Tax man

I hate doing my taxes.  I always have.  Perhaps it's really the hatred of math behind my hatred of taxes.  I'm inclined to say that that must be it, since I always get money back from our government.  Yep.  Every year.  It's always them paying me back.  And I always procrastinate until it's April and quickly nearing the 15th.  Even when I decided that I don't mind paying someone else to do it for me (<sarcasm> because it's sooo damn hard</sarcasm>) I still wait until it's near d-day to make an appointment.  I get all excited too... for about fifteen seconds.  Then I realize that hey - it was my money in the first place.  It's not free money.  It's not a bonus.  It's not the government saying "we love you!"

Nope.  My money.

So... April 13th hits this year and the appointment comes and goes.  I get a sizable (for me - remember, I'm not working now) amount of money and I get all excited.  And the excitement stays this time, because even though I know it was my money... I get to spend it on stuff I've been wanting for a while.  Like hoops and studs for my ears.  It's expensive when you have ten extra holes in your head...  :)

Anyways... so the whole point of this tirade is this:

Yesterday I got an email saying that my check has arrived and I can pick it up at my local branch.  Lovely, I think!  I begin to do my little "I've got money" dance.  BUT.  The email arrived at 4 and I didn't read it until a little later.  Even if we had run out at that moment, it still would have been too late to put it in the bank.  So we decide we'll handle it all today.

This morning I call the branch I was told to call from my tax preparer and get a tone in my ear that is akin to a fax machine tone, but it's not.  I can't figure what the heck it is.  Okay... so I call the main branch... and it just rings.  And rings.  And rings.  Until finally it switches over to a guy's voice mail and guess what?  His voicemail is full.  Fine.  We have errands to run anyways so we decide to just stop by as we're out.  We get to the main office and no one is sitting in the front area at all.  Receptionist desk is empty and so are the front offices.  We ring the little bell and start calling out "Marco!!" for the funny.  This guy comes to the front from the back area and I swear... if his nose was any higher in the air, he would have exploded from the lack of air pressure.  I'm not kidding.  I know I have blue/green spiky hair and am dressed in jeans on a FRIDAY but the attitude radiating off this guy was just nasty.  I get a little flustered and stammer out that I'm trying to get my refund check.  He proceeds to tell me that their offices don't handle that and we'd have to go to the other office across town.  Fine, I expected that.  He then gives me the number to it, but it's the same number I was getting the weird tone when I called.  Fine.  We drive over there and find out they are only open two days a week.  Ugh.  We go to the next office since it's only down the street and they are only open two days a week too!  But different days.  Guess what?  Friday is not on the sign on either of them.

At this point I have to say that I'm really glad I'm not working this year (well... so far, and with no plans on that changing) so that I don't have to do taxes next year.  I know that even if I did have to do taxes next year, I'll slog through it myself before going back to these offices.

It's no wonder that the office I actually got my taxes done (a block from my house) is closed after April 17th even though it's a "permanent" office.  They sure as hell don't need to be there for any customer service.

Whose offices?

H&R Block.

Believe me, on Monday or Tuesday (depending on which office really has my check) as soon as the money is in my hands, more than a few people are going to know I'm extremely displeased by this experience.