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Comment by billconan | Hacker News Reader

I have never called IRS before, but I can imagine how horrible that can be. I called banks before, It may take 50 minutes for someone to pick up the phone.

I don't understand why they think live phone call serves customers better, whereas I think email is a much better option and they seem to remove this option.

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I had to call them over a routine matter (address change) a couple months ago and it wasn't so bad apart from the odd phone tree referenced in this post.

The waiting time was about what you mentioned, but there was a convenient option to leave a call back number so you don't have to wait on hold.

I made a total of 3 calls, each spaced a few days apart. The first two agents were markedly impatient and eager to get me off the phone for some reason. The third one was very friendly and helpful and finally resolved the issue.

Same experience here as other repliers. I've had to call the IRS a small number of times and each time I called, I got an english-fluent human who was surprisingly helpful and straightforward. It was definitely unexpected.

I called the IRS some time pre-2019, after they misinterpreted my $500 taxable income as $500,000. (I had to file for other reasons.) I got an agent quickly and he was helpful and resolved the problem.

I had to do some kind of identity verification a couple of years ago. I tried a couple of times and didn't get through and then mistakenly called like an hour before I was supposed to be able to and got right in.

They are actually super helpful, if you can figure out how to reach a human.

If you do get hold of a live person, it can be faster and easier to talk through something synchronously rather than asynchronously exchanging emails.

Don’t bank with a bank. Bank with Fidelity or Schwab and be amazed when someone answers your call in seconds and actually knows what to do.

Honestly the one time I had to call I got an agent who spoke clear english and was able to tell me exactly what forms to download and exactly what to write on them to clear up the matter. I was stunned and frankly pretty surprised.

As the other replies are mentioning, the IRS actually bucks the trend. Historically at least they are very well funded, and investment in this kind of customer service literally pays off as they help taxpayers get their tax in correctly. You can call the 800 number and actually get an agent on the other end who knows the system and is empowered to help you out.

I haven't had to call in for an agent post-Trump though, so things could have changed. (Not meant as a political statement; it's a simple fact that Trump utterly destroyed their funding for a few years.)

The IRS recently got an infusion of $80B to hire 70k agents. Hope they are as productive

That's partisan disinformation. It was debunked repeatedly, but by then the lie was halfway around the world, as it were: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/06/us/politics/irs-agents-fa...

Paper trails bad

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