You may recall that before I kicked Kelz out of the apartment, I was expecting a refund from the IRS for the 1995 tax year. It was supposed to be around $150. Several weeks later, I was still waiting for that refund. I knew that I still had the only copy of the mailbox key, so it wasn't really possible that Kelz and her gang had managed to get their hands on it.
After I had waited more than a reasonable amount of time, I decided to call the IRS and try to find out if the refund had been sent and what may have happened to it. I had to wait for two hours to speak to a live person.
When someone finally got on the phone, they discovered that the check had been sent out and returned back to the IRS. Apparently, it was sent to "Fillmore St.," not "Illinois St.," where I lived. (DAMN MY HANDWRITING! BUT I HAD PRINTED THIS!) I was fortunate that there was no Fillmore St. in San Diego. (But there is a Fillmore Lane now.) The IRS representative said it would take up to six weeks to send out a replacement check. But I really needed that money right then and there. However, I would be glad to get it anytime it arrived.
About a week later, I got a letter from the IRS. It was sent to the Illinois St. address. It basically notified me that they were in the process of sending me a new check and it would be a few weeks before I would receive it. My first thought was, "Well, if they can send me this letter, why couldn't they just send the check as well?"
Another week later, I received another letter from the IRS, but this was addressed to the "Fillmore St." location. It basically said that since the check had been returned, I needed to contact them to try to get it sent to the right location. Again, I thought, "If this letter got to me with the wrong street name, why didn't I get the check in the first place?"
Eventually, I got the check. And the money disappeared pretty quickly because I had a lot of bills. It almost wasn't worth the wait.
The bright spot in all this was that this was the last time I would file my tax return by mail. The next year, I got to participate in TeleFile and that continued for the next ten years. After that, I was able to use on-line software to file my returns. I haven't missed a refund since.
But I still hate the IRS.
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