SFist Raves: The California Franchise Tax Board
It's a nightmare that probably ranks second to the IRS screwing up your federal taxes -- the California Franchise Tax Board doing the same to your state taxes.
Are we shocked that a government organization screws up sometimes?
Not so much. Insert stuff about underpaid (yet secure-in-job) workers, government bloat, etc.
But we're certainly shocked when we get great service and a reasonable outcome when we seek help. In a world of Kevins, we think it's worth pointing out when something exceeds our (admittedly low) expectations. Especially when it comes from a governmental agency, which tend to be much maligned.
The problem: we sent in our taxes in a very timely manner. A few weeks later, we received an ominous and somewhat threatening letter stating that we hadn't paid and now owed a penalty. Thing is, they'd cashed our check. Hmm.
We called. The rep broke it down for us: sure, they'd probably cashed it, but the payment hadn't been posted yet -- and probably wouldn't be for a while. He eased our concerns, stating that we'd stop getting those "we're gonna getcha" letters. He said to call back in a month.
We did. Payment still hadn't posted. But, again, the rep (this time a really nice lady) acknowledged it was probably their fault, begged our forgiveness, and apologized. She said to call back in another month, and have a copy of the processed check with us when we called.
A month later, the latest rep (another nice fellow) told us the thing still hadn't posted. We gave the confirmation numbers on the copy of our check. He did some digging. Turns out they applied our payment to the wrong year (oops).
He apologized. He fixed it. Then he informed us that we overpaid slightly, and sent us a check, which arrived a few days ago.
Everyone we dealt with at the California Franchise Tax Board was nice, professional, and totally customer-service oriented. While no individual rep could instantly fix whatever problems were inherent in the vast bureaucracy, they really put us at ease. We must rave, as we were totally expecting a Kevin and got something much better.