Getting hold of HMRC

molit

my one complaint - I accept that there are busy times, is that I cant get everything sorted at onec - I wasnt able to pay my tax of over 2k, so I called up to say. I was then told to wait for a phone call frm someone to talk me through the options, basically, pay back over 1yr, 2 years, or 3 years....I am now waiting for someone to call me up and take my account number. That strikes me as crazy, why cant person 1, or even 2 take my bank details?

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush

molit wrote: »

my one complaint - I accept that there are busy times, is that I cant get everything sorted at onec - I wasnt able to pay my tax of over 2k, so I called up to say. I was then told to wait for a phone call frm someone to talk me through the options, basically, pay back over 1yr, 2 years, or 3 years....I am now waiting for someone to call me up and take my account number. That strikes me as crazy, why cant person 1, or even 2 take my bank details?

Your call today will have been recorded - do you want your bank details on a tape somewhere?

When they call back it'll be on a line with no recording facilities.

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush

sandx wrote: »

(a Mr T of Bournemouth)

Quit yo' jibba jabba!

chrismac1

"Your call today will have been recorded - do you want your bank details on a tape somewhere?"

My tape recorder has a button on it called "Off". How hard can it be?

Pennywise

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush wrote: »

Your call today will have been recorded - do you want your bank details on a tape somewhere?

When they call back it'll be on a line with no recording facilities.

That's a pathetic excuse. Most of us will be giving our bank/card details over the phone whenever we buy something or take out an insurance policy, or phone our own bank to transfer money to another account, etc. Almost all of those will have been recorded. Are you seriously suggesting that the recording (or not) is the main reason why the call centre enquiry staff can't process payment themselves? I think not.

Pennywise

silverjay wrote: »

Seems perfectly reasonable for them to need time to upgrade to the new tax year which starts on 6/4/11.

Funny how Amazon and Ebay don't shut down for days for their upgrades and they, too, have millions of customers/active accounts. I think it shows how fragile and badly designed the HMRC computer systems really are if they really need to shut down for long periods of time.

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush

Pennywise wrote: »

That's a pathetic excuse. Most of us will be giving our bank/card details over the phone whenever we buy something or take out an insurance policy, or phone our own bank to transfer money to another account, etc. Almost all of those will have been recorded. Are you seriously suggesting that the recording (or not) is the main reason why the call centre enquiry staff can't process payment themselves? I think not.

With the calls being recorded, they can be listened to later for coaching purposes etc. So the details will still be there. And HMRC top brass have a long history of not trusting frontline staff as far as they can throw them. If they stop treating the staff like children, maybe they'd let them do simple tasks like that.

chrismac1

I have a client whose business is to instal NetApps databases in small to medium sized companies. One of the big pluses is that they have a Mirror server system (don't ask me for details I am not a techie) which means:

1. In the event of one server failing, all the data gets mirrored onto the other one. There will be a loss of speed apparent to users as twice the volume of data is being run on one server, but no loss in functionality or data integrity.

2. When there is a need for a system upgrade, the IT folk transfer all data onto one server and upgrade the other one. Then repeat the process on the second server. So again a loss of speed but no service downtime.

If Dave Hartnett would like a quote for this system for HMRC I am sure my client will oblige. And he won't be asking for £150k for 6 months work like the senior HMRC IT guy asked for and got last year.

Ballymackeonan

I only hope that the long shut-down of the HMRC sites will produce a real improvement in the functionality - I use the online services for self-assessment for myself, and VAT and PAYE for my job, and there are real issues with the site. There are non-working email links, reports which should appear in Adobe Acrobat and come up blank etc...

I gave up on a helpline yesterday after about 20 mins. My tax code for the new year had come in, on the basis that I was "between jobs". Is there something my employers haven't told me? It's incorrect, but fortunately I can tell the wages clerk to ignore it so I won't be faced with a big unpaid tax bill!

sandx

chrismac1 wrote: »

I have a client whose business is to instal NetApps databases in small to medium sized companies. One of the big pluses is that they have a Mirror server system (don't ask me for details I am not a techie) .

Yes that would be standard practice in ensuring a system is available 24/7. But if HMRC are also radically changing the database structures then some downtime is probably inevitable.

I've known system downtimes to be a max of 6 hours but nothing like a few days.