Oh dear
February 19, 2014Oh dear. HMRC have gone and got themselves one of those automated phone response thingies that sounds at first like a human being. So you don’t have to listen to an endless menu and press one for self assessment, two for VAT… Oh no, instead you can talk “naturally: to it.
For some values of “naturally”…
I spoke to two extremely courteous, helpful, and knowledgeable (about their area, anyway) HMRC people this morning. They pretty much solved the problems I had, or at least once I get the information one of them was going to send out to me I”ll be able to amend my return and actually get all the figures in the right spaces (and STOP laughing at the back, there!)
But before I got to them…
I know they record calls – they warn you about it while you’re still listening to the blah blah blah you have to endure before you get to the human being. But I really hope they don’t record your transactions with the IDIOTIC INFURIATING AUTOMATED SYSTEM THAT DOESN’T UNDERSTAND A WORD YOU SAY. Ahem. Because I for one have much less patience with them than I do with, you know, people.
tiintax 
They have one of those on the Agent Dedicated Lines. I call those where I have a problem that’s a bit complicated, and so ipso facto doesn’t really lend itself to being put into a soundbite for a machine.
Oh for a “It’s complicated, bypass this” button…
That’s a really good idea. Maybe you should have put it in as a budget suggestion…