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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.

> 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.

Disappears if that person is working remotely.

You can visit their manager.

and if they're the one doing it?

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.

Unless it's _really_ a very large organization where the person or team you need to contact is often in a different building, city, state, or country...

> you’ll end up bothering someone until they help you solve the problem

Haha, I discovered that with my bank. Phone calls were just dismissed with "we can't do anything about it" or getting repeatedly "transferred" to a dial tone.

Showing up and sitting in the branch manager's office until he fixed the problem worked. It was a $600 problem so it was worth the effort.

It's probably modernizing now, but I talked with someone in Argentina many years ago about paying bills and doing banking. They said that the only way to do any of this stuff is to show up in person at the bank, at the utility company, etc. Showing up in person is a developing country's cheap authentication hack as criminal fraud very rarely gets punished and fraud over the telephone is just too easy.

It's quite the opposite, I'm not sure when your anecdote occurred, but everything can be paid online directly through your bank or using payment facilitators. It's been this way for years.

Even things like wire transfers between individuals can be done instantly directly through your banking app/website, where my bank in the US requires me to go to a branch and wait 3-5 days.

> Showing up and sitting in the branch manager's office until he fixed the problem worked. It was a $600 problem so it was worth the effort.

After being on hold for >1h, I went to my local bank branch. The manager told me they could only call the same support line. I was sure they must have an internal path to resolve things. He denied that this was an option. I don’t know if I believe that, as it seems unlikely.

The bank manager gave me that line, too. I didn't believe it, either. Eventually, he elliptically hinted something along the lines that if I said it was fraud, he might be able to do something.

Naturally, I then declared it to be fraud.

As long as you don't have one of those online-only amounts BofA has. ATM access and the account are free, but visiting the teller is not. I'm not sure if they actually offer it anymore, as I closed my accounts with them several years ago. I recall having great difficulty disabling overdraft protection (to me, the whole point of a debit card is not spending money that I don't have--if my balance is too low for my purchase, I want it rejected).

Details: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bank-of-america-to-offer-free-o...

True unfortunately. My organization is very much an in person organization that has gone remote with some processes that were still mediated by paper forms. The previous advice for getting certain signatures and approvals was to stand outside a particular execs office and haranguing them through persistence. This is no longer an option nor easily replaced through readily ignored channels.

(This is not a method I would elect, but dysfunction begets dysfunction.)

My city hall closed for Covid.

I yanked at the door until it opened. Walked in and found employees to deal with…

Even if doors are closed and locked, showing up can still get the job done.

So you broke in through a locked door? That doesn't sound like a good way to get help, you could have also ended up in jail.

My local DMV is amazing at ignoring, insulting, and attacking people who just "show up" and ask for help with a process.

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-i...

please hold while we connect you to the IRS customer advocacy department...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

have you tried Singtel Dash? seems to work.

Does transferwise work there? It's worked great for me and the fees are transparent and low.

Don't know, never heard of that one.

Update: The package was finally delivered, yesterday (July 12), original delivery attempt June 1st.

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."

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.

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