I called a half dozen times on the English line and got no where. I called once on the Spanish line and just spoke English, got my problem solved in under 5mins.
es bueno saber!
Y sabiendo es la media guerra . . .
Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
21–30 of 182 posts
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't think of a worse use for an LLM...
You really under-estimate how googleable 97% of customer service calls are. The average person does not make any attempt to solve their own problems before calling customer support. That's just life. Yes in an ideal world we would have a live customer support representative for every function in every facet of society, but there are a limited number of human beings available for such things, and this is a pretty reas…
One of the most observed weaknesses of LLMs is that they have no clue when they're dealing with a difficult problem. There's no doubt that throwing an LLM at the problem would likely fix many simple issues. The question is whether or not it can accurately triage a difficult issue, which is a task they tend to struggle with.
When accuracy matters, answering a question incorrectly puts a person in an even worse situation than simply failing to answer the question.
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#23[deleted]
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#24Well, there's a problem that needs a solution. Plus, a government contract. I wonder if anyone can come up with a LLM for simple tax issues.
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That's thinking inside the box of extremely low-effort propaganda.
The IRS is critical to stopping fraud and making sure everyone plays by the rules. Currently, we have folks not respecting the rules and getting more economic influence than they deserve. The current climate is an effective tax on honesty.
As long as budget increases to the IRS increase revenue to the government, they should keep growing.
If you take issue with individual taxes that you believe don't belong in our tax code, identify one and repeal it.
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#25The IRS is a perennial budgeting football for Congress, even though it's one of the few agencies for whom increasing their budget creates positive net revenue for the federal government; its enforcement arm is down 30% in staffing since 2010, with predictably dismal results. As an anecdotal comparison, I had a fairly long-running issue years ago with the IRS over a minor problem (some expenditures got posted to one f…
One of the major parties is deliberately sabotaging it (along with USPS, FDA, and NOAA) so they can point out how useless it is and it should just be shut down.
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Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the major parties is deliberately sabotaging it (along with USPS, FDA, and NOAA) so they can point out how useless it is and it should just be shut down.
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Honestly can't keep up with the conspiracies and euphemisms. Which party is deliberately sabotaging it and how are they cheating?
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#27The body says that some people are having trouble getting help, but if it were anyone but the IRS the headline could be good news: "millions of people call google for help and 2/3 are helped without even reaching a human"
(Of course unless you're, say, an HN reader, there's no number you can call at Google for help at all)
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#28In a quintessential example of late stage capitalism you can pay a service to get you to the front of the line. They DDOS the irs phone lines and give every available slot to a paying customer. At the expense of making it impossible for normal people to get through. This behavior is not treated as illegal or abusive by the powers that be.
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#29The IRS is a perennial budgeting football for Congress, even though it's one of the few agencies for whom increasing their budget creates positive net revenue for the federal government; its enforcement arm is down 30% in staffing since 2010, with predictably dismal results. As an anecdotal comparison, I had a fairly long-running issue years ago with the IRS over a minor problem (some expenditures got posted to one f…
One of the major parties is deliberately sabotaging it (along with USPS, FDA, and NOAA) so they can point out how useless it is and it should just be shut down.
Don't forget the USCIS. It takes a lot of time, patience, and skill to navigate the phone tree in a way that doesn't either end the call immediately, or tell you to visit the website and then end the call. I had a paper and pencil marking my choices so I'd remember what I'd tried, and it was nearly full by the end.
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#30The IRS is a perennial budgeting football for Congress, even though it's one of the few agencies for whom increasing their budget creates positive net revenue for the federal government; its enforcement arm is down 30% in staffing since 2010, with predictably dismal results. As an anecdotal comparison, I had a fairly long-running issue years ago with the IRS over a minor problem (some expenditures got posted to one f…
One of the major parties is deliberately sabotaging it (along with USPS, FDA, and NOAA) so they can point out how useless it is and it should just be shut down.
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