No call, no news, no check. Welcome to dealing with the EDD

The scheduled telephone call never came. I never was more than two feet from my phone, and even slept with my hand wrapped around it. My boy friend says I'm becoming obsessed, but I think the words he's looking for is "terrified" or "stressed beyond rational thought". This is the email response I received from The EDD:

[Pinky] You requested information on your eligibility following a telephone interview. According to our records, the decision is currently pending. We have forwarded your information to the office that handles your claim. You will receive a telephone call within 2 working days to provide you the status on your claim.

This was after I had a hearing - because my former employer fudged their numbers -and I waited the 12 days I was told to wait until my UI started again. So I tried calling, which doesn't work, ever. So I wrote an email asking for an explanation. Or a timeline, or any news, really. And they sent me that, and I naively thought that "You will receive a telephone call within 2 working days to provide you the status on your claim" meant that I would actually receive a call within two days. Maybe it's my fault, for thinking Monday through Friday were "working" days.
My phone and internet contacted me yesterday. I have four days to pay up or be disconnected. Obviously the phone is the priority. I can leech internet for my job searches from coffee shops, but I really need a phone in my job search. So four days to come up with $200. But maybe those are "working" days.

Unemployed in Ca ca californiiiiaaaa

Most of what I've figured out about being newly unemployed in California has come from blogs. God knows it's almost impossible to reach an EDD rep. You cannot get through on the telephone lines. The offices are NOT staffed with any person who can answer questions about your claim. The handbook is a bone-dry work of fiction, bearing zero resembalence to the actual day to day of the people it's meant to help. It's all so pathetic, really. California is in crisis, every single person on UI is going through a hell of red tape and made up hoops that they supposedly forgot to jump through, and the media coverage is of press releases and new state measures.

Pointless state measures at that.

Guys, how about covering the real story? The people that are hurting, that are dying during this this criminal bureaucratic budgetary bait-and-switch?

Governor, we're on to you. You seem to have forgotten that we Californians have a lot of experience with crooked earthquake insurers. We know all about slick salesmen that are our BFF's until we file a claim. So this? This endless maze of paperwork and hearings and unexplained delays and no way to find any person we can hold accountable and phone lines that are never picked up and offices staffed by people who either know nothing or are not allowed to talk about it? This trick you're pulling is not new.

It's same old routine we go through after a Big One, and they get away with it until public outrage forces the Government to act. Do you really think this play will end differently, Arnie?

I had a hearing in the beginning of March. The last check I received was in the beginning of February. After my hearing the rep said the error was on my former employer's part & that I could expect checks in 10 - 12 days. My checks never come. No letter, no notice - I get NO explanation at all. Apparently we're just expected to quietly starve while nothing happens. The whole time I'm calling the EDD - racking up minutes I cannot afford - but never getting through. I try the automated system, but that isn't working either. Finally I get an email telling me my case is pending (pending for what I wonder? The rep already told me the error was on my former employers part) and that they'll call me in a few days.

The best case scenario is that I get a job and can tell the EDD to go to hell. Personally, if that happened I would like the option to opt out of the UI system in the future and invest the money on my own. I could have handed it over to Bernie Madoff and done no worse.

The second best, (and about as likely as my winning the lottery) is that when they call they resolve my case in my favor and start paying checks. But even in that unlikely scenario I will STILL have to wait another 10 - 12 days before I get any money. 58 days of delays.

Hopefully I wont be evicted first.