green noise

I used to do my own taxes. Back in the days of living and working in the same state (even when I worked two jobs) it was easy. I made this much, you took that much, here’s how much you now have to give me back. But once I took a job in New Jersey and moved to New York, things got complicated. I decided to save myself the stress and for the first time in my tax paying life have someone else do my taxes. I chose H&R Block, because 1) they’re well known within the realm of tax preparation and 2) they have an office located a short subway trip from my apartment.
My first experience with H&R Block seemed like it was going to be okay. Until my tax “pro” got flustered when I told him I had, for most of the year worked and lived in Delaware, but at the end of the year had moved to NY but worked in NJ. So flustered, in fact, he had to not only bring one of his co-workers over to assist, but had to call his boss (twice!) on the phone to walk him through the process of crediting my NJ state tax to NY. I was tweaked, but eventually, it appeared that he had it all worked out. I paid my fees and left.
Cut to several weeks later. I’ve receieved my federal return, as well as my Delaware return. I paid what I owed to NY. But no NJ. After several phone calls where I was told “Just give it another week”, I got fed up and spoke with a supervisor who told me that my tax “pro” had never even FILED my NJ return. Warp speed to Bitch-ville!
The supervisor listened patiently as I gave her an earful. Granted, it wasn’t her fault, but even the most tenuous connection to messing with my money was enough to incur my (rarely unleashed) wrath. She conceded that this was their mistake, filed my NJ return (never got an explanation on why that wasn’t done in the first place), and refunded my tax prep fees. End of story.
Until the following year. My taxes were still somewhat complicated – even though I no longer had my Delaware taxes to contend with, I still felt it would be worth the money to pay someone else to do the hard work for me. Deciding that the previous year’s adventure was a fluke, I went with H&R Block again, this time opting for their “Online Office” package. I scan all my tax documents to them, answer a couple of questions, and they do all the work. I didn’t even have to put my pants on. The following day, I received a notification that all was done, and I just needed to review my return. I looked at my documents, and discovered that none of my NJ state income taxes had been credited to NY.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I can’t be the only person in the NY tri-state area that lived in one state while earning income in another. Why is this so difficult? I posed (a more nicely worded version of) this question to my tax “pro”. She seemed a little confused by this question, but by a day later, she said she had it sorted. I paid my fees and breathed a sigh of relief that my taxes were done. I owed considerably less to NY this time around, which was reason enough to rejoice. And then I got a notice from the state of NY that I owed them another $87. FAIL!
Have you ever heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results? Well, this year I truly became insane. For the third time running, I decided to go with H&R Block (yes, I’m a glutton for punishment. And cheesecake, but that’s another story.) I figured there’s no way I’d get saddled with another incompetent “pro”. Well, to this person’s credit, she very well may be competent. However, her poor spelling and grammar (can we say PET PEEVES!?!) as well as her sheer rudeness prevented me from finding out.
I began my taxes in February. It took me a week or two, but I eventually sent in my W-2 (isn’t the purpose of starting early so you can procrastinate?) and waited for the magic of the interwebz to reward my laziness. Later that day, I received an e-mail requesting to see my 2007 tax returns. This was on 3/13. I answered my tax “pro” by telling her that I filed online with them last year, so it should be on file, but to let me know if she still needed me to send her a copy.
On 4/10, I decided I’d check in to see if my taxes were done. I sent an e-mail, asked if she was able to find my 2007 return, and if there were any other documents she might need from me to finish things up. The following is her exact message:

Dear Melissa
I don’t believe you respond back to me almost a month later.
Your option is that file base on what you have.
If you find anything else later on.
You can amend your tax return.
Since you didn’t respond back to me I have rejected your tax return.
If you decide to finalize it, let me know, I will have to retrieved it.
It’s getting close to the due date. Please respond back asap!
Diane

She admonishes me for the fact that she didn’t respond to me for a month. She tells me to get back to her asap so she can (as I interpret her tone) go through the trouble of retrieving the file she rejected. At least that’s what I assume she meant, after wading through her horrendous spelling and grammar.
I’ll admit I’m a total stickler for spelling and grammar, but I can be forgiving. I’m not perfect, and will be the first one to say so, so how can I come down on others for falling short of the grammatical mark? But when you’re acting in a capacity as the face of a company (as all customer service representatives do – it’s the nature of the beast) you should be held to a somewhat higher standard. That standard does NOT include repeated errors in tenses, bad punctuation, and sentence fragments. And it doesn’t include being rude, either!!
So, needless to say, my ire was up once again. Rather than going into mega-beast mode, though, I took the high road that so many of us uppity grammar nerds do. I sent back a reply that used proper grammar, and lots of big words. Needless to say, she won’t be doing my taxes this year. In fact, I did what I should’ve been doing all along. I did them myself. Apparently I’m the only tax “pro” I need.