Afternoon All,
Just spent the last 40 minutes, and a few pounds, trying unsuccessfully trying to speak to a human at HMRC!!!
The helplines are open until 8.00pm....anyone found ringing after 6 or 7 is easier to get through?
Thanks
David.
Replies (30)
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No Idea
Accountants have an "Agent Dedicated" line so it is a lot easier than calling the general number.
Which number?
If you are ringing the Agent helpline, I would guess that would be quieter after 5.30pm. If it is Joe Public line, it probably makes no difference at all.
HMRC recommends
... the first hour after the helplines open at 8:00 am or the last hour before they close at 8:00 pm or on Saturday if it is the main income tax helpline on 0300 200 3300 which is open from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday.
Calling HMRC
Unless you have an Agents Line there is at the moment and perhaps for the next decade not much point in your call, when you do get through you are told to refer to the website something you have already been told while hanging on.
Life's too short.
I ring from VOIP : put on a headset, and carry on with other work.
Whenever possible use the full landline number.
Life is too short (and expensive) to hang on to a phone.
Make a note! It's easy to forget why you rang in the first place.
When you do get through, be polite. (I'm not good at that) Think what it must be like at their end.
Getting hung up on
What disgusts me is that the Employer's Helpline will often say it is too busy to help and then cuts you off. Funnily enough, I'm calling for a reason and no matter what your automated voice says, I can't get an answer on the website because the matter is client specific.
Why they are allowed to simply cut you off is beyond me.
Employer helpline
There is now a new annoyance. An automated voice asks you what you want.
I've been connected to the employEES help line twice, in onecase they couldn't transfer me.
This is now a real problem, with nowhere to give feedback.
Why can't they accept e mail? we could e mail the question phone back with the answer.
I know too simple.
Don't forget
You are dealing with an organisation that considers failing to answer one in ten incoming calls is acceptable
Employer helpline
I waited for 23 minutes this week and gave up and then emailed a contact fairly high up in HMRC to ask how to complain.
You can probably guees the response.......i was advised to telephone and complain. Unbelievable!
Ring back service
Don't some of the utility companies offer a service where you enter your number and then they ring you back so you don't have to lose time and incur phone costs?
The July 2013 summary of responses to the condoc on 'supporting customers' of HMRC included a suggestion by responders for such a ring back service (see Q6 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225976/3805_NES_Consultation_summary_accessible.pdf) but it seems that this wasn't taken forward by HMRC. What a shame - I wonder if this was because of security concerns or just because if they did that there would be a two week delay before you got a call back?!
I've started writing
My questions are always PAYE related so I can't use the Agent's phone line either.
I have started writing instead as the time waiting and then the hanging up is toooooo frustrating and you lose the will to live.
There doesn't seem to be a good time either and I've tried weekends.
I might start sending the post recorded if that doesn't help.
Employers Helpline
Can't imagine why there is no dedicated agents helpline for RTI and PAYE. In my opinion this would be essential. I waited 20 minutes to get through to a human this morning to sort out an issue over PAYE references following an RTI "Interim Penaty Notice", and was nearly through sorting it out with a lady who was genuinely doing her best to be helpful, and suddenly - click - the phone goes dead. I could have wept! So near yet so far. The process to date had taken nearly an hour, it was around 11.40am when I lost the connection. I phoned back immediately and after another ten minutes of rubbish about websites which are useless to me for this problem which is client specific, I am told that all advisors are busy and they can' take my call - and that's AFTER a disembodied computerised voice had grilled me for five minutes about what I wanted to speak to them about. So another quarter hour or so wasted.
OK, this week will unusually heavy traffic because of all the penalty notices sent out, but surely they can understand that if you picked up the phone in the first place, you are likely to need to speak someone. I will try again later this afternoon, but will probably need to go through the whole story again.
One point made above which I think is important. Its very tempting when you do finally get through to be quite angry or abrasive with he HMRC employee who eventually picks up the phone. I think this is totally counterproductive, we have to remember that the poor soul has been yelled at all day long, and what we need is for that person to be on our side. So I always try to establish a very friendly rapport immediately to encourage them to be as helpful as they can be, not as obstructive as they can be. (They are only human too!)
So - who do we lobby for an agents PAYE helpline?
Richard Joseph
non filing notices and no one to call
And to cap it all today we're getting non-filing notices for EPSs for the period to 5/6/14 and it's only the 13th......
No phone calls will be made to HMRC but pre-emptive message to clients will need to be made and yet more time will be wasted....
When to call
I have found early on Monday ie just after the lines opened as being relatively pain free.
I do feel sorry for those on the other end. Imagine knowing that there is a long list of incomming calls to answer and that the list is getting longer.
Come on HMRC address the problem more effectively. Like other agaents I only call when I cant get the info off the website.
hopefuly everone knows to use the 0300 numbers now and not 0845?
0300 counts as a local call and should be free if local calls are included in your phone contract,
Julius Caesar
Cassius once quoted did he not "The fault dear Brutus is not in the HMRC phones, it lies in the ******** system." What foresight.
(Henry V Act 1 Part 2) AND
Did not Cicero reply (shortly thereafter) "Ask not for whom the phone tolls HMRC, it tolls for thee!!!!"
(Midsummers Night Dream Chapter 8)
There's never any queue between 2am and 3am on the last Sunday in March, or on 30th February.
When you have a full bottle of single malt and an empty glass
The only time to ring any of the HMRC lines is after a long retreat in a cave high up in the Himalayas, and only after you have steadied an excellent bottle of single malt by your elbow ... it's the only way I know of making the phone calls to HMRC anything other than hellish .... but I was very very very very very very very lucky last week, when using the 0300 200 3311 agent helpline for PAYE RTI problems ... managed to get through instantly and, although shunted around to three different offices, it was all fast, efficient, and eventually quite effective, although they are still working on the problem of why I should be receiving every month RTI generic non-filing notices for my clients ... oh, and by the way, there is a deep-rooted fault in the Basic PAYE Tools, in that if you ever get a warning screen on opening Basic Tools, saying "do this or else!", and that warning is for PAYE schemes you have closed down, there is no way HMRC can stop that warning screen opening up every time you access Basic PAYE Tools. Another great computer system from HMRC!
Two numbers, same office
I think this deserves mentioning in this thread as it has me rather shocked.
I just called the agents line to discuss a self assessment error made by HMRC (long running dispute after HMRC invented a UTR number years ago and have chased returns ever since). HMRC confirm everything is fine and that the letter is from debt management so I should contact them directly to get it resolved.
I call debt management, clear security and make my point. Operator asks why I am calling again on the matter. I'm confused and state that this is the first time I've called them on it. Operator tells me that the agents line leads to the same call office so all I've done is ring them twice. She has to forward my request to debt management.
I couldn't believe it! What is the point in the first operator telling me to call debt management when all it does is put me through to someone two desks away!
Good thing I have the call recorded so I can remind myself of the idiocy we have to deal with.
Similar story
I think this deserves mentioning in this thread as it has me rather shocked.
I just called the agents line to discuss a self assessment error made by HMRC (long running dispute after HMRC invented a UTR number years ago and have chased returns ever since). HMRC confirm everything is fine and that the letter is from debt management so I should contact them directly to get it resolved.
I call debt management, clear security and make my point. Operator asks why I am calling again on the matter. I'm confused and state that this is the first time I've called them on it. Operator tells me that the agents line leads to the same call office so all I've done is ring them twice. She has to forward my request to debt management.
I couldn't believe it! What is the point in the first operator telling me to call debt management when all it does is put me through to someone two desks away!
Good thing I have the call recorded so I can remind myself of the idiocy we have to deal with.
I rang, sat for 25 minutes, then spoke to someone who said 'why have you called here? You need the xyz department'. I explained I had said (and the robot had replied) that I would be put through to the XYZ department, so I was as confused as they.
I asked for the number for said department, the lady then read me... the same number I had called to get her (i.e. the general query line)!
Tops.
HMRC Contact Number
This link will provide you the right contact number (according to your location) for all your queries: http://www.uk-contact-numbers.com/?s=hmrc
From Monday to Friday: Best to contact during the hours of 8 am – 8 pm.
On Saturday: 8 am to 4 pm
The best time to contact HMRC is before 10 am Monday to Friday when their phone line is the best available with the least traffic. Source: http://qwikfix.co.uk/hmrc-contact-number/