Virginia Employment Commission [VEC] review: Customer service

Today, Tuesday 10/24/23 beginning at 8:34, I called VEC from 2 different call phones and the recorded message I received mortified me. In short, the message said that I have exhausted all of my opportunities to speak with someone in the customer contact center this week and that I need to call back next week. This is unbelievable and totally inappropriate as it is completely false. Not only have I not spoken with anyone this week 10/24/23, I haven’t spoken to anyone at VEC at all.

After calling for a week and not given an opportunity to speak with anyone I drove to the Alexandria VEC office on 10/10/23, but still could not get any assistance. I was told that I had to make an appointment or I could go to the Arlington office. I was also told to try my call to VEC from a landline because there were issues reaching them from a cell. This is utterly ridiculous and frustrating. I was given an office appointment for 10/24/24 at 10:30 am at the Alexandria office. After making the appointment, drove to the Arlington office. Though I was able to enter this office location, I was told it was for new initial claims only and skills training. I was allowed to use their landline, which I used to call VEC, but the outcome was the same. I was not able to speak with anyone.