Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance

The list of issues I have had with DUA is so long I don’t even want to write it all. Just know that if I could give them 0 or negative stars I would. Where is the customer service? You have a high volume of calls @ 8:30AM?! You just opened? You determine that you can’t serve me and hang up on me I am unemployed I HAVE THE TIME TO WAIT! I ‘m just happy that I left the state and don’t need to deal with them much longer… I just want what is owed to me

This is the fourth day in a row the automated system has hung up on me and told me to call back tomorrow.
Fml

Laid off end of October, 2015. Still waiting for payments January 2016. Took weeks to get someone on the phone, after being on hold for two hours. The lady told me that I answered a question incorrectly, resulting in a «pending issue.» I actually answered the question correctly and truthfully — but she admitted that the question was not written clearly and that many people misunderstand it and answer it incorrectly by mistake. THEN FIX THE DAMN QUESTION! This is the worst customer service experience of my life. If they were a private business, they would have been long gone.

I have an issue with my claim, will only be out of work for 1 month but I’d like to keep my house. Of course to settle the issue I Ave to make a phone call to thier customer service. After you go through the automated system you are told call volume is too high and to call black another day. I call 10 times per day for 2 weeks now and still get disconnected, doesn’t even let you stay on hold, what is with this? I pay into the system for years and years and when I need it the program is dysfunctional. I wish I could vent my frustration to them but I don’t know how I can even speak to a human.

Nobody answers the phone after you go through the automated voice system process. This is a joke! WTF… I’ve been trying to collect since the first week of December and its close to one whole month I’ve missed my payments. I am trying to resolve an issue regarding my existing claim-​voice operator just ends calls automatically no actual live person is reached, shut this company down!!! STAY AWAY

The most dysfunctional government agency I have ever dealt with. I won’t go into too much personal detail but dealing with DUA is a nightmare. If your employer ever lies to them, getting them to believe you will be almost impossible, even if you submit a stack of evidence and your employer submits nothing. And they are ok with their hearing examiners just flat out not looking at evidence and making decisions based on what is said. I truly understand what it means to feel hatred after this mess that is still going on. Since last spring. They are incompetent at every level. Regular employees, examiners, even the board of review. If you are ever unlucky enough to work for a criminal in the state of MA, your life will be hell if DUA has any part in it.

This website and phone system is truly something to behold. I was laid off at the end of October and opened a claim. I didn’t actually file a claim because I was licking my wounds and didn’t yet feel like jumping through all the hoops they need you to jump through. Last week I finally took the time to do everything right. I filed a claim for the week… lo and behold, I was told I was not eligible and the old, netscape ear website told me to follow another link to a dead end webpage that had no information for me. This whole process is a joke. Mass Dept. Of Unemployment should be ashamed of themselves.

In a word: atrocious. I echo what many others have already said. The website looks like it was made in 1995 and makes you select things that are not true and it stops your claim. It asked me if I had worked since losing my job and it would not allow me to select «No.» And if your claim gets stopped it’s a pain in the rear to get it going again. Hold times on the call line is ridiculous — one hour is normal. How many of us have an hour to waste waiting?
Worst of all, the DUA seems to want to avoid human contact at all costs. They won’t call you to clear up a matter that could take a 5 – 10 minute phone call. And if you are lucky to get through you are treated like a nuisance or given wrong info. I was on unemployment many years ago and it was not this cumbersome.
There are not enough words to describe the level of frustration and pain caused by dealing with the DUA. I am not kidding when I say I am literally near tears because I can’t get access to 2 months worth of unemployment due to me. My finances are taking a serious hit because of this.

I agree if it was possible to give 0 stars i would! I waited about 8 weeks to finally get paid and determined elligible. I called countless times had rude people tell me they cant do anything and when i bring up barely being able to survive on what was left on my credit cards they dont care. Finally i get paid and i found a new job so i answered a question on the weekly submissions «have you been offered a job» Yes i selected… doesnt mean i had a job or accepted or started but now it looks like they are going to try and hold money from me as i was given a questionnaire that asked me questions about my work how many hours how often who my manager was. It was the wierdest thing ever! i am not sure why i got the questionnaire so i filled it out all saying YES ACCEPTED JOB STARTED TODAY WONT CLAIM ANYMORE! i dont understand? guess they got my last week and my first week!

Awful! It’s been a month since I filed my claim but when I called in to ask for a status update yesterday I was told they haven’t even assigned an adjuster to review my claim yet. She refused to give me any ETA’s for when an adjuster would be assigned or when my first deposit would be made. What a joke! How do they expect people to pay bills and eat? I apply for work every week but the companies who bother to reply just tell me they can’t or won’t pay me anywhere near what I was making… like literally less than half my old pay rate. The ones who are willing to toss in a couple extra bucks are literally only offering work for two days a week. Absolutely depressing! I worked for the same company for almost 12 years — We paid into this system and we have a right to a speedy process! Not this endless b.s. where they get to set deadlines for us but they don’t have to stand by any of the deadlines they supposedly set for themselves to process these claims! I’m literally down to my last $ 100 but no one is even looking at my claim. Angry doesn’t even describe how I feel right now.

Dysfunctional doesn’t even begin to cover the unemployment system in Massachusetts! They have all these reviews online about how great their automated system is — lies, lies, and more lies! Never mind trying to call in. The hold time when you call in can last over an hour before they either hang up on you or you hang up out of frustration. Two months of waiting and nothing but the same tired message that «You have a pending issue.» The funny thing is, I was given a very strict deadline to respond to their inquiries of me but no the same on their end!
I’m doing what I can on my end and searching for work and applying to whatever job I think I have a chance at but it’s frustrating and disheartening that I can’t even reach a human being at that place for assistance! I’ve paid into the system for years and now have to spend time hoping that I’ll get back some of the money I’ve put in! Sickening!

The state of MA should be embarrassed by the poor level of usability of its website and phone service. The citizens of this Commonwealth deserve services that are easy to use, efficient, and functional. Everything the website and phone service is not. Scandalous! Customer service at its very worst.

I do not know how anyone would consider two stars rating for this dysfunctional institution — DUA is a symbol of governmnet INCOMPETENCE –calling them on the phone is a futile and frustrating undertaking (if you are patient enough and wait a couple of hours — two different people will tell you two different things). I would say forget about calling them — if transferred to a manager, that’s just a pure fantasy — nobody picks up the phone and will get disconnected.
If you miss a DUA seminar or a meeting for whatever good reason (could not attend the seminar because the the seminar was cancelled due to snow — their own seminar was cancelled!!! — THEY cancelled it) — then you do not get paid because you did not attend the seminar! It takes weeks for them to look into it — this is INCOMPETENCE at its height — DUA makes the 3^rd world countries look centuries ahead of us — hope to never have to deal with these idiots again ever even so as a taxpayer I paid into the system for 20 years!

This system is an absolute nightmare. How come no one has done anything about this? I can’t believe people actually depend on this system to live.
I need a job ASAP.

NEGATIVE 10 Stars. Been fighting the state from 8 months to try and get my unemployment. 8 MONTHS! The people who work here are a bunch of assholes who sound like they are straight out of the ghetto and GOODLUCK trying to talk to ANYONE who knows what they hell their talking about. Better yet, GOODLUCK to even talking to anyone.

MA is awful about processing unemployment claims. I’ve had two claims now due to being laid off and so far both times are taking at least 8 weeks to process. And if you call to check up on the claim you’ll get customer service persons with attitudes of «oh it’s only been 5 weeks.» Yeh you try going without income for five weeks. The questions they ask when you renew your weekly claim sound like they’re coming from a lawyer. Not a nice one either. One who wants to make you feel very stupid. It’s awful. Being unemployed is bad enough but then the great division of ma unemployment makes it that much worse.

In and out in under twenty minutes
My only criticism is that the two security guards are extremely rude and discriminating every time I go there. They always make comments about where they think I come from or what my body looks like. I think they are unprofessional and should be spoken to.

The whole unemployment system is a nightmare. Not only is it difficult to get unemployment but it takes so long with all those damn pending issues. I lost my job 10÷2÷13 and I didn’t get paid until this past week for the first time. They at least paid me back what I was owed but it took them nearly 3 months to get my pending issues through before I finally got paid. My pending issues varied because I quit one job for a better one (which unfortunately that better job closed down). I was a full-​time college student so I couldn’t look for other full-​time work because my full-​time job I lost was made around my school schedule while most full-​time jobs weren’t.
What’s the worst part of all is the unemployment website. I don’t know what’s happened to it but certain days, the website is so slow that I can’t even file my claim online. I always have to log in with my social security number and then my password. Well, I log in with my social security and it takes about 2 minutes. Then I try to log in with my password and it takes 5 minutes or longer. What’s worse? Since the load time was so damn long, by the time my password went through, the website makes me type in my social security number and password AGAIN!!! The cycle continues so some days (mostly Sunday) I can’t even put in my information. I don’t know what’s going on but their website is basically non-​functional. Oh and don’t even get me started on calling. If you have pending issues, then you can’t use the phone at all. Others summed it up nicely. The only reason I gave 2 stars was because I finally got paid my lump sum but nothing is getting easier that’s for sure.

If it were possible to give 0 stars, I would have.
I can honestly say I have NEVER dealt with a more frustrating and horribly put together system in my entire life.
The automated system hangs up on you with no notice. It takes at least 10 calls in a row to even get put on hold for a claims rep, and then you’re told the wait time will be anything from 45 minutes MINIMUM typically and it only goes outrageously higher from there.
I was let go from my job in September, the START of the month, and it is now the 1^st of November. I have yet to receive anything at all regarding my benefits and the last woman I spoke to on the phone was so degrading and insulting that I just wanted to get off the phone with her instead of sit and take her verbal abuse.
It is NOT my fault that the economy sucks, it is NOT my fault that your claims center does not have the capacity for the calls it receives and I CERTAINLY DO NOT deserve to be spoken down to when I am the same working class citizen you are. I may have hit hard times but there is NO reason to EVER speak to a person the way I was spoken to. My situation is not one for you to speculate on and pick apart.
To add to it, the woman clearly told me false information because at the beginning of October I was told I had a 2 week waiting period left before I would receive the decision for my claim — either she doesn’t know how to count or (and this is a stretch here) my mail got lost on its way here since I have yet to receive anything — a letter or a check.
I wish I wasn’t so heated while writing this because I feel that my poor review doesn’t do nearly the justice to explain the poor service you receive when trying to get your benefits or even speak to a human — never mind the horrendous attitudes you get when you do speak to an actual person on the other line.
I’m at a loss for any real words with how much of an abomination this department is. One question — did they hire the people who were too ghetto or rude to hold a job of their own solely because they didn’t want to pay them unemployment? Because that’s the vibe I’m getting.

«0» stars!
«0» customer service skills
«0» communication skills
«0» overall service!!!
The entire system needs to be revised and every single person that works there at the customer service needs to be fired! and maybe try to collect unemployment and see how rude and useless their service is.
The lack of the entire ONLINE –user friendly system makes the high volume of calls. And when you finally get through someone on the phone, they are rude as they can be and brainless!