March Poll:  Tax Professionals Unimpressed by CRA Improved Phone Service

If March 2020 roared in and out like a lion, so did tax pros’ views on CRA’s attempt to improve phone services so far this turbulent tax season. Clearly there is much more to be done as a full 70% of respondents said “no” when we asked:  “This tax season CRA is providing online tools to estimate telephone answering and return processing wait times. Do you think this is a service improvement?”    Here are some of their comments:

Some like the music while others don’t.

“The music is beautiful ..I just wish there was variety instead of the same thing.  Only once in 2 decades have I had to tell a young agent not to make me mad by telling me something I knew was ridiculous and detrimental to my client. Immediately I was transferred to a supervisor who resolved the issue.  Otherwise they answer my stupid questions with patience & transfer me to specialized sources for involved issues.  The rapid changes made in digitizing information to provide an accurate & reliable source of client data to me is amazing.  I’ll give them A for effort and have patience while they improve.” - Jo Anne Knapp

“Definitely not an improvement! Only a few years ago,  I was able to call CRA and talk to an agent about every client, ask a knowledgeable person,  and get a correct answer.
Now I have a drawer full of files assessed incorrectly, in reassessment for more than 10 months,  and no way to talk to an agent without an interminable wait!
My brain burns every time I hear the recording recite the new improved service, followed by the figure skating music—how embarrassing this must be for the actual professionals who work for CRA.”. - Katherine Sabine

“My small business cannot afford to tie up my phone line for an hour every time that I call in. And the same 2 music pieces every time, over and over!!  I wish they at least had the CBC radio playing for us.” - Melanie Madsen

Many say, “Don’t waste my time.”

“Was told wait time would be an hour.  Hung up at 2 hours 11 minutes.” - Gerry Campbell

“Giving us a tool just so we can figure it will take more than 60 minutes to talk to someone is totally useless.  Work on answering correctly the inquiries in a shorter time period.  I cannot wait on the phone for 1 hour or more to talk to a rep.” - Doug Northrup

“CRA’s survey on their “new” telephone service is ridiculous. It frustrates anyone who calls them. I mean, is it really “helpful” to wait 30 -45 minutes before a “live person” picks up the phone? No, I don’t think so!” - Trevor Hitchman

“I already know that I will spend an hour on hold - why bother telling me again.” - Robert

“Not an improvement at all. When the recording says your wait time is more than 40 minutes and finally get to speak to someone 60 to 80 minutes later only to get transferred to another agent is not an improvement. Even providing a number to push to select a specific genre of music would be an improvement. Processing of adjustments especially the wait time stated are also unsatisfactory when they say processing time is over 60 days and six months later clients are still waiting . No accountability on CRA side.” - Tony

Yikes!

 “The CRA are a bunch of lying crooks. You don’t get their real name on the phone. They provide you with misinformation that costs you in penalties then when you call back about an issue no one has a clue what you are talking about because they gave you a fake name to begin with. There is no way in gods green earth should the CRA be able to seize a bank account without a court case and a court order. Hey, they need their wings clipped big time.” - Dave

“Get CRA employees to call the number on paydays and tell them they don’t get a cheque until they get through and talk to someone. We will see how great they think their system is.” - Don Myer

“CRA is providing the worst phone service ever.  An hour to wait for an agent shows such lack of respect for taxpayers.  We, tax preparers, need a direct line with knowledgeable people answering right away.  We save CRA so much time by asking knowledgeable questions and don’t waste their time.” - Pat Morton

“This is just cosmetic designed to pacify taxpayers.  The REAL service improvement would be to have the phone calls answered in a timely fashion by knowledgeable agents, and to have returns processed in a timely fashion.” - Jo Ruelle

“This is just a variation on the smoke and mirrors reply ‘... your call is very important to us….’, which is just bumpf. If my call was really important you would have informed, knowledgeable, people on hand to answer it instead of subjecting me to automated voices telling me to hold and to interminable elevator music to soothe me in the meantime.” - Lyle Urbanowski

On a more moderate note.

“No, as I hear from clients that they have tried many times and can’t get thru. The only thing that I see is for CRA to re open the office to the public then maybe they can get back to really serving the public as a lot of new Canadians and seniors like to be able to talk face to face with somebody so that they can understand what is going on. And they can’t do that over the phone.” - Marilyn Knutson

“Yes, its a improvement but changes take forever and are not a significant change to the current landscape of dealing with CRA.” - Joe Truscott

“I work for an accounting firm. Every day I hear accountants express frustration about CRA - long wait times on calls, often not getting the help they need.” - Patricia Russell

“At this moment the phone support is far below the standard and there is no in person support available to the taxpayer of preparer. Taxpayers feel helpless.” - Hussain

“Great that people can find out time of returns. It’s unfortunate but now a days people rely on that income even more.” - Karen

Thank you to everyone who participated. This month we’re asking, “Do you like the federal government’s tax filing and balance due extensions to June 1 and August 31 respectively?” Weigh in!

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