CONNECT website virtual waiting room hell - stuck since noon with no progress

The CONNECT system is experiencing major technical issues today due to scheduled maintenance that apparently went wrong. According to the DEO Twitter account, they're aware of the waiting room problems and are working on it, but no ETA for a fix. This happens almost every quarter when they do updates to the system. If your claim week deadline is today, don't worry too much - they usually extend deadlines by 2-3 days when they have system-wide failures like this. Just keep checking back every few hours.

same thing happening 2 me!! been trying since 8am this morning!!!! its ALWAYS something with these people.

I work with unemployment claims professionally, and I can confirm there's a major system update happening. The waiting room is actually a new feature they implemented to prevent the site from completely crashing during high traffic. Unfortunately, they didn't properly scale it for the number of users. Here's what you can try: 1. Attempt to access the site very early morning (4-5am) or late night (after 11pm) when traffic is lowest 2. Clear your browser cache completely before trying 3. Use a desktop computer rather than mobile device if possible 4. If tomorrow is your deadline, document your attempts to access the system (screenshots with timestamps) If all else fails and you miss your claim deadline, you can file for "good cause" for late reporting. This is a legitimate technical issue affecting thousands of claimants, so they should approve the exception.

I was stuck in the waiting room for SEVEN HOURS yesterday!!! The DEO is a complete disaster and they don't care at all about us. I finally got through around 2am when everyone else was asleep I guess. Try in the middle of the night if you can. The system is total garbage. My advice is keep a separate document where you record your work searches because when the system crashes (and it will) at least you don't lose all your information and have to start over.

I've been dealing with Florida unemployment for 3 years and I've discovered a trick. The virtual waiting room uses cookies to track your place in line. If you clear your cookies, you'll lose your place. BUT if you use an incognito/private browser window, sometimes it puts you in a different queue that moves faster. Not guaranteed but worth trying. Also watch their Twitter for updates - sometimes they announce when the system will be back up.

After spending 3 days trying to get through the waiting room mess last month, I finally broke down and used Claimyr to get through to an actual DEO agent on the phone. It was the only thing that worked after hours of frustration. The agent was able to manually push my claim through from their end. You can check out how it works at claimyr.com or watch their demo at https://youtu.be/UzW_hbUy-ss?si=zORd51jeq1GX5Ldj. It was such a relief to finally talk to someone who could actually help instead of getting disconnected for the 100th time.

I know this doesn't help right now, but for future reference - NEVER wait until the last day to claim your weeks! I always do mine the very first day they become available. The system is always most stable early in the 2-week claim period and absolute chaos near the deadlines. For your current situation, take screenshots of the waiting room with timestamps as proof you were trying to access the system before the deadline. If you get penalized, you can appeal with this evidence. I've been through three appeals with DEO and they're actually fairly reasonable about technical issues if you can document them.

UPDATE: DEO just posted on Twitter that they're extending all claim week deadlines by 72 hours due to the technical issues. So if your deadline was today or tomorrow, you now have an extra 3 days to complete your claims. They also said the site should be back to normal functionality by 5am tomorrow.

my cousin works at deo and says theyre systems got hcked thats why everything is down but they dont want to admit it publicly. theres like hundres of people working overtime trying to fix it right now. he said dont put any personal info in until they announce its fixed.

Quick update: I tried the incognito browser trick and it didn't work initially, but I kept trying through the night and FINALLY got in around 3:30am! Was able to claim my weeks and everything is processed now. System was actually working fast at that hour with no waiting room. Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions! For anyone else dealing with this - try super early morning hours and just keep trying!