8 ms·

> c) You can't show up in person without an appointment. > d) Appointments are only granted by means of contact that don't reply. Similar thing happened to me

> c) You can't show up in person without an appointment. > d) Appointments are only granted by means of contact that don't reply. Similar thing happened to me recently with the IRS. Got a notice about them needing to verify my identity and gave me a number to call. Had been calling for months and would always get a message saying they were too busy and to try the following day. After trying a few other options to no avail, I decided to show up at my local IRS office without an appointment (which I couldn’t get anyway). They first turned me down, then told me that maybe if I waited for a few hours they might be able to see me at the end of the day, then after about 20min and them clearly not being busy, they talked to me and was able to resolve the issue within 15min. So, even though I was told I couldn’t show up without an appointment, and they tried turning me down, just by being there they finally paid attention to me. Yes, it was uncomfortable and annoying to have to do that, but it worked.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
If you have a moment, please call the IRS' Customer Advocacy Department to file a complaint regarding this. Gotta be the squeaky wheel. https://www.irs.gov/advocate/the-taxpayer-advocate-service-is-your-voice-at-the-irs https://www.irs.gov/advocate/the-taxpayer-advocate-service-i...
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
  And people wonder why there is staunch support for less government involvement. At least when I get screwed over by a private company I can talk to someone...so long as it's not Google.
  - jonny_eh 5y ago
    or… this is the result of cut-cut-cut politics. When we continue to cut funding, while asking our govt workers to do more, of course the quality of service is going to suffer. This isn't a problem in other countries.
    - MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
      I'm sure a lot of Germans on here would like to tell you about the hell that is the German bureaucracy. While it works, it can just be a nightmare of forms and millions of rules.
      - bobthechef 5y ago
        Footnote: Feliks Koneczny has an interesting analysis of why Germany is like this. He classifies Germany as belonging predominantly to what he calles Byzantine civilization (I'll leave it up to the interested to find out how he classifies civilizations), tracing it to the influence of Empress Theophanu. At the time he published his works, he took Bismarck's Germany as the quintessence of Byzantine Germany.
    - lliamander 5y ago
      Having seen the sausage made in a few different government bureaucracies, I'm fairly confident this is not the case. It all comes down to whether there is any incentive to improve customer experience.
  - toomuchtodo 5y ago
    > And people wonder why there is staunch support for less government involvement. At least when I get screwed over by a private company I can talk to someone...so long as it's not Google. I don't bother wondering why people are ignorant anymore, some things just are. You get a vote simply by existing as a citizen and can put effort into changing government. Businesses can tell you to pound sand unless you're a shareholder or management. Government can be held accountable (caveats such as Venezuela and Somalia aside), businesses less so.
    - solaxun 5y ago
      You get a vote as a shareholder too. I tend to agree that governments on the overall are held far less accountable for their actions than private companies, which will go bankrupt without patronage (without... ahem, government intervention). Government largesse extends beyond the policies of whatever administration is currently in office and therefore beyond your vote. We're talking about decades of built up cruft with no impetus for change. If you have a terrible time at the DMV, what do you do? Sell their shares? Stop shopping there? No, you just deal with it. Yes, it's one example, and I picked one that would intentionally elicit a response from almost anybody regardless of their political leanings, but that same example applies to many govt. organizations. They are inefficient and there is no correction mechanism.
    - rafale 5y ago
      You are talking about monopolies or quasi monopolies. Business in competitive environment are incentivized to not screw their customers. AMD vs nVidia, Walmart vs Costco, Coca-cola vs Pepsi,... Even monopolies don't like to do that as to not attract negative attention, they just fix their price high and come up with a narrative to do so. Whenever I have an issue with a private company, it usually getd resolved a lot faster. One time I called my ISP mad that I wasn't notified of their new cheaper and better plans, and they upgraded me, paid the difference and gave me a free month. The whole ordeal from start to finish lasted 20 minutes (including wait time on the phone). And ISPs are known assholes. The problem with governments is that they are a monopoly by default and they can't really go bankrupt (and when they do, they find a way to survive).
  - mensetmanusman 5y ago
    It seems one of the disadvantages of not paying for something…
    - pbosko 5y ago
      So, you're not paying taxes?
      - readflaggedcomm 5y ago
        Police don't take orders from taxpayers, either. Maybe the victims of bureaucracy aren't its true customers.
      - Matticus_Rex 5y ago
        I don't pay taxes the way I pay for a cell phone carrier. The taxes have to get paid no matter what -- I can't withhold payment or switch to a different carrier because I'm getting bad service. I could, as a privileged American, uproot my whole life and move elsewhere, but I'd still owe taxes for the time I had awful service, and depending on the circumstances might still end up owing at least some taxes until I renounced citizenship. Like them or not, want them or not: taxes are not voluntary payments, and we can't apply the same logic to them.
  - dalbasal 5y ago
    or paypal, or...
    - emn13 5y ago
      ... or pretty much every large organization ever if you're somehow falling between the cracks, and your approval isn't critical to their survival. Paying em money isn't enough, unless it's enough money to move the needle. People blaming government for this nastiness apparently have never dealt with any big businesses? I mean, the government is exceptionally large and powerful, so that's even worse simply by scale; but on the other hand, they don't tend to cut corners quite as extremely as businesses do. In any case it's hardly a night and day difference. If anything, the kinds of checks present on the government should be present on all organizations beyond a certain size. Not that that's ever going to happen...
      - MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
        Yeah but unless it's utilities, or internet, I don't have to buy the product. My "vote" with my dollars can be immediate and have a direct affect on them. Saying I'm not gonna vote for someone isn't the same effect.
        akiselev 5y ago
        You don't have to buy their products the same way the government doesn't have to provide for your health care. While technically true, in practice it can easily mean the difference between a comfortable life and destitution.
  - ipaddr 5y ago
    I find getting the government on a call is possible but takes awhile at times. Good luck getting an email response from digitalocean. Good luck getting Amazon on the phone. Good luck getting Dang in the phone if you have an issue here Good luck getting anyone in any tech company to answer the phone.
    - toomuchtodo 5y ago
      > Good luck getting Dang in the phone if you have an issue here I cannot speak for others, but I will go on the record that Dan has replied to every email I’ve ever sent over a decade and has helped me to become a more thoughtful and open minded contributor on HN through both his private emails and public comments. YMMV. Thanks Dan.
      - ipaddr 5y ago
        I will attest that he provides great email support. The original post was about call support for private companies vs governmental entities.
        toomuchtodo 5y ago
        Point taken.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    - criddell 5y ago
      > Good luck getting Amazon on the phone. I've called Amazon quite a few times when I've had problems and have always had a pretty good experience when doing so.
    - kbelder 5y ago
      Amazon has pretty good customer service. They are nothing like Google.
      - deleted 5y ago
  - fnord77 5y ago
    you can always talk to your congressperson/senator's office. many are very helpful in cutting through the BS
- behringer 5y ago
  please hold while we connect you to the IRS customer advocacy department...
late2part 5y ago
Same thing with Global Entry. Partner was stressed because it expired, no appoints, etc. Flew through a location w/ Global Entry and went there at open, in and out in 15 min; poof, TSA PRE worked next day.
Robotbeat 5y ago
Yup. Showing up is basically always a thing, because even if it’s not an official channel, you’ll end up bothering someone until they help you solve the problem. And I think most people want to help others, but even if they’re selfish and don’t care about helping anyone, they’ll help you if you’re persistent and physically present. Like the classic parable of the persistent widow: Luke 18:2-5 “He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” I guess this is one critique of exclusive remote working: it’s pretty easy to end up ghosted by someone in the approval chain for something.
- jonny_eh 5y ago
  > I guess this is one critique of exclusive remote working: it’s pretty easy to end up ghosted by someone in the approval chain for something. This! If you've never worked in a very large organization, it's a huge pro to working in the office that can be overlooked.
  - soperj 5y ago
    Disappears if that person is working remotely.
    - lazyasciiart 5y ago
      You can visit their manager.
      - soperj 5y ago
        and if they're the one doing it?
  - thefunnyman 5y ago
    This is a very real problem in large organizations. I’ve found an effective alternative while working remote is to escalate to my manager in such situations. Usually they have a little more organizational clout and can get a response.
dheera 5y ago
IANAL but I mean if they say the way to notify them is to call them, and they don't respond to that call, the onus is on them, no? I would think that you did your due diligence by calling and that it's their fault at that point. Also, calling should never be a requirement. What if someone is deaf? Requiring someone to call without an online alternative should 100% be an ADA violation.
SilasX 5y ago
I'm dealing with similar issues regarding a lost package through the USPS. The sender assured me they had updated my address but sent it to the old one anyway and then got lost. I filled out the online form for missing packages and it said someone would follow up on the ticket number. No one did. I called the main USPS number and got through to an operator. They said someone should have followed up and then created a new ticket number. Still no follow up. I called again and they gave me the number for some major customer affairs center (forget the name). First time the voicemail was full, second time I left a message but never heard back. The local post office finally did call me back ... from an Unknown number (WTF?) so I didn't pick it up, then left a vague message about the package and said to call back the local post office number. Every time I've tried to call that number it just stays on hold and then goes to a busy signal.
- philliphaydon 5y ago
  I’m dealing with an issue with western union. Well was, I’ve given up. For over a year I’ve been using WU to send money back for my helper to the Philippines. So she didn’t need to go to the crowded mall on the other side of singapore to send it. No issues for over a year sending to her husband. Then one day I’m told he’s not allowed to receive money. I call WU. They say he can receive. I send money and WU cancels it. I call again, they said he needs to call. He calls and they say there’s no issues. I call they say no issue. WU cancels when he attempts to collect. I call again they said I need to contact GCR department. 2 months they won’t reply. Emailed several times. Called again. Talked to WU on Twitter, everyone tells me to contact gcr. No one will reply. Black hole support systems.
  - sfifs 5y ago
    have you tried Singtel Dash? seems to work.
  - niij 5y ago
    Does transferwise work there? It's worked great for me and the fees are transparent and low.
JJMcJ 5y ago
Contact your senior U.S. Senators office. They have contacts that will get things moving for you. Works much more often that you would expect.
devoutsalsa 5y ago
In 2017 I had a problem with back taxes and the IRS was threatening to come after me. I couldn’t get them on the phone and it was important enough that I didn’t want to wait to resolve it via mail. I contacted my US congressperson and complained that they were making it impossible to work out an arrangement, and the fact that I wanted to give them money & couldn’t call them was ridiculous. A senior aide got back to me pretty quickly, and offered to help. Instead of relying on snail mail and nonfunctional phone calls, I was able to resolve the entire process via email and a couple phone calls with the aide. It was great, and I highly recommend giving it a try.
- akiselev 5y ago
  Same here. I was dealing with back taxes but some of my former banks wouldn't send me old account statements for a variety of bullshit reasons or they wanted to charge obscene amounts for them. After one email to my Congressman, an aide forwarded it to the CFPB and I got calls from bank representatives within three days asking for my mailing address - didn't even bother charging a reasonable amount for shipping and handling (I asked). I think I need to emphasize this since many on HN are immigrants: Congresscritters don't care if you're eligible to vote or not (I wasn't). Hell, half the time they don't even care if you're in their district because they're in a safe seat that can only be practically challenged by someone local who can pull donors away. A letter advocating for some policy position that's decided by realpolitik anyway usually just get a form response, but an reasonable letter from a constituent asking for actionable help will almost always get the white glove treatment.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
alasdair_ 5y ago
This reminds me of dealing with immigration. I was supposed to get an “alien registration number” when I arrived in the USA on an immigrant via, yet for some reason I did not. No one would talk to me, not matter how many times I explained for three months. I eventually took to driving to the INS building every single day until they finally gave up and issued me a number within 20 minutes. Three months of not being allowed to work nor being able to leave the country was frustrating in the extreme. Anyway, apparently the right way to deal with this is to contact your representative (for me it was a congressman or senator, for this guy their state-level person) and ask them to help.
- behringer 5y ago
  Yes, the rep may help, but that too will possibly be a brick wall. The best method is to show up, tell them you'll wait, then continue to stand there staring at them.
onefuncman 5y ago
I am in exactly this situation (but at the days/weeks timescale instead of months), so thanks for posting how you resolved this, I'll try my local IRS office.
u678u 5y ago
That's why I'll never use a virtual bank, I need one with branches just for that time something breaks.
derefr 5y ago
In this case he's saying > since I cannot sort this out in person due to the COVID closures ...which I interpret as "the office I would go to to sort this out is empty; there is nobody there; the lights are off and the doors are locked. Everyone who would be working there is working from home."

toomuchtodo 5y ago

If you have a moment, please call the IRS' Customer Advocacy Department to file a complaint regarding this. Gotta be the squeaky wheel. https://www.irs.gov/advocate/the-taxpayer-advocate-service-is-your-voice-at-the-irs https://www.irs.gov/advocate/the-taxpayer-advocate-service-i...

MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
And people wonder why there is staunch support for less government involvement. At least when I get screwed over by a private company I can talk to someone...so long as it's not Google.
- jonny_eh 5y ago
  or… this is the result of cut-cut-cut politics. When we continue to cut funding, while asking our govt workers to do more, of course the quality of service is going to suffer. This isn't a problem in other countries.
  - MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
    I'm sure a lot of Germans on here would like to tell you about the hell that is the German bureaucracy. While it works, it can just be a nightmare of forms and millions of rules.
    - bobthechef 5y ago
      Footnote: Feliks Koneczny has an interesting analysis of why Germany is like this. He classifies Germany as belonging predominantly to what he calles Byzantine civilization (I'll leave it up to the interested to find out how he classifies civilizations), tracing it to the influence of Empress Theophanu. At the time he published his works, he took Bismarck's Germany as the quintessence of Byzantine Germany.
  - lliamander 5y ago
    Having seen the sausage made in a few different government bureaucracies, I'm fairly confident this is not the case. It all comes down to whether there is any incentive to improve customer experience.
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  > And people wonder why there is staunch support for less government involvement. At least when I get screwed over by a private company I can talk to someone...so long as it's not Google. I don't bother wondering why people are ignorant anymore, some things just are. You get a vote simply by existing as a citizen and can put effort into changing government. Businesses can tell you to pound sand unless you're a shareholder or management. Government can be held accountable (caveats such as Venezuela and Somalia aside), businesses less so.
  - solaxun 5y ago
    You get a vote as a shareholder too. I tend to agree that governments on the overall are held far less accountable for their actions than private companies, which will go bankrupt without patronage (without... ahem, government intervention). Government largesse extends beyond the policies of whatever administration is currently in office and therefore beyond your vote. We're talking about decades of built up cruft with no impetus for change. If you have a terrible time at the DMV, what do you do? Sell their shares? Stop shopping there? No, you just deal with it. Yes, it's one example, and I picked one that would intentionally elicit a response from almost anybody regardless of their political leanings, but that same example applies to many govt. organizations. They are inefficient and there is no correction mechanism.
  - rafale 5y ago
    You are talking about monopolies or quasi monopolies. Business in competitive environment are incentivized to not screw their customers. AMD vs nVidia, Walmart vs Costco, Coca-cola vs Pepsi,... Even monopolies don't like to do that as to not attract negative attention, they just fix their price high and come up with a narrative to do so. Whenever I have an issue with a private company, it usually getd resolved a lot faster. One time I called my ISP mad that I wasn't notified of their new cheaper and better plans, and they upgraded me, paid the difference and gave me a free month. The whole ordeal from start to finish lasted 20 minutes (including wait time on the phone). And ISPs are known assholes. The problem with governments is that they are a monopoly by default and they can't really go bankrupt (and when they do, they find a way to survive).
- mensetmanusman 5y ago
  It seems one of the disadvantages of not paying for something…
  - pbosko 5y ago
    So, you're not paying taxes?
    - readflaggedcomm 5y ago
      Police don't take orders from taxpayers, either. Maybe the victims of bureaucracy aren't its true customers.
    - Matticus_Rex 5y ago
      I don't pay taxes the way I pay for a cell phone carrier. The taxes have to get paid no matter what -- I can't withhold payment or switch to a different carrier because I'm getting bad service. I could, as a privileged American, uproot my whole life and move elsewhere, but I'd still owe taxes for the time I had awful service, and depending on the circumstances might still end up owing at least some taxes until I renounced citizenship. Like them or not, want them or not: taxes are not voluntary payments, and we can't apply the same logic to them.
- dalbasal 5y ago
  or paypal, or...
  - emn13 5y ago
    ... or pretty much every large organization ever if you're somehow falling between the cracks, and your approval isn't critical to their survival. Paying em money isn't enough, unless it's enough money to move the needle. People blaming government for this nastiness apparently have never dealt with any big businesses? I mean, the government is exceptionally large and powerful, so that's even worse simply by scale; but on the other hand, they don't tend to cut corners quite as extremely as businesses do. In any case it's hardly a night and day difference. If anything, the kinds of checks present on the government should be present on all organizations beyond a certain size. Not that that's ever going to happen...
    - MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
      Yeah but unless it's utilities, or internet, I don't have to buy the product. My "vote" with my dollars can be immediate and have a direct affect on them. Saying I'm not gonna vote for someone isn't the same effect.
      - akiselev 5y ago
        You don't have to buy their products the same way the government doesn't have to provide for your health care. While technically true, in practice it can easily mean the difference between a comfortable life and destitution.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  I find getting the government on a call is possible but takes awhile at times. Good luck getting an email response from digitalocean. Good luck getting Amazon on the phone. Good luck getting Dang in the phone if you have an issue here Good luck getting anyone in any tech company to answer the phone.
  - toomuchtodo 5y ago
    > Good luck getting Dang in the phone if you have an issue here I cannot speak for others, but I will go on the record that Dan has replied to every email I’ve ever sent over a decade and has helped me to become a more thoughtful and open minded contributor on HN through both his private emails and public comments. YMMV. Thanks Dan.
    - ipaddr 5y ago
      I will attest that he provides great email support. The original post was about call support for private companies vs governmental entities.
      - toomuchtodo 5y ago
        Point taken.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - criddell 5y ago
    > Good luck getting Amazon on the phone. I've called Amazon quite a few times when I've had problems and have always had a pretty good experience when doing so.
  - kbelder 5y ago
    Amazon has pretty good customer service. They are nothing like Google.
    - deleted 5y ago
- fnord77 5y ago
  you can always talk to your congressperson/senator's office. many are very helpful in cutting through the BS
behringer 5y ago
please hold while we connect you to the IRS customer advocacy department...

late2part 5y ago

Same thing with Global Entry. Partner was stressed because it expired, no appoints, etc. Flew through a location w/ Global Entry and went there at open, in and out in 15 min; poof, TSA PRE worked next day.

Robotbeat 5y ago

Yup. Showing up is basically always a thing, because even if it’s not an official channel, you’ll end up bothering someone until they help you solve the problem. And I think most people want to help others, but even if they’re selfish and don’t care about helping anyone, they’ll help you if you’re persistent and physically present. Like the classic parable of the persistent widow: Luke 18:2-5 “He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” I guess this is one critique of exclusive remote working: it’s pretty easy to end up ghosted by someone in the approval chain for something.

jonny_eh 5y ago
> I guess this is one critique of exclusive remote working: it’s pretty easy to end up ghosted by someone in the approval chain for something. This! If you've never worked in a very large organization, it's a huge pro to working in the office that can be overlooked.
- soperj 5y ago
  Disappears if that person is working remotely.
  - lazyasciiart 5y ago
    You can visit their manager.
    - soperj 5y ago
      and if they're the one doing it?
- thefunnyman 5y ago
  This is a very real problem in large organizations. I’ve found an effective alternative while working remote is to escalate to my manager in such situations. Usually they have a little more organizational clout and can get a response.

dheera 5y ago

IANAL but I mean if they say the way to notify them is to call them, and they don't respond to that call, the onus is on them, no? I would think that you did your due diligence by calling and that it's their fault at that point. Also, calling should never be a requirement. What if someone is deaf? Requiring someone to call without an online alternative should 100% be an ADA violation.

SilasX 5y ago

I'm dealing with similar issues regarding a lost package through the USPS. The sender assured me they had updated my address but sent it to the old one anyway and then got lost. I filled out the online form for missing packages and it said someone would follow up on the ticket number. No one did. I called the main USPS number and got through to an operator. They said someone should have followed up and then created a new ticket number. Still no follow up. I called again and they gave me the number for some major customer affairs center (forget the name). First time the voicemail was full, second time I left a message but never heard back. The local post office finally did call me back ... from an Unknown number (WTF?) so I didn't pick it up, then left a vague message about the package and said to call back the local post office number. Every time I've tried to call that number it just stays on hold and then goes to a busy signal.

philliphaydon 5y ago
I’m dealing with an issue with western union. Well was, I’ve given up. For over a year I’ve been using WU to send money back for my helper to the Philippines. So she didn’t need to go to the crowded mall on the other side of singapore to send it. No issues for over a year sending to her husband. Then one day I’m told he’s not allowed to receive money. I call WU. They say he can receive. I send money and WU cancels it. I call again, they said he needs to call. He calls and they say there’s no issues. I call they say no issue. WU cancels when he attempts to collect. I call again they said I need to contact GCR department. 2 months they won’t reply. Emailed several times. Called again. Talked to WU on Twitter, everyone tells me to contact gcr. No one will reply. Black hole support systems.
- sfifs 5y ago
  have you tried Singtel Dash? seems to work.
- niij 5y ago
  Does transferwise work there? It's worked great for me and the fees are transparent and low.

JJMcJ 5y ago

Contact your senior U.S. Senators office. They have contacts that will get things moving for you. Works much more often that you would expect.

devoutsalsa 5y ago

In 2017 I had a problem with back taxes and the IRS was threatening to come after me. I couldn’t get them on the phone and it was important enough that I didn’t want to wait to resolve it via mail. I contacted my US congressperson and complained that they were making it impossible to work out an arrangement, and the fact that I wanted to give them money & couldn’t call them was ridiculous. A senior aide got back to me pretty quickly, and offered to help. Instead of relying on snail mail and nonfunctional phone calls, I was able to resolve the entire process via email and a couple phone calls with the aide. It was great, and I highly recommend giving it a try.

akiselev 5y ago
Same here. I was dealing with back taxes but some of my former banks wouldn't send me old account statements for a variety of bullshit reasons or they wanted to charge obscene amounts for them. After one email to my Congressman, an aide forwarded it to the CFPB and I got calls from bank representatives within three days asking for my mailing address - didn't even bother charging a reasonable amount for shipping and handling (I asked). I think I need to emphasize this since many on HN are immigrants: Congresscritters don't care if you're eligible to vote or not (I wasn't). Hell, half the time they don't even care if you're in their district because they're in a safe seat that can only be practically challenged by someone local who can pull donors away. A letter advocating for some policy position that's decided by realpolitik anyway usually just get a form response, but an reasonable letter from a constituent asking for actionable help will almost always get the white glove treatment.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

alasdair_ 5y ago

This reminds me of dealing with immigration. I was supposed to get an “alien registration number” when I arrived in the USA on an immigrant via, yet for some reason I did not. No one would talk to me, not matter how many times I explained for three months. I eventually took to driving to the INS building every single day until they finally gave up and issued me a number within 20 minutes. Three months of not being allowed to work nor being able to leave the country was frustrating in the extreme. Anyway, apparently the right way to deal with this is to contact your representative (for me it was a congressman or senator, for this guy their state-level person) and ask them to help.

behringer 5y ago
Yes, the rep may help, but that too will possibly be a brick wall. The best method is to show up, tell them you'll wait, then continue to stand there staring at them.

onefuncman 5y ago

I am in exactly this situation (but at the days/weeks timescale instead of months), so thanks for posting how you resolved this, I'll try my local IRS office.

u678u 5y ago

That's why I'll never use a virtual bank, I need one with branches just for that time something breaks.

derefr 5y ago

In this case he's saying > since I cannot sort this out in person due to the COVID closures ...which I interpret as "the office I would go to to sort this out is empty; there is nobody there; the lights are off and the doors are locked. Everyone who would be working there is working from home."