IRS technical support

[ExactlyMyPoint]

So quarterly taxes are due. The IRS has conveniently set up an online system to automatically deduct your taxes due from your checking account. You log in, tell them what form you are filling out, how much you are paying and click OK and they just deduct the money from your checking account. Isn't that nice of them??

Well, I thought I had the whole thing all set up last quarter and went in to pay my taxes. I could not log in. I figured I forgot my password, so I called the number on the website that allowed me to generate a new password. I followed the links and got a new password. Still no success. I did it again, thinking I made a mistake. Nope.

So I called the technical support number. I talked to nice lady and she suggested that I generate a new password. I informed her that I already did this twice and it didn't work. She suggested I try it again. I said it didn't work twice, why would it work again. She insisted that was the only solution. I asked what do I do if it doesn't work a third time? She told me to do it a fourth time. I inquired if I could escalate my issue to the next level. She said there was nobody there now but even if there were, they would just tell you to generate another password.

I ultimately figured out my issue and got my taxes paid, but dang. If the government were a business, they would have gone out of business a long, long, long time ago.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Rock and Glock]

The definition of "Insanity":

Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result

Yea........sometimes they struggle <sarcasm off>

[wmhawth]

That's typical of taking care of this type of business with a government agency. In Colorado certain counties are supposed to be able to renew auto registration online. When I tried it I got to the screen where I was required to enter my license plate #. When I did this someone else's name and auto not even the same make as mine appeared. I tried twice just in case I had entered my plate # incorrectly the first time but got the same result. What a Joke. Not hard to see why Communist countries have failed with the Govt controlling everything.

[Hopyard]

S
So I called the technical support number. I talked to nice lady and she suggested that I generate a new password. I informed her that I already did this twice and it didn't work. She suggested I try it again. I said it didn't work twice, why would it work again. She insisted that was the only solution. I asked what do I do if it doesn't work a third time? She told me to do it a fourth time. I inquired if I could escalate my issue to the next level. She said there was nobody there now but even if there were, they would just tell you to generate another password.

I ultimately figured out my issue and got my taxes paid, but dang. If the government were a business, they would have gone out of business a long, long, long time ago.

It is like that everywhere now.

It isn't just government.

There are lots of things that still can be done better with pen and pencil than with computers.

Frankly, I think you should not have allowed Uncle to draft directly from your account. Mail the check with the form.

NEVER give others draft authority to your checking account. You will wake up one day and it will all be gone because someone put a zero or comma in the wrong place--- and it might even have been one's own mistyping.

I do no online banking other than to look at my statement.

[retsupt99]

Maybe it's just me, but IRS and 'technical support' don't seem to go well in the same sentence...

[Captain Crunch]

You think the IRS is clueless?

Wait 'til you have to deal with the Social Security Administration!

[wmhawth]

You think the IRS is clueless?

Wait 'til you have to deal with the Social Security Administration!

Been there. Don't think I care to post about it today.

[retsupt99]

You think the IRS is clueless?

Wait 'til you have to deal with the Social Security Administration!

That's just a few months away

[Hopyard]

Been there. Don't think I care to post about it today.

So far, knock on wood, I've found the Social Security folks to be quite good.

I'm not so sure about the Medicare claims process, but our local ss office (I hate that abbreviation, it sounds so Nazi) is really quite good.

Even if you go there without an appointment you seldom wait more then 15-20 minutes; and it is in a reasonably nice waiting room.

Any large organization that deals with complex transactions will go astray from time to time. My broker recently sent me a statement with 9 K missing. And, a broker once sent my dad a check for one million dollars, by mistake.