President Obama emerged on Monday to assure Americans that the “kinks” surrounding the federal and state health-care exchanges are improving and urged consumers to call the exchange hotline if they continue to encounter problems online. Shortly after he made the suggestion, Twitter lit up with reporters and others who attempted to do so but failed to get through to a navigator as promised. After dialing the number, some callers got a busy signal, others received an automated message, and yet others were referred back to Healthcare.gov.

https://twitter.com/AnnieLowrey/statuses/392317239166132224

.@AnnieLowrey And now a different message. "I'm sorry. Due to extremely high call volume, no customer service representative is available" — (((JonathanWeisman))) (@jonathanweisman) October 21, 2013

https://twitter.com/silviakillings/statuses/392317571351187456

@AnnieLowrey "Please call back later in the day or during the weekend." — Scott Conroy (@ScottFConroy) October 21, 2013