Cut Off From Revenue Canada Telephone Line

[dumpthemonarchy]

So I phone Service Canada, 1800-206-7280, dial O for an operator and get told the queue is too long, click, I am disconnected, cut off. How lame! In a country of 33 million people, I would guess their telephone queue is 50.

One reason people might vote for Tories is that they say they will make the federal gov't more efficient. Not a good reason here.

 

[L Gilbert]

Canada's phone IQueue = 50?

 

[MHz]

Revenue Canada has a website that should be able to help you faster than a phone. This is near the end of tax-time why wound not expect them to be swamped with calls. If you have an code studio-tax will let you do your taxes for free.

 

[L Gilbert]

I don't think he mentioned why he wanted Service Canada. Not everything is about taxes. Almost but not everything. lol

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

Revenue Canada has a website that should be able to help you faster than a phone. This is near the end of tax-time why wound not expect them to be swamped with calls. If you have an code studio-tax will let you do your taxes for free.

Not in my case, I need to talk to a person.

I didn't expect to have my call answered right away, I just wanted to get in line. Isn't this a kind of software problem? Software is supposed to be endlessly expandable, like this kind of chat forum, where thousands can and have responded to a popular thread.

Seems like the old days of an office with two telephone lines and three calls. Very retro.

 

[L Gilbert]

lol I missed reading the OP title.

 

[Unforgiven]

Not in my case, I need to talk to a person.

I didn't expect to have my call answered right away, I just wanted to get in line. Isn't this a kind of software problem? Software is supposed to be endlessly expandable, like this kind of chat forum, where thousands can and have responded to a popular thread.

Seems like the old days of an office with two telephone lines and three calls. Very retro.

You definately shouldn't have been disconnected. Blame downsizing and ass kissers who can't operate IT but can talk up a storm to human resources and avoid the blood letting.

I would keep at it and sooner or later you're going to catch the que.

 

[Francis2004]

Revenue Canada has a website that should be able to help you faster than a phone. This is near the end of tax-time why wound not expect them to be swamped with calls. If you have an code studio-tax will let you do your taxes for free.

Not only that but that web site is by far not perfect.

When I registered for "My Account" I ended up having to Call and wait for a Service person to Activate "My Account" as there was a problem on their side :angryfire:

 

[jjaycee98]

Studio Tax? How sure are you that it is safe to give them your name, address, SS# and DOB?

 

[Trex]

RevCan has you right where they want you.
Canadians are all a captive audience and RevCan can treat us like a left handed,red-headed step child as much and as long as it wants.

Have you ever noticed the difference between the sales line and the customer service line at the same corperation?

The sales line is answered instantly by a dulcet toned hotty who probably has a masters in marketing and a minor in psychology.
After a few minutes of ego stroking and tummy rubbing most of us are ready to sign up for the locked in 42 year plan.

On the other hand.

Customer service is farmed out to an offshore agency headquartered in northern Uzbekistan.
After 45 minutes of being on hold and listening to a never ending rendition of the Uzbekistany national anthem played at earsplitting volume by an orchestra consisting entirely of bagpipes and cymbols.
Then your cutomer service rep answers.
Its an illiterate Uzbeki goatherd with a brutal stutter and a cleft palate.

(At this point my solemn apologies to all handicapped, Uzbeki's and goatherds, no harm ment).

So that in a nutshell pretty much sums up how much RevCan worries about our feelings.
They are like a giant, bloated vampire bat clinging tightly to the neck of the anemic taxpayer.
As long as you breathe, you pay, and by the way, they dont want to hear any complaining.

Trex

 

[jenn]

can you imagin being on hold for 30 mins.. THEN being disconnected....

 

[MHz]

Studio Tax? How sure are you that it is safe to give them your name, address, SS# and DOB?

It's a free download, it doesn't have to access the web after being installed, it spits out a yourname.tax file that revenue canada will accept on their secure server. (you can even do uoto 20 returns for free with the program). I had to wait for something in the mail when I first signed up, only after getting that code could I get access. That seems quite safe.

Too bad they didn't have call-back.
One question, just about everybody uses these telephone press 1 things as a way to help customer service. No call ever thakes less than 10-15 minutes. Does H%R answer tax questions, if it isn't too complicated they may give you an answer.

 

[MHz]

can you imagin being on hold for 30 mins.. THEN being disconnected....

Wouldn't that happen to everybody. The phones are in Winnipeg, at a certain time they go home, they don't stay till all questions are answered. An 800 # should be able to be called at 3AM, it might be a shorter wait unless everybody has the same plan.

I always hate those really long waits, I even get scared I will lose the call if they answer and I had to run to the bathroom because of the amount of coffee consumed while waiting.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

Then some tax departments telephone lines state press * to get an agent and some state press 0. They should pick 0 for all their telephone systems to speak to an agent, and eliminate * . Easy efficiency here.

 

[MHz]

That also (used to) worked with systems that said hold on if you do not have touch-tone. That should up the price on a rotary phones at the flea markets. Rotary cell-phones next year lol.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

So I phone Service Canada, 1800-206-7280, dial O for an operator and get told the queue is too long, click, I am disconnected, cut off. How lame! In a country of 33 million people, I would guess their telephone queue is 50.

One reason people might vote for Tories is that they say they will make the federal gov't more efficient. Not a good reason here.

I have talked to tax people many times and I never had any problem. Perhaps it may be the time of the year. Whenever I have written to them I have got the reply back in a timely fashion. In general I have found the tax people to be helpful.

Anyway, I don’t understand why you would want to talk to a CRA person about your income tax return (assuming that is what it was about). If you have a tax related question (which deductions to claim, how much to claim etc.), I don’t think CRA is the right place to call, you should talk to an accountant.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

That also (used to) worked with systems that said hold on if you do not have touch-tone. That should up the price on a rotary phones at the flea markets. Rotary cell-phones next year lol.

I had a rotary phone a few years ago (I still have it). It was a push button phone, but still a rotary phone. With a touch tone, when you press any key, you get the same short beep. With this phone, duration of the beep deepened upon which key you pressed. Thus if you press 9, you got a longer beep than if you pressed one.

Anyway, I didn’t see the point of doing it this way. Then a few years after I had the phone, I noticed a switch. When you flipped that switch, it turned into a true touch tone phone. So it was a dual phone, you could use it as a rotary or a touch tone phone.

I don’t imagine there were too many of those made. I probably bought a phone when the phones were transitioning form rotary to touch tone.

 

[lone wolf]

Do you know what a rotary phone is? Dial-and-count-clicks

 

[Diarygirl]

Try calling between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Winnipeg time. If you don't get an answer continue during those hours. I agree there should be a better system for taking calls but it is the busy season. They most likely could be away from their desks. Consider break times and lunch times too. So, most likely if they start at 7 a.m. they would possibly break at 9:15 to 9:30 for 15 minutes and perhaps take lunch at 12 noon to 12:30. Keep trying if you need to talk to someone. Wish you luck, dumpthemonarchy, getting through and getting your problem solved. Another way you can try to contact them is to fax them to ask them questions or have them call you back by leaving your SIN, full name, address and phone number as well.

 

[lone wolf]

I live about 30k from LaSalle and Notre Dame in Sudbury. Do you have a message I can tie to a brick and put through one of Revenue Canada's windows?