We received our note from the IRS advising us we would be receiving our loan from China stimulus check. Imagine our surprise, then, when the direct deposit never showed up.
A (n) agonizing 45-minute wait quick phone call revealed that when I mailed in my name change form to Social Security 11 1/2 years ago, it never went through. I'm partially culpable here, I'll admit that. I never received a new Social Security card. But I hadn't had one for years prior to that and only needed it when I changed jobs, so frankly I never gave it that much thought.
Please note that since then the IRS has had no problem TAKING my money. In fact, for the first couple of years of our marriage we OWED them money and they found us easily. The fact that there was no hyphen in my last name was not a deterrent to their collection efforts.
However, I decided to do the right thing. I went to the Social Security office one fine Wednesday afternoon and spent two hours waiting in an uncomfortable chair, watching back-to-back reruns of 'The Jeffersons' and 'Sanford & Son' on a small, fuzzy television only to be informed that their computers had crashed and they would be unable to assist me.
Undaunted, I went back the next day. I arrived at their offices 35 minutes before they opened and, once they started seeing people, only had to wait 20 minutes. A record! I filled out all the paperwork, took copies of my marriage license, birth certificate, even a copy of my parents' marriage license.
I waited patiently for a week and a half, then called the IRS again.
The first phone call sent me through automated representative hell before thanking me for calling and automatically disconnecting me.
The second phone call revealed that if I did NOT select English or Spanish, I would be routed to a representative. While he was very nice, he could not assist me in the way I needed (I wanted to see if we could be queued back up for the stimulus) he was happy to transfer me to 'Individual Record Management.' Unfortunately, IRM's phone system told me that they were unable to handle my call due to technical difficulties and disconnected me.
The third phone call netted me the type of customer service representative I was more accustomed to. After I explained what had happened and what I needed, he sarcastically asked me what I expected HIM to do about it. He quickly passed me off to another department but this time I got him to reveal the phone number of that department before he transferred me. Naturally I got disconnected.
The fourth phone call, placed directly to 'Individual Record Management,' got me the lovely and charming 'Agent 07172614' who not only understood what happened and what I needed, but intervened on my behalf with the upper management types. Unfortunately, we did not persevere.
Good news? We will be receiving our stimulus. Bad news? We will receive it with our income tax rebate in Spring of 2009.
Of course, we're irritated. We really need that money. We did manage to swing airline tickets for Sweet Pea and I to go to Michigan, but it's going to be a long summer. Besides staying current on all of our bills, I really wanted to put Sweet Pea back in gymnastics before the Olympics. After them, in the fall, the gym will be filled up with tons of little girls who watched gymnastics on TV and dream of being the next big thing. I wanted to get a spot for Sweet Pea before all that madness.
Damned government.