Oh, The Responsiveness
Back in April, I forgot to put a few of the relevant federal forms into the mail for the state of Maryland (I had to mail because TurboTax told me that my forms couldn't be e-filed - go figure). I got a penalty notice a month later, which was not a huge surprise. I called, was told to send the forms in, and did so.
Wait one month, another notice arrives. I call again - this time, I'm told that if I mailed the forms, they would get lost. This was, shall we say, a surprise - I asked whether a check would get lost if I had sent one (that yielded an awkward silence). Fine, fine - what's the right procedure? I'm supposed to fax the documents.
Hmmm - fortunately, I have an ancient (20 years old!) fax/printer sitting in the corner. I get the phone line plugged into it, have the half remembered arguments with it over paper jams, and proceed to fax the 20+ pages. Then I call back, and ask whether they got the fax - "who knows", is the response.
And people wonder why I'm cynical over any plan that involves a bigger role for government....
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