I've had that happen with the IRS, too. It's pretty annoying! Especially if you've waited a long time on hold and then are told they are too busy.

My sister waited a very long time for her sizeable refund this year. Her accountant filed online and the return was accepted by the IRS, then went into a black hole somewhere because something was incomplete. It should not have been accepted in the first place, so apparently the system didn't know what to do with it.

But, yeah, to your original point, it would be nice to be able to say "I'm sorry, I'm too busy to help you right now" and not get fired! LOL

Donna

If you have a SS office nearby, you might have better luck walking in to see if they can help. I waited on hold for over an hour to talk to someone recently, only to be told I need an appointment to talk to the "right" people, so the only thing the person who answered my call could do was make an appt. And it was nearly a 3 month wait for an appointment (a phone appt at that)! The woman did tell me if I wanted to walk in to my local place, I might have better luck on the timeline. Oh, and if I have to change that appointment I made 3 months in advance...that's right, I have to call back and wait 70 minutes to talk to someone to do so. It's a messed up system for sure.

I wonder if the disconnection comes near the end of the day when they know they won't get to your call before they close?

And now I will politicize this topic: this provides a good example of what really happens when the government is 'reduced' as so many people so adamantly demand during every election season.

It's always easy to decry wasteful spending and of course every one has his/her own version of what that means. Still, when you squeeze a budget the pinch will hurt!

The post office just rings busy no matter when you call. If the pick up, they keep you on hold for as long as possible so the line can always ring busy. I don't understand why my cell phone has call waiting but the post office does not.

The IRS hung up on me, too. Twice. And for the second call, I'd called first thing in the morning, thinking as Olychick, that maybe as calls stack up throughout the day you get bounced out of the queue if it's too close to closing time. Evidently that makes no difference, because after 20 minutes of keying in basic information (TAX ID, Correspondence ID, etc.), I got the "sorry we're too busy so we're going to hang up on you now" message. Insane. You'd think they'd put the "we're too busy right now" prompt at the beginning of the call or offer to call you back the next day. No such luck.

I called the next day around 9am and waited on hold for 50 minutes. Thank goodness for speaker phone. I am still amazed that the IRS thinks that hanging up on people is a good idea.

runninginplace, I agree about cutting budgets and then expecting excellent service is impossible, however, hanging up on people who've already spent time on hold is a customer service problem, not a budget problem. Perhaps instituting a chat service online would be more efficient, or telling people when they call in how long the wait time is so we can decide if we can wait that long, or saying that the queue is full when we are first connected, please call back later and include some times when it's likely to be less busy. Or even a "leave your number and we'll call back in the order of your place in the queue."

I have a tendency to be cynical about the efficiency of some of these large agencies, solely based on the abysmal customer service I see at the USPS (even though both my parents worked there years ago). That's not fair of me, but boy, if I was running that place, things would change and it would be in favor of customer service. The IRS and SS fall under that same category for me, even though each person I've dealt with seems to be as helpful as they are allowed time for.

Well the more the employees are not able to provide the service needed, the more a one of the bigger arguments against a modified flat tax or simplified tax code (fewer employees needed so jobs would be lost) goes away.

I had a problem where the IRS accepted the income, including an IRA distribution from my dad's estate, but didn't recognize the withholding on that same IRA distribution. As a result, they sent us a letter saying we owed additional tax payment. We checked the return -- all the amounts and forms were there and we were owed a refund. DH tried to call multiple times and I tried to call. DH wrote a letter and mailed it in to explain, line by line, where the error was and that we were owed a refund. No reply -- just more letters asking us to pay more and adding interest. Tried calling again (some of these resulted in disconnects also). Never got through to anyone. Sent a note to the attorney who helped me with my dad's estate to ask about it. She said it took time and to give it one more round. Contacted my siblings (who had the same attorney prepare the same type of returns) and verified that neither of them had a problem with their returns -- I was the only lucky one. Then heard from the IRS again -- another letter saying we owed the additional payment with more interest and a penalty.

We had an appointment with the same attorney to sign new wills soon thereafter. When we met with her, she had us sign an amended return for the IRA to try to get the full amount of the withholding refunded there and then had us pay the additional taxes, interest and penalty (added about $35) on our personal return just to clear the whole thing before adding more interest or penalties. Well, we haven't gotten demands for more money, but they haven't sent the refund either. This on our 2014 returns and has been going on for months -- and there's no way to reach anyone to get our refund.

I've not called the IRS, but I have received the "we're too busy to take your call" and get cut off. Can't remember where that was. I have had good success with chat features on many sites.

Homepro, some people on our Nextdoor app were having mail delivery problems, and someone posted the post office also told them they never answer the phone!