On a recent Wednesday, I was with a client and we had to call the IRS to make sure that they received the forms we sent and make sure that everything was in place for their installment agreement.
So we called the number on the last notice they received. This worked reasonably well in the past. We waited on hold for 48 minutes and then were told that we had to talk to another department. They went to transfer us and hung up on us.
We called the number they provided and called and waited on hold for over an hour. They wanted a copy of a form we had previously sent and they put us on hold to find an overnight address or fax number. They hung up on us.
On the Friday of that week, we called again to make sure that they received the forms that were overnighted. I have a friend who works for the IRS who got me an address for an overnight delivery. We were on hold for 47 minutes, I asked the representative to repeat his ID number and he hung up on us.
Since we needed to get an answer, we called again immediately. This time it took longer, but we were able to speak to someone. They were in the wrong department, we called collections and they were service. It seems that service gets the overflow calls from collections.
She took down our information and noted what we stated. We were told that the information would be forwarded on and not to worry a notice would be delivered within 30 days.
But after 3 hangs ups two wasted mornings, and no clear answer. I am not as optimistic as the IRS representative would have me believe.