'Pissed me off': Oregonians still struggling with benefits months after OED website rollout

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Many Oregonians are still struggling months after the state's employment department launched its new website, Frances Online, last March.

Since the website launched, dozens of people have reached out to KOIN 6 News saying they have experienced prolonged hold times while trying to discuss a claim — many times just to have the call dropped.

The latest numbers from the department show over 28% of calls experience wait times of more than 15 minutes.

Grace Radke said she has made 240 calls and spent over 24 hours on hold over the course of five days just trying to speak with someone about her claim once it was canceled after one payment.

"It just pissed me off that, like, you're trying to get something that you've paid into the system that you deserve that you're entitled to,” Radke said. “That is technically, I think, your money and you can't get a hold of anybody to talk to."

She also told KOIN 6 News that on several occasions, she had waited on the phone for nearly six hours just for the call to be dropped. 

But according to an OED spokesperson, the busy signal or dropped calls happen when “the system is simply at capacity and unable to take more calls."

KOIN 6 News asked the department how they plan to fix these issues. They shared the following response:

We have checked our system and determined that the Unemployment Insurance support line was at capacity, meaning that all staff were taking calls, and the number of callers on hold had reached the maximum the system can handle, also known as the “session limit.” When this occurs, customers are unable to connect, and their calls are dropped. What they hear before the call drops depends on their phone carrier -- it may include some version of a busy signal, a message that “all circuits are full,” or even no sound at all.  

While OED does have the ability to increase the session limit, we don’t have more staff to answer calls. Staffing is the biggest factor limiting how many calls we can answer. Furthermore, increasing the session limit will only increase call wait times and won’t increase our capacity.  

We recognize this is a frustrating experience for our customers. Although we have seen improvement in our call wait times in recent months, we know that we must continue to improve in order to provide the level of customer serve that Oregonians need and deserve. We will continue striving to improve with each week and serve as many customers as possible, as quickly as we can with the staff we have.  

If customers are unable to get through to us on the phone, we encourage them to send us an electronic message, preferably by logging into their Frances Online account first. If they can’t log in or have not yet set up an account, they should use our Contact Us form at frances.oregon.gov.