this might not be worth it, depending on where you live, but EDD has physical offices. Where, infuriatingly, you also cannot talk to a real person. they have banks of phones you can pick up and it will dial you in to their call system. I had a family member that tried this and it seemed to fast track him to talking to a real person. My experience with EDD is that you just need to get filed into their system. they will eventually get to it whether it is an appeal or request or whatever, they take months to get back to you, but they do. even if it is because they owe you money.