“Any advice on how to get a human at the Office of Tax and Revenue to help?”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Phil

“Dear PoPville,

The DC government never gave me my 2017 tax refund, and I am running into nothing but dead ends (and hold lines) in an attempt to resolve the issue. Has anyone had this experience and/or have any advice on how to get a human at the Office of Tax and Revenue to help me?

I am able to log into the MyTax DC account and I can see that my individual income tax return was “processed” on April 2, 2018. I can see that a balance is owed to me, but this refund has not been mailed or direct deposited, and there is no indication it is going to be returned to me. My refund is basically just sitting there as a positive balance.

My attempts to contact the Office of Tax and Revenue have not been fruitful:

-I called the Refund Response Unit ((202) 741-8629) on May 11th and waited on hold 25 minutes before I finally gave up.
-I sent an email on May 11th to OTR customer service. I received an email on May 14th that simply said: “Thank you for contacting e-Services. Your refund for TY 2017 is being handled by the Refund Response Unit. Please contact them directly for further assistance at (202) 741-8629.”
-I called the Refund Response Unit for a second time on May 14th and remained on hold for 20 minutes before giving up.
-I tried the Refund Response Unit for the third time on May 16th. On the first 2 tries, the automated system seemed to be malfunctioning, but I was able to get to the hold line on the 3rd try. I waited on hold for 40 minutes before I finally gave up.

(As a note, the hold music is on a 20 second loop with a recorded message and what seems to be Christmas music. I assure you, I would have tried to stay on hold longer than 40 minutes, but even with the volume as low as possible, I was going insane. At this point I’ve spent 1 hour and 25 minutes of my life listening to this recording. I don’t wish that on anyone!)”