Category: Why California Sucks

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And YET ANOTHER EDD #FAIL

Ok so here’s the deal.

As I’ve chronicled The California Employment Development Department is anything but what it’s name claims it is.

We’ve learned that calling them and reaching a human being is impossible.

We’ve learned that when they call you to ask you questions in their Eligibility Interview process, that they are unable to transfer you to any other departments. But occasionally they can at least answer a question.

We’ve learned that EDD does not know what a directive statement is. They prefer to use passive voice in their correspondence, suggesting potential actions that you might wish to take when the drug induced haze of your medicinal marijuana or ‘shrooms wears off.

Today we’ve learned that if you happen to be one of the people who owns a macintosh computer OR if you happen to run one of the Linux variants  that you had better be prepared for your claim form to take between 2 and 5 hours to file online.

Yes! You read that correctly. 

It seems that the EDD is Windows-centric 

On the Macintosh platform ANY error in data input will cause you to have to force quit Safari because once the EDD generates an error dialog box in Safari you CAN NOT CLEAR THE ERROR DIALOG. No matter how many times you click on the OK button.

This means if you fail to put two zeroes after a decimal point, or you include an apostrophe in a contraction in a text box, or you have a dash in between the area code and dialing prefix on a phone number, you’ll generate an un-clearable error.

And guess what… You’ll get to go right back to the beginning of the form and start all over again.

I finally re-loaded an Virtual machine containing Windows XP just to be able to get through the damn form.

I’m trying to print a copy of my EDD entry form right now… and I think that the print routine has hung, Which means that I’m going to get to re-enter all the information yet AGAIN.

The irritating part of this is that the ONLY way to communicate with EDD in terms of filing claims is to do it ONLINE. Given that fact, you’d at least hope that they could program their fucking form so that ANY modern web browser can be used.

Mind you these are the people who are responsible for BILLIONS of dollars in California tax money, and they can’t be bothered to test their forms for compatibility.

Considering that Apple is still based in Cupertino you’d think the California web sites would at least work properly with Apple systems.

Of course, at some point Apple will look at it’s bottom line, then look at the tax burden it’s carrying because of it’s presence in California… And they’ll move to another state.

If companies like Hughes and Northrop Grumman decided it was time to move… Apple can’t be far behind…

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Complete EDD MEGA #FAIL

I know it sounds like I’m picking on the EDD but for fucks sake…

I Just got a bunch more paperwork from EDD. all of the paperwork has the same phone numbers on it.

The real crack-up is that one of the documents is a confirmation of PIN number request.

This one says “If you did not request a PIN Immediately call 1-800-300-5616 (English)”

This is the number that I’ve been dialing for the past 6 hours trying to get hold of a human being to find out what the hell is happening with my EDD claim and depending on those answers to potentially report fraud.

Of EVEN more amusement is that My Social Security number, phone number, and address are all over these EDD forms.

Which means that if one of these pieces of mail was to end up in someone else’s mailbox. It would be THE EDD that exposed me to complete identity theft.

I swear I can’t even believe the complete and utter incompetence I’m seeing. If someone was to call and use the automated system to change my mailing address they’d be able to take my unemployment payments and at the same time they’d be able to use my social security number at a hospital, or employer, or to buy a car or to open credit cards.

All of this thanks to the State of California.

Why the FUCK do we bother shredding every piece of paper, fighting to protect our privacy when BIG FUCKING BROTHER has no problem violating every rule in the book?

HIPPA regulations, which are enforced by the state PREVENT the exposure of this kind of personally identifiable information.

So why would the fucking Employment Development Department turn around and just publish this stuff on every single document they send out?

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Another EDD #FAIL

Ok so I get this thing from EDD in the mail yesterday.

It said “Additional Instructions”

Please follow the instructions below. Failure to do so may result in denial of your benefits. Please include your name and Social Security number on any additional forms you mail to the EDD.

1) You are potentially eligible to file a new claim effective 07/01/12. We need your correct last employer informant and tast date worked before the claim can be filed and any payments can be issued. You may apply on-line at WWW.EDD.CA.GOV or cal the 1-800 telephone numbers above for assistance to complete the filing of your claim.

The problem is that I to the best of my knowledge ALREADY have an open claim which begs the question why does this look like a new claim is being filed?

I think whoa! what’s going on here?

I’ve just spent the last 4 hours continuously calling the EDD numbers that they reference. Mind you this is 4 hours I have not spent looking for a new job.

I can get to the EDD, I can get all the way to the point where they’re “Transferring my call” Then I get a message saying that due to the number of callers they cannot take my call at this time. CLICK! Then I get to dial all over again.

I’ve got a slight problem with these so-called instructions. Namely… THESE ARE NOT INSTRUCTIONS! There is NO and I repeat NO directive.

A directive would say something like;

1) Go to the EDD web site

2) navigate to xyz page

3) input the information we need.

OR 

1) navigate to the EDD web site and submit a new claim.

The problem is that I already have a claim that was as of last week being paid, so why suddenly do we have this form with nebulous “Instructions” on it?

This is why I really want to take to a human being. It looks like this confusion has already resulted in my unemployment transfer being stopped. 

Taking a break… then back to dialing! I have no fucking idea what I’m supposed to do.

Gotta love how well Kalifornia takes care of it’s citizens… 

Seems like the more you try to do the right thing… the more you get screwed