Jaye Watson of 11Alive News in Atlanta spent an entire workday trying to sign up online for Obamacare, and she, like millions of others around the country, encountered error messages, hold-ups and delays in the online marketplace.
While she waited, she called the 800 number for Obamacare and was asked to participate in a survey about her customer service experience. After being put on hold for several minutes without speaking to anyone, the automated survey kicked in and asked her how she would rate the time it took to reach a customer service representative.
"Well, I haven't gotten through to one," Watson said.
"Thank you again for calling the health insurance marketplace. Goodbye," the machine said.
Watson laughed derisively.
After she returned to the website, it told her that her password and username was incorrect, but Watson said that was not true.
She tried the live chat and no one showed up to that, either. She logged in again and got error forms and more delays on the webpage. A Google search, Watson said, told her that her issues were "common."
Finally, at 4 p.m. on the fourth call, she got an operator, who told her issues with logging in were well-known and were on their end. He recommended she try and get on during off-peak hours, and that he did not know when the glitches would get ironed out.