HIGH POINT, N.C. — David Rosen has been a small business owner for more than 30 years. Rosen owns Photo Innovations in High Point. The small company creates wall portraits for families to enjoy for years, “I pride myself on doing a top of the line job,” said Rosen.
Like many small business owners Rosen recently had to stop accepting clients and cancel all his upcoming appointments because of Covid-19. A few days after making the decision to shut down the business for the time being Rosen went online to file for unemployment, “I’m an employee of the company so I am eligible, I’ve paid into it for 30 years,” said Rosen.
So far, our state has received more than 350,000 unemployment claims in the past two-and-a-half weeks. The Department of Commerce is trying to keep up with the high demand, but it has not been easy, “I was on the phone this past Thursday for almost five hours,” said Rosen.
Dozens of people have called News 2 complaining about not being able to file or not being able to reach someone on the phone. The backup on the phone lines is so severe if you won’t be able to speak with a customer service agent in less than two hours the call simply hangs up and you must call back.
The Department of Commerce has added extra staff and have most working extra hours to handle the load, but it appears to be too great. Rosen tried calling and logging on to the website today with no success, “Basically as the term goes, I’m dead in the water I’m making no headway into the process,” said Rosen.
News 2 reached out to the Department of Commerce earlier Thursday morning but did not hear back. The Department was able to assist Rosen with one issue earlier in the week but when he went to sign up today, he consistently received an error message when trying to log on, “It is frustrating,” said Rosen.
Early last week a spokesperson for the Department of Commerce told us that people “need to be patient” and that staff is doing all it can to assist everyone who files a claim. Rosen would like to be part of that 350,000 to file but so far, he has been unable to file, “I just want to get the ball rolling,” said Rosen.
An optimist Rosen is not too worried yet and figures eventually he will be able to file a claim but worries that all these delays and issues puts him in the back of the line when the checks start rolling out.
While the main issue on this day appeared to be the server there is plenty of information on the department’s website including frequently asked questions. If you have a question and can’t seem to reach someone on the phone it might be a good place to start. There are also information videos to help guide you through the process and provide information about what documents you’ll need to file a claim.
