Maybe we should expand tipping

IRS representatives all give out their 10-digit ID numbers when they pick up the phone now. Do you think they ever google their numbers to see if anyone is mentioning them? Should we start yelp-rating individual IRS agents? Is there a market for ratemyIRSagent.com? Ok, I’ll go first.

IRS representative 1000233200 in the individual accounts department is lazy, rude, and wrong.

IRS representative 1002577699 in the tax law department is very pleasant. Not in the department I needed, sadly. She helps people who can’t read. (Well, she helps taxpayers who can’t read. I don’t know who helps 1000233200.)

Crossing the 5-hour threshold and more than 10 people for a simple tax ID number assignment is what finally got me to start writing down ID numbers. Without paying attention, my impression was that they were all terrible. I think that impression was due to some of them being terrible and none of them being able to solve the problem. When I look at the two above, terrible only describes one out of two.