TAMPA, Fla. — A certain time of day may better your chances of getting onto the state's unemployment website, CONNECT.
This comes from the DEO weeks after the CONNECT website began to show signs it couldn’t keep up with the traffic.
“I did nothing but sit in front of this laptop from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. last night thinking every time, thinking maybe I’ll get into the queue, maybe I’ll get into the queue, nothing,” said Frances Gornto, who recently began claiming her benefits and actually getting money.
Thursday, she tried to go in and claim her weeks which she must do by June 4.
“With all these techie people that we are paying millions of dollars for it’s unacceptable and inexcusable and nobody seems to be held accountable,” Gornto said.
Another man sent us video showing him repeatedly trying to sign in without making it past the home screen. But, according to the DEO, they aren’t locked out. Officials say it is capping the amount of people that can access CONNECT.
The DEO hopes that folks can log in, complete whatever tasks need to be completed and then get out as quickly as possible so others can get in. They say it should help maintain “an efficient performance of the system."
Gornto says she eventually spoke to a call center representative about what happens if she misses the deadline because she can’t get in.
“He stated that if you don’t get to claim them by June 4, he told me to call back on June 5 and either someone will try and go through it on the system or they will ask questions and they will file,” she said.
But she is hesitant to trust that advice with all the other issues the website has had.
“There is no excuse for this 10 weeks later,” she said.
The DEO says they see less people logging in later in the day and encourage people to try then to better their chances.
