Must Government Be...That Way?

I got my federal income tax refund today and saw it was about half of what H&R Block had indicated I would be getting back.  I called H&R Block and was told the IRS, to which I had been making monthly payments for taxes on my last "big earnings" year of 2010 before I retired, had cut to the chase and taken the balance of what was owed them from my refund.  That was fine.  I had, in fact, asked the woman preparing my 2011 return if she could arrange this, but she seemed hesitant, so I had decided to simply wait for the refund, then finish paying off the 2010 taxes. 

However, last night in my half sleep--knowing it took the IRS three months to initiate the automatic deductions I had approved--I decided the likelihood of their continuing to deduct automatic monthly payments even after the balance was paid was extremely high.  I thought perhaps I'd just let the automatic monthly payments continue through July when the balance would be paid.  At this point, I'd like to note I think it's interesting I automatically assumed if the government was involved, if something could go wrong, it would.

This morning, when I realized the balance had been paid I decided I'd better take some action to make sure the automatic monthly payments didn't continue.  First I got on line.  The IRS web site is a joke.  You couldn't find a straight answer if you had an IRS employee sitting at your elbow.  Now why didn't that surprise me?

So I decided to phone.  First I phoned a number that had been provided last year in a letter from the IRS acknowledging the monthly payment arrangement.  None of the menu options applied, but I picked one of two offered, which led to others that also weren't applicable.  After each selection I was told their new hours of operation and admonished not to believe anything I'd heard to the contrary and why didn't I visit the web site.  All of this was taking up expensive minutes and left me wondering why it was so important it had to be repeated at every juncture.  Eventually I was thanked by the computer and disconnected.  At least one disconnect to be expected, right?

Then I phoned a number provided on the web site, listened to numerous menu options, did my best to select one that at least didn't sound wrong, then keyed in the information requested.  Finally, after keying in my Social Security number, I was told to key in #1 if the Social Security number, as repeated by the computer voice, was correct.  I did so, but the computer voice kept on talking.  Of course!  I got so frustrated I hit #1 about ten times.  Then I got a repeated request for "the number of the day."  It seemed as if I was supposed to know or guess some kind of daily password.  I had no idea what that meant so didn't key in anything.  Perhaps that's what I should have done in the initial phone call because finally I was told I'd be connected to a person, but was advised my wait would be between ten and fifteen minutes.  My AT&T cell phone package is such that I try not to make or take any unnecessary phone calls during the week, which drive my monthly payment up quickly, so was not pleased with the hold time but figured I didn't have much choice if I wanted to insure the automatic deductions were not going to continue.

It was a beautiful sunny and calm day--predicted to get up to 52F degrees--so while I was waiting, I hammered in nails that had worked their way out of the cabin siding during the winter and peeled old paint off the west side of the cabin which was re-sided some years back with some recycled siding. 

My mother had told me if we didn't get rid of the red paint she'd come back and haunt us.  Even though she's still living at 96, I figure she'll probably make good on her word and thought this would be a good way to pass the time.  The hammering was particularly therapeutic.

Finally I got a human being on the line.  After taking down my life history to confirm identity she went away for a while to check my account and came back to indicate there was a record the 2010 taxes had been paid in full and it appeared that whatever was in place to trigger the automatic monthly payments had been "turned off."  This was actually sounding good.

I thanked her, but told her that since it had taken three months for them to get the payments started, I really didn't have a lot of confidence the payments would stop just because the balance was now $0, and asked what happened if the automatic payment was deducted from my account tomorrow anyway.  She actually chuckled, indicated she understood and shared they had made some improvements that should prevent this.  This just reinforced my concern.  So, I repeated, what do I do if the automatic deduction is actually made tomorrow?  Well, she said, if the automatic payments continued, they would automatically refund them.  Would it happen fairly quickly?  Well, no.  It might be three weeks. 

Then, acting as if she were really offering me helpful advice, she suggested, if I banked electronically, I could check on line later in the day or tomorrow morning to see if I had such a deduction pending.  I explained I really didn't need to know it was pending, I needed to know how to stop it from happening.  According to her, there wasn't anything else that could be done either by me or her to make absolutely sure it didn't happen and, according to her, "that was just the way things were."

I made sure I didn't use an angry voice, but said, since I was sure the call was being recorded, I was going on record to indicate that even though I understood she was simply one IRS employee, it was this attitude that made most Americans generally irate with the agency she worked for.  She was still blah, blahing about it all being the fault of the banking industry when I thanked her and hung up.  She'll probably deliberately make sure the monthly payment is automatically deducted.

Excellent, even good, customer service, is greatly based on an enthusiastic "can-do" attitude.  Why should we not expect this, which is priceless but adds nothing to the budget deficit, on the part of government employees?  Teddee