DETR: Robocalls jamming Nevada unemployment call center phone lines
The phone lines are jammed enough on their own. Robocalls aren’t helping, according to the head of the state employment office.
Nevada’s Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation wants callers to make the calls themselves, rather than use robocalls. More callers are getting through to DETR and call center operators in recent days as the agency transitions to a cloud-based system and brings on more staff, director Heather Korbulic said in a Friday news conference.
DETR recognizes that some are using web-based and mobile applications to robocall their way through the phone lines, Korbulic said. She highlighted the autodials as a problem that is jamming up phone lines for others.
“We’re implementing technology to stop this from happening,” Korbulic said.
In a follow-up email, DETR spokeswoman Rosa Mendez said the department heard from third-party call center Alorica that “potentially tens of thousands of daily calls” were from robocallers.
D’Ahna Mitchell, 21, said her family had been using an app to autocall the phone lines and that it helped them get through after struggling to get hold of anyone. She was receiving state unemployment pay until she returned to work a couple of weeks ago.
Another unemployment benefits claimant, 55-year-old Las Vegas resident Art Jenkins, said he’s been watching the weekly news conferences and “I want to say I got angry this time.” He said he was frustrated with the robocall explanation because he thinks a larger staff could help mitigate the call volume.
Jenkins, a furloughed limousine driver with Tropicana, said he starts each day with his cellphone in his left hand and his landline in his right hand, and “I’m dialing, dialing, dialing.”
So far, he said, a reporter’s phone call Friday was the first time since he began filing on April 1 that he has spoken with anyone notable on the phone about his pending claim.
“You know how the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result? Well, I think I’m insane,” Jenkins said.
There are 33,310 pending claims that are awaiting adjudication, according to DETR.
Korbulic, the DETR director, said the third-party call center the department is using for assistance, Alorica, is “a constant refinement — a work in progress.” DETR is working with the call center to limit the number of robocalls that get through compared with regular phone calls, she said.
She also said Alorica is actively hiring. So is DETR’s security division to combat fraudulent claims, Korbulic said.
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.
