Cheddarblog

The Swiss_Mouse finally got around to doing his taxes.

The Swiss_Mouse while Swiss at heart is 100% American.  He doesn’t mind paying his fair share.  FAIR SHARE of taxes.  But that is a rant for another time.

The Swiss_Mouse sat down over the last week with his copy of H&R Block TaxCut Premium + State.  Now the Swiss_Mouse has used this product for years and while having a “few” issues with it, has used it without many issues.   Until now…

First off when the Swiss_Mouse went to purchase TaxCut, he noticed the price was higher this year.  No rebate.  And he noticed no rebate for eFiling.   But he purchased anyway.  (NOTE: He recently got an email from a friend who complained that TurboTax was costly and also eliminated rebated efiling.

Granted the Swiss_Mouse usually sits down with a stiff drink or two and fills out his software but this year he was sober.  However he had a question about the Mouslings UTMA accounts and used the $19.95 Tax Advisor service.  Ok, so kudos to H&R Block on this, their rep called back in less than 2 hours with the answer.  But the Swiss_Mouse is PRETTY SURE he called back from INDIA!  YES the Swiss_Mouse is pretty sure of that.

But the larger gripe came later.  The Swiss_Mouse filled out information for getting his refunds via direct deposit, clicked the button and ….was told there was an error and that an “Update” required W-2 information to be reentered.  What?  The Swiss_Mouse started drinking at this point.

After updating W-2 information, the Swiss_Mouse tried again. But alas same thing.

So ALTHOUGH FILING was going to cost $19.95 for Federal and the SAME FOR STATE, the Swiss_Mouse still wanted to try.  He got online to chat with tech support….WHICH HE IS PRETTY SURE WAS IN…anyone? anyone? India!  After years of dealing with tech support in India, the Swiss_Mouse picks up on these things.  Things like restating the obvious. Asking for your problem over and over.  Asking for time to “research the question”.

Sigh.  After being online for 30 minutes, the tech told the Swiss_Mouse the “servers were busy and that was the reason” he couldn’t file.  Uh, no.  The Swiss_Mouse explained that that couldn’t be the reason because he hadn’t made it far enough to file.  “OH” responded the tech. Who then offered that all W-2 info must be deleted and reentered.

Ok, more rum.

So the Swiss_Mouse sat down, deleted all info, reentered all W-2.  The Federal was fine, but..the State decided to not import certain numbers. So he had to mess around until he figured it out and reenter.

THEN he drank some more rum, submitted the return and…nope…error: “reenter all W-2 information.” Sigh.

He hopped online with another tech in India.  How does he know?

Swiss_Mouse: “I give up.  I’m going to print the return and mail it.”

Tech Support: “Have you tried printing the return and mailing it?”

Oh brother.

Well the Swiss_Mouse did save $40.