Waiting 18 weeks on my first unemployment payment (Spokane)

I was laid off as a sales associate and filed right away, and I have been certifying every week. I have read a lot of threads here and could not find my exact situation. I called the state line four times and only reached a recording. Is there a step I could have missed?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.

When I finally got through, the agent said my employer had responded late. Once that cleared, back pay came in one payment.