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The US govt has some of the worst support I've ever witnessed in my entire life. 1. I was audit by the IRS this year and so far I've logged about 6 hours of wa

• maym86 8y ago
  Some politicians have the goal of making these things run as ineffectively as possible. Underfunding initiatives and then claiming they don't work well is a tried and tested method for attacking government services.
• AzMoo_ 8y ago
  Centrelink, Australia's welfare and social services provider, has this beat. You can't get service in offices anymore without an appointment. If you try to do something transactional they direct you to a bank of Internet-connected computers where you have to go through their website. For elderly or less technologically literate people this is an absolute nightmare. If you can't do it online you have to call them. Again, if you try in their offices they will send you to a phone which you can use. Official average wait times are 16 minutes but that's bullshit. Everybody has had the experience of waiting for 2.5 hours, and then getting cut off when the robot answering the call inevitably transfers you to the wrong department. People have literally attempted suicide when faced with the prospect of having to deal with Centrelink again. Our government of sociopaths applauds this system, seeing it as a deterrent for people to be on welfare and encouraging them to "get a job".
  • TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
    When I was younger and worked for an ISP, I had one of the VoiceOps people assign me a VoIP number. The number is (08) 80087355 - which is leetspeak for oh eight boobless. Anyway, one year I discovered calling Centrelink from that number bumps me to the top of the phone queue because the 08 8008 part of the phone number is assigned to a geographic region in remote NSW, even though the area code is 08 because it's closer to Adelaide than Sydney (Broken Hill's area code is also 08). It looks like this still works, as per the Centrelink website here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/subjects/payments-and-services-rural-and-remote-australians https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/subjects/paymen... Our rural call centres answer calls from dedicated catchment areas in rural Queensland and South Australia. Our specialist staff answer all calls made to Centrelink 13 numbers from the catchment areas. They also answer all calls made to the Farmers Assistance hotline from anywhere in Australia. Bonus points for being able to keep this number on a $0 per month pay what you use plan.
  • dwd 8y ago
    Tried to call them recently while on my commute and using a headset and was rudly told that I wasn't allowed to use hands free to call them. This was to change the address on my Medicare card as it's all Human Services now. Straight to the back of the cue if you get disconnected or can't answer every identifying question off the top of your head.
• Aloha 8y ago
  Blame congress for the IRS - certain political elements would like to eliminate the IRS - they have this idea, that if we starve it, people will hate it so much we can make it go away. Nevermind the fact that the IRS wont go away till there isnt an income tax anymore.
  • craftyguy 8y ago
    > they have this idea, that if we starve it, people will hate it so much we can make it go away. Not just congress uses this tactic. See: CFPB.
  • siruncledrew 8y ago
    Taxes could also be a lot easier if Congress didn’t buy into lobbying from Intuit and other tax preparers to keep taxes complicated so individuals had to figure out their own taxes and spend inordinate amounts of time and effort determining out how to properly fill out every form.
    • jonny_eh 8y ago
      That's a totally different issue from Congress failing to properly fund the IRS, a profit centre! It's one of the frew areas of government that spending money on makes money.
      • mschuster91 8y ago
        > It's one of the frew areas of government that spending money on makes money. In a well run government, everything the government does should result in a benefit to the civilization and by it, the government. For example, adequately maintaining roads or other public infrastructure will save money on expensive urgent restauration works (e.g. when a water main explodes or a bridge collapses), as well as promote company growth (e.g. by building real, fast internet connectivity via local government owned utilities, thus enabling modern companies to work) which causes tax income to rise. Even stuff that does not seem to be profitable at all in the long run makes profits. Take environment protection as an example: preventing or cleaning up pollution saves cost in the medical system (and even if it's a mess like in the US where most of it is privatized, the "win" is more worker productivity because they're not ill as much as before and can work more - or criminality decreases like w/ lead exposure), and trying to prevent climate change due to rising temperature will prove worth the money when the government saves money that would be spent on relocating people on the coasts.
• enraged_camel 8y ago
  You shouldn’t deal with the IRS yourself. Hire a lawyer. They have the relevant expertise and can handle things much more efficiently.
  • ams6110 8y ago
    Also don't deal with them by phone. Use written letters, sent by certified mail.
• EdwardDiego 8y ago
  NZ's taxation department has suprisingly good customer service - but from what I understand, that's a deliberate way to get people to give them more money without having to use their coercive powers.
• deleted 8y ago
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• robocat 8y ago
  I live in New Zealand - things are much much simpler when the country is small. Generally New Zealand govt services are fast and painless. If I ring the IRD (==IRS) they just register the phone number and call back. The person is genuinely helpful, and they generally are just keen to get your money with the least amount of hassle to anyone. Very simple taxation policy helps too (e.g. totally reduced the special taxation cases, such that most people have to spend zero time filing taxes, it is done automatically and you just get a bill or refund!). I ordered a replacement passport last week - it was all online including the uploading the photo - and it was couriered to me a few days later. This is repeated in many different services. There are horror stories -- mostly I hear them about health/ACC and sometimes Work and Income (social welfare). But you regularly hear good stories about those too. So it is at least possible for monopoly services to be good.
  • foldr 8y ago
    I mean, ok, this is Australia not New Zealand, but ... https://youtu.be/81FGVh1dj0A?t=1m14s https://youtu.be/81FGVh1dj0A?t=1m14s
  • m_mueller 8y ago
    In Switzerland (pop 8M), tax authority is not hold by federal government but by the 26 cantons[1]. Because the central government would be way too big for that much power in the eyes of the Swiss people. [1]that’s also why we have a bunch of tax havens and generally a lower tax rate, as all cantons and even the communes within them are in a competition.
  • kbenson 8y ago
    > I ordered a replacement passport last week - it was all online including the uploading the photo Is it me, or is does this seem like a case where they simplified so much that they lost some of the inherent checks and balances in the system? I guess if I need a fake passport, I have a lead on how one can be made. Just social engineer the info to access government services out of a New Zealander...
    • techsupporter 8y ago
• masonic 8y ago
  Neither the health insurance issue nor the sidewalk was under US government purview. In fact, repair of sidewalks between private property and the street are almost always the responsibility of the property owner.
  • nickjj 8y ago
    > Neither the health insurance issue nor the sidewalk was under US government purview. It is when health insurance is mandatory (enforced by the US govt) and not having it causes you to pay unavoidable penalties which get added to your govt taxes. > In fact, repair of sidewalks between private property and the street are almost always the responsibility of the property owner. This really depends where you live. In this case it was the town's responsibility (and it's documented in the town's codes). It was a really dangerous road too. It was one of those decently trafficked 30 mph suburban roads with properties alongside the road. If you tripped the wrong way on that sidewalk you had a decent chance of ending up in the middle of the road.
    • acdha 8y ago
      >> Neither the health insurance issue nor the sidewalk was under US government purview. > It is when health insurance is mandatory (enforced by the US govt) and not having it causes you to pay unavoidable penalties which get added to your govt taxes. How does that follow? The government says you need insurance. It doesn’t say you have to buy from that company or that companies can’t compete on customer service. If your car insurance company has bad customer service, do you think it’s your state government’s fault, too? My mortgage company requires homeowner’s insurance – is it their fault if I pick a company with bad support?
      • michaelmrose 8y ago
        Do you live in the US? People often have exactly one choice of health insurance because the ones that don't come from your employer are far to expensive to afford. Even in a 2 income house one partners may be substantially worse or nonexistent. The ACA changed this dynamic in areas with competitive markets by providing subsidies that allowed people options. This is going away. The unsubsidized options would cost almost 1/2 of my pre tax income and my wife has major medical difficulties that preclude her continuing her career and cost significant sums. I have asthma difficulties which without insurance would 4000 just so I can keep breathing. I would have options if we moved to a cardboard box in order to pay for different insurance.
• duxup 8y ago
  I've had a couple run ins with the IRS. Oddly, my situations were all very pleasant. My contact with the IRS was all by mail. Each time I'd mail them something a clock would restart (6 weeks or something like that) and they'd respond a few weeks later (clock restarts) and we'd go back and forth me sending them some paperwork, and they asking for something else. Eventually they got what they needed and we all moved on. It was a bit drawn out but I also enjoyed the amount of time I had to respond. On the other hand when it comes to insurance I had a run in with State Farm who I'm 99% sure has a system entirely setup to ask repeat questions (same person asking the same questions and they're looking at the paperwork where I already answered it too...), provide inaccurate information, and simply delay you long enough to drop whatever claim you have. It felt like an actual scam...
  • nostrademons 8y ago
    My experience with the IRS was the same. On one hand the slowness with which they operate is ridiculous (does it really take a year and a half to tell you that some documentation in your return doesn't match up? and a couple months for every subsequent response?). On the other - once they got all the required documentation they were fair, acknowledged their mistakes, and adjusted the bill accordingly (canceled, really, since once everything was refigured the total was negligible). They're a bureaucracy, but they're not really an evil bureaucracy.
    • duxup 8y ago
      I suspect the slowness and the suddenness of a "you owe us X" is pretty stressful for many people. But if you read the letters it is mostly "hey send us some stuff so we can look at it" and while drawn out.... my experiences were fair and completed normally (granted that is just one experience). At one point I printed the wrong thing entirely... they just sent a letter telling me I sent them the wrong thing and the clock kept restarting.
  • nickjj 8y ago
    The people I spoke with weren't necessarily hostile (and I was always super calm and reasonable). It's just taking forever and they sent a lot of paperwork that conflicted with other letters they sent. They kept sending bills stating I owed X by Y when in reality I had sent in what they asked for which would null those bills a month before that bill arrived. The people on the phone also typically said they can't help because the questions I were asking could only be answered by my auditor, but I was never allowed to talk to that person. Customer support is something I partly do for a living (supporting the video courses I create) and I think keeping people in the loop and providing more information rather than less is really important when something goes wrong. No one wants to feel like they are getting ignored or tossed around in a system with millions of others. For context, I single handily do personal 1 on 1 support for around 40,000 people and it doesn't take that long because I invested a lot of time in my product and systems to make things as streamlined as possible. I'm confident I could continue giving high levels of personal support even with 100,000 people just based on time spent doing support now vs doing other things. Here's a fun fact. As of 2014, the IRS had 94,516 employees. I'm sure it's grown since then, there's also 325 million people in the US. I know not each employee deals with customer service but that's a ratio of 1 IRS employee to every 3,438 citizens of the US. Even if only half of those people are doing customer related services, that's an abysmal ratio -- especially considering those people are doing that job full time and the IRS has spent a ridiculous amount of money running this operation (11 billion+ a year) to create a nearly unusable product.