Im on my computer in awe over the information overload I get daily.
I used to go to the bookstore to read magazines. lots of magazines. that is where I got much of my current culture information. I still do this. But now days my computer can give me much of the same info and at a much quicker rate.
After some time stewing over whether or not to call the IRS and see what happened to my stimulus check<>
>>well, none of the above seam to fit.
At the bottom of this article there is a link to the IRS. very simple actually. just punch in your social and it tells you where your check is. Wonderful... Not so Wonderful. "specific information about your stimulus payment is not available here" it says. Of course. and why should it be. IRS info is meant to be taboo.
At the bottom of the page there is a number to the IRS. DREADED.
so i pace around the room for a few minutes trying to talk myself out of calling. and after 10 minutes of going back and forth on it I decide to call and get it out of the way...
5 minutes go by on hold
10 minutes...
20 minutes...
nearly 30 minutes on hold and Rick Jefferies answers the phone.
At first I think Rick is a message machine. He pukes out his opening line verbatim from the script he was given 15 years ago when he first started his job.
My first urge was to just hang up. And maybe I should have.
Rick doesn't sound very happy. And why should he be. He knows that at some point this conversation is going to go awry. And thats his job. when I hang up he is instantly transferred to another john doe from another corner of the country with another problem.
There are two types of people. One that enjoys helping people with their problems and the other that does not. Rick is of the latter.
Despite my urge to hang up.. Rick snaps to me some questions in a quick paced monotone voice. I oblige in my best
5 minutes later...
10 minutes...
Rick is back. "we have a problem"
DREADED
of course we do Rick, I mutter in my head.
Rick continues to inform me. your social does not match up with your name. We have two ppl under the same social. And you owe $658.00 in back taxes from 2006.
WHAT. ok ok.. let me explain to you something Rick. this is not the first I have heard about my social security number. BUT. in 2007 I spent countless hours deciphering this with your very own IRS agents. By the end and several calls and letters back and forth We (me and the IRS) delt with the issue. At that time the IRS had told me they didnt receive ANY payments and that somebody had stole my identity. Neither was true. So I sent my $2,800 worth of money order receipts to them and all the sudden "here it is" the money just pops up out of thin air.
> So let me explain Rick. Ive payed this off. and as for my social matching my name. My mother never bothered legally changing my last name to Flyg. Ive been going by Flyg most all my life. But in 2007 for some reason it popped up and started causing problems for me. So what you have Rick are two names under one social. Even though in 2007 the IRS told me that the problem had been fixed.
> Do I have to go through the weeks of hoops, calls and letters to RE fix this?
Rick answers, here is the number to call. "your kidding me" I blurt out.
ok ok. but this does not answer my original question. my check.
Rick explains to me that when there is an Astrix on the end of a name in the system they do not send the stimulus check.
At this point I am a labrador lying on my back... "ok, just tell me what i need to do Rick?" HOLD he snaps.
So here I am on hold again.
10 minutes go by
15 minutes go by.....
Rick gets back on the line,
"Ok, it looks like we sent this account to collections"
WHAT!
no notice, no letter, no email, no phone call. NOTHING?
"Im going to transfer you to our collection agency" Rick snaps to me.
And literally before I could get the first syllable out of my mouth from the my proceeding questions I had for Rick... The hold music is playing and Im on my way to speak to the IRS collection agency. F#%#!
5 minutes go by
10 minutes
15 minutes....
nearly 20 minutes and another verbatim opening statement.
At this point my hearing has become selective.
I do not hear the opening statement. Neither do I hear a name that came along with this statement.
We will call him.. Heath
Heath is more upbeat and ask the same question as Rick but in a Human sort of way.
ok.. I reiterate the story to Heath.
"can you hold please while I look this up" ok "thanks"
he actually waited for a response before clicking me into the hold world.
5 minutes go by
10 minutes...
Heath gets back on the line. He explains to me how they may have my money but needs me to send proof of payment to them. That being photo copied versions of the cashed money orders, front and back. something you will have to get from the money order company he explains.
he also tells me that unless I call yet anther division of the IRS to clear up my social security number discrepancy I will not get my stimulus check nor will they guarantee my payments be recognized.
I explain to him how I had done this before and how long it took. "you have to go through it all over again"
Ok Heath, Im not going to argue with you.
So to be clear. For some reason you have me still owing $658.00 for my 2006 income tax returns. It was turned into collection without any notice to me. And you can not do anything about it until I A. RE-clear up my social # problem and B. RE-send proof of payments
OVER TWO HOURS ON THE PHONE FOR THIS
Heath now tells me he is giving me a 30 day extension so I can do what I need to do. Fifty questions flutter through my head but everyone of them scrambled. "Is there anything else I can do for you" .... yes, but Im at a loss right now, I guess I will just try and clear my social up and find my payments and send them in.
"ok, thanks for calling"
and Heath is gone, and now my questions come to me..
Now I dig through a sea of random papers looking for the moneygram company and the receipts. Found em. I THINK. maybe. i hope. I find 5 loose money orders from around that time period. well, money order stubs with a number to call for information.
5 minutes of hold music and Juan answers. he seams ok. an older Spanish man with a thick accent.
what are the numbers on the stubs... we go through all of em.
ok. looks like they have all been cashed.
right, now can you tell me by whom
"my system doesn't show me that information"
well, how do I get this information.
He proceeded to explain that he can email me a form to fill out. I could fill it out with copy's of the money order stubs and they would send me any information they might have on the money orders.
"its going to be $20.00 per money order, $100.00 total"
WHAT! "are you kidding me" though I used this line earlier today I found it appropriate to use again.
Juan chuckles a bit and says "no, that justs policy. Im sorry sir" AND "it will take 30-65 days to process once we get your application" scroll back to Heath giving me 30 days to take care of this....
And that was my tipping point. Nothing against Juan or even Heath. (Rick can rott in hell though).
when I get worked up about something I start to talk REALLY fast. Juan was about to get an earfull. For a brief moment I thought, sorry Juan but your getting the brunt end of this...
And the entire story... Juan got to hear about it all. I continued to tell him how his company is ripping people off with this fee and about the complaisance of America And the many ways that "the system" is driving society to a regressive state. 45 MINUTES! on the phone with Juan, and I swear im not exaggerating a minute of that. If anything it was longer.
"ok Juan, I understand that your hands are tied on this, here is my email address, please send my that application"
Though I never got Juan to admit his company was fleecing America with their bogus fee's/ I was however able to convince Juan that ALL this could be done over the internet. And why isnt it. well, Juan doese not want to know. as a matter of fact at one point Juan told me to "just pay the fee, it will be much easier on you" and I replied. EXACTLY MY POINT.
we just pay the fee's
we just pay the IRS
We have become complaisant as to not inconvenience ourselves.
Why do we not ALL have an IRS accounts that we can log into, make payments, know if there is a problem, look at past years payments, watch payments get received ect ect ect......
They have this information.
Why do we not ALL have an account showing a complete credit report rating that is ours to log into at anytime. its our credit. Hell, it should be on our bank account statements. When I owned a business I could send anyone into collections. Anyone. you wouldnt even know it for a good while. months later when you found out you would have to fight it. and if you won the battle with the collection agency guess what you won. not to have to owe the money that you never owed in the first place. guess what i payed. not a cent.
Why dont we have a personal account that we use to vote. You log in, password protected. and wallah it brings up what your voting on. how you have voted in the past ect ect ect..
password, social security #, DOB and maybe your mothers maden name or something like that. safe, secure, fast and accessible.
and last but probably least. The money gram company should have a system that you punch in the ID #'s on the money order. date of purchase and tah dah. It brings up the same system that they get their information that they charge $20.00 for. you print it out and thats it.
And that last sentence is the clue as to why we still live in 1984.
Money. Control. Greed.
-Brandon I have no idea what the hell my last name is though.
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