Local TV reporters continue to do the job that the national media are neglecting. The White House press corps Tuesday failed to ask President Obama a single question — not one — about the glitches plaguing Healthcare.gov.
But Jaye Watson at WXIA-TV in Atlanta, GA decided to check out the site for herself.
Watson reports that she logged onto Healthcare.gov in the morning, and at first things went fine. She chose her state from the menu, and the site reported that “we have a lot of visitors” so please be patient.
So she waited. And waited.
While she waited, Watson tried to call the 800 number that is supposed to allow sign-ups by phone.
Hilarious failure ensued.
TELEPHONE VOICE: “After speaking with the marketplace representative would you be willing to take part in the short survey about our customer service experience?”
WATSON: “Yes. A representative never got on the line and several minutes later the automated survey kicked in.”
TELEPHONE VOICE: “How would you rate the time it took you to get through to the customer service representative?”
REPORTER: “Well, I haven’t got through to one.”
TELEPHONE VOICE: “Thank you again for calling the health insurance marketplace, good bye.”
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: “So, what just happened?”
REPORTER: “They just hung up on me.
How rude!
Things didn’t get any better on the web site.
“[S]o I went back in trying to login online but it told me my password or username was incorrect,” Watson says. “It wasn’t. Ok, so I am starting all over. Ok, that’s not a valid answer. The system is unavailable. I am logging in again. It’s a sad face. Confirm form resubmission. Now, I’ve got the wheel. Had the wheel a lot. I tried the live chat, no one live showed up. A Google search confirmed my issues are common. This went on all day. I got a gateway time out. The proxy server did not receive a timely response from the upstream server. Hate it when that happens. I’ll now do it again. Finally at 4 PM, on the fourth call, I got an operator. It’s not on my end? So you’ve heard of other people having that issue? The operator told me my issues with logging in were well known and were on their end. He recommended I try to get online during off-peak hours. Do I have a better chance of getting someone on the phone than I do right now being able to do this online? The operator told me for now the phone is better than going online. And he says doesn’t know when the system will get the glitches ironed out. Still spinning.“
And still failing.
Watch the video of Jaye Watson’s report here.
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