November 25th and today , December 19th,,, I have about 4-6 hours invested at this point I will update if/when I get any monies...
The foot note to this is ,,,,,, that I calculated my earnings from the weeks during last winer... I work even less in the winter, shorter hours - Like 16 - 20 per week. I compared this with - what I will (I hope) be paid from unemployment. and the difference is approx $10 a week Less - so $10 a week less to NOT WORK , than to WORK !! Ummm - I never said I was smart !!
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