Per my original call with the IRS in March, I was supposed to have a case manager contact me by 23 May via official mail.
Well, that date came and went, and I contacted the IRS on 31 May (approx 1430 hrs) to let them know I still lacked a letter, or any information for that matter on my case status.
I was connected with a very pleasant and straight-forward woman identified as "Ms Kelly," Cust Service # 1306598. She was a real straight shooter, polite, but no B.S.
I was dismayed to learn that yes, my file had been assigned a case worker on 17 May, however, it would be yet ANOTHER 90 days before the case manager would actually call me.
What. The. Hell.
Thus, its 180 days just to SPEAK to someone to get a legitimate status update. IRS Customer Service reps are also not permitted to provided the name of my case worker (which I find very weird).
However, Ms. Jelly was sympathetic, and explained that I was "on the ball" and far ahead of other folks. She said that the IRS was still handling cases from last year, but most individuals were not organized or proactive, and that I was actually assigned a case worker rather quickly.
I do appreciate her candid honesty, but still - 180 DAYS!? Granted, I did not experience the 2+ hour wait time (some articles have indicated 4-6) on the phone, and I have yet to visit an IRS office in person (which is where I believe most of those wait times exist). I waited for approximately 10 minutes, and Ms. Kelly was able to place me on hold for about 2 minutes while she researched my file.
She freely admitted that the new electronic system has complicated tax fraud issues, and without denigrating her employer, hinted that just going back to the old school paper filing method would help alleviate many of these issues with tax fraud/tax theft.
I agree... instant gratification or facilitating individuals who don't have a checking account have complicated so many things.
Argh... this is just frustrating.
