I need to vent!

Okay, for the past two years I used H&R Block's Taxcut to do my taxes. I liked the idea of having "people". The software was no easier or more difficult than Turbotax but it was cheaper the first year so I gave it a try. This year I did the same. I had two copies of the CD that they mailed me at home for my convenience. However, neither of them would install on my home PC or my work PC. I went to the H&R Block web page to download it. There I found that H&R Block offered on line tax filing. So I decided to give it a whirl.

Let me say that has been the biggest mistake of my tax life. I started off doing great. I was able to import my last years tax returns and the info carried over just as if I had installed the software and done it on my home PC. I zippity do da'ed right through all the questions and had finished my federal and state taxes in no time. Then it came to the error checking phase right before e-filing. It came back with an error! I thought no pro-blem-o I'll just correct it and then e-file and I am done. I clicked on the Fix Errors and it took me to the Adoption tax credit screen. I have a small amount of the tax credit from EmmaLi's adoption left to claim. I verified the information and clicked next, next, and the error remained. I read the error very closely and it was looking for information about EmmaLi not the credit. It says to click "Edit" and correct the error. Well...there is no edit button. I cannot edit anything thing.

After fighting with the program for about three hours trying every thing I could think of editing this and that and marking this box, putting 0 in all of the non-appicable boxes and not putting zero in those boxes. In two different sessions I tried like mad to fix the error. I looked at my 2006 tax records and there was all kinds of data about my child on that tax form(date of birth, name, age, address, etc). I was not prompted at any time to enter that data using the on line version of the software. So I summoned my "people". I wrote a question to the tax advisor. He replied back promptly that my question is of technical nature and not really a tax question and suggested I contact the online chat people or the helpdesk people. I then summoned the on line chat people and got a gentleman named Dederick C. Dederick was very good at defining my problem and stating back to me what I just said but he wasn't very good at fixing the problem or offering any solutions. Here is how the chat went:

Dederick C.: Hello Kimberly, welcome to H&R Block's TaxCut Online Chat Support in North America! How can we assist you today?
Kimberly Taghan: I have finished my tax forms using the on line tax preparation. I am getting an error that I cannot fix. I'll log back in and get the exact error.
Dederick C.: Does this occur while attempting to E-file?
Kimberly Taghan: I adopted my child in 2004. I have a small carryover amount that I need to claim for an adoption in 2004. I keep getting this error. "Error 1 of 1 In the Adoption Credit section of the Interview, you made an entry for an adoption credit carryforward. Please enter the information for the eligible child. Click edit and review your entries." Kimberly Taghan: However, there is no "edit button" and the program never asks for the information. It is not during the efile section. It occurs during the check for errors.
Dederick C.: May I have a moment to research some information for you? Kimberly Taghan: sure.
Dederick C.: Did you have a adoption credit carryforward?
Kimberly Taghan: Yes, I checked last years refund (using Taxcut 2006) and it indicated I had $XXX.00 to carry forward. I imported my last years return so I would think that the information would have been imported. Dederick C.: Looks as if it might not have been because that is was it's prompting for.
Kimberly Taghan: How do I get the information in then. The program never prompts for past adoptions, only adoptions that occured in 2007. Kimberly Taghan: I tried adding the information in for 2007 and the error was not corrected so I deleted it.
Dederick C.: Once your on the Error page click fix error and it should take you to the Enter Adoption Credit Carryforward where you can enter past amounts.
Kimberly Taghan: I have done that. I enter $XXX for the 2004 carryover to 2007 amount. It accepts that but the error remains. It is looking for more information that there are no prompts for. I looked at last years tax forms and it has a lot of data regarding my child (name, SS#, DOB, etc.) I was not prompted for this data on line but apparently, it needs to be there.
Dederick C.: Well the thing is anything that is being entered here does not carry correctly.
Kimberly Taghan: So how do I fix it so I can file?

At this point the session ended. I have no idea why or how but the window just shut down and I was taken to an "Exit Interview" screen. So after waiting over 30 minutes to get some one to respond to the chat I didn't get an answer but I got practice defining the problem.

Next I sat called them to speak to some one about the problem. I sat on hold cleaning up after dinner for another thirty minutes. I have this wonderful new phone that has a speaker option. So I put it on speaker and was able (at least) to be productive while I was waiting on hold for 25 minutes. Once I got the pohone answered, I was advised that they are experiencing server issues and they couldn't help me. The nice lady suggested I call back in an hour. Maybe the closing of the chat window was caused by the server issues, she didn't know.

Today I called back and got an answer right away. I spoke with a lady that was nice enough. I spent an hour on the phone with her explaining the problem. Then I humored her and tried all of the things she suggested which I have already done several times on my own. nothing fixed the problem. She then told me I I needed to talk to a tax advisor. I explained that was the first person I called and he said my question is technical in nature and I needed to call Tech Support. She then put me on hold again to get a supervisor. After about 15 minutes the supervisor got on the phone and said that she has looked the problem over and tried to come up with a solution but she is unable to. She said basically, I have two options. I can have the problem escalated to level 2 helpdesk and see if they can come up with a solution. They would give me a call back in 48 to 72 hours. The second option is to start all over from scratch. I have already wasted 3 days on this problem and there was no promise that starting over would actually fix the problem. There is also the little thing about having already paid for Taxcut and not wanting to pay for it again or wait for a refund. So now I have spoken with 4 of my "people" and have gotten nothing resolved.

Bottom line....I am not liking H&R Block or my "people" right now. I need to file and they are preventing me from doing so. Getting these taxes filed this year has been difficult. Between my employer screwing up my W-2 and having to wait to get a revised copy to file, then the two different copies of the software not working and now this. You would think they thought I have time to burn and spare to fight with my taxes.

I say we should go to the national sales tax and get rid of all of this tax bologna. ...I guess that is a post for another day.