Thursday 3 May 2012

Hanging On The Telephone - The Chaos Continues



Trying to get through to HMRC on the phone seems to be the story that just keeps giving!

Despite David Gauke's attempts to assure everyone that everything is fine:
"HMRC does not have a target time for answering telephone calls.
HMRC uses a variety of measures to assess the accessibility of telephone services, which include the percentage of call attempts handled by its contact centres.

In 2011/12, HMRC has significantly improved the number of call attempts handled to 74% (compared to the 48% in the previous year)."
Everything is clearly farking well not fine!

The ICAEW Tax Faculty is continuing to receive reports from members about the inordinate length of time that it takes to get through to HMRC on the phone eg:
"Abi on 01 May 2012, 19:07
08453000627 - nearly 1 hour so far and still no answer to find out why they have taken an additional £700 tax this month leaving me in a financial mess.

Gabe on 02 May 2012, 16:47 
08453000627 no one answers this damn phone, why are these people getting paid.. to play around with our taxes.. this is just not right.. I'm about to spend 50 pounds more on my phone bill for these idiots.. and yet still don`t know why they put me on stupid tax code.."
Let's start a list here, if you have phoned HMRC and had trouble getting through please post the number you rang, the office you were trying to contact and the length of time it took you to get through/not get through.

Thanks.

I will forward the list to both the ICAEW and HMRC.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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15 comments:

  1. JuSt rang 0845300627 to be on hold for half an hour I'm ringing to get my money back not to pay my next phone bill, love how they say 'there is no need to contact us we automatically assess you tax deductions over the last year and will provide you with a refund NOT! Sure to be on the end of the phone should you owe them money!

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  2. Off topic Ken but interesting to see the Telegraph over the last couple of days and their articles about Civil Service employing "Contractors". Made me look back at your articles about Deepak Singh - amazing what HMRC did there!

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  3. Been on nearly an hour everyday this week before giving up. I have got a business to run I wish they would run theirs.
    How do they get away with it?

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  4. 0345 300 3900 tax credits 62 mins

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  5. six hours over two days to get an appointment at my local tax office!

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  6. Try ringing 01978 297865 to get though to a call centre. Can't guarantee it'll be any quicker but it'll be cheaper than the 0845 number. And no, I don't work for HMRC (any more)

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  7. I have spent a total of 143 minutes on the phone to the tax office over a period of our days. I finally got through today and made a formal complaint as I was greeted by a man whose response was "oh yeah we're busy at the minute" I was then put on hold again to speak to a manager and told the same she said she would make a formal complaint for me but warned me the current turnaround for complaints is 45 days!!! When she dealt with my query for a tax refund she told me where to send my stuff to but also warned they are currently 6 weeks behind with the post WTF and advised i probably wouldn't hear anything for apprx eight weeks!!!! I made the comment that if i didn't respond to people in my job for this length of time i would get the sack and she responded "oh it's a government problem we can't do anything about it" I asked if I had pressed the number to speak to someone about paying them tax they would have answered quick enough and she couldn't make a comment but did say with a little giggle that there is a separate number to call if you want to make them a payment - YES I bet there is and I bet it is answered within seconds. This is absolutley appalling and there is no wonder this country is in so much shit the Government can't even get this right!!

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  8. advisors seem to be answering calls as fast as they can.i have been told that once they get off a call and go into 'wrap' to do the notes and letters the managers watch how long its takin them from their desks and if its been more than 5mins the manager goes over to fknd out why they have not took a call yet. imagine doing that for 7hours a day and trying to get your call and wrap under 9.30mins and if not gettin threatened with an action plan. constantly gettin reminded how many calls are waiting and getting recorded calls listened to and being failed for forgetting to give a timescale

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  9. advisors seem to be answering calls as fast as they can.i have been told that once they get off a call and go into 'wrap' to do the notes and letters the managers watch how long its takin them from their desks and if its been more than 5mins the manager goes over to fknd out why they have not took a call yet. imagine doing that for 7hours a day and trying to get your call and wrap under 9.30mins and if not gettin threatened with an action plan. constantly gettin reminded how many calls are waiting and getting recorded calls listened to and being failed for forgetting to give a timescale

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  10. Called 0845300627 on hold for 10 mins or so before cut off. Called again. Thankfully they cut me off sooner this time. About 5th attempt finally got thru to someone after 30 mins on hold. Added over 10 pounds to phone bill. Only reason i had to call-tax office owed me over thousand pounds!

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  11. Just got a letter throught the door saying im due them £500 because i was working 2 jobs and one of my employers didnt set my tax code up right, i wasn't in 2 jobs at all so someone somewhere got that all wrong, i was at one point made redundant and 5 weeks later got another job, trying to phone the tax office about this and been on hold for ages, its a joke and dont want to be paying £500 for a phone bill as well as tax im not due!

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  12. Been on hold for close to half an hour on 08453000627 as am querying the supposed debt against me....I am positive that my call is NOT going to be answered, absolutely frustrating, shoddy service.

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  13. 4 MINUTES OF RECORDED MESSAGES BEFORE YOU EVEN GET A MENU CHOICE! PRESS THE MENU CHOICE FOR A FURTHER 4 MINUTES OF RECORDED MESSAGES AND THEN YET ANOTHER MENU! IS THIS THE GOVERNMENT'S WAY OF CONTROLLING OVERPOPULATION BY KILLING PEOPLE OFF WITH HEART ATTACKS THROUGH STRESS?

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  14. Took 25 minutes to answer phone, but sorted out my tax rebate for me. So crap at answering phone but good at sorting problems. Probably understaffed like most places. Too many bosses but not enough workers.

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