And Mom Said Talking On The Phone Was a Waste of Time

Oh, Turbo Tax, how you have proved my dear mother wrong. And that's OK. I'm grateful. Let me recap for my readers, so we all understand where we've been. I'll sum up most of it in a timeline of sorts.

January 16, 2009 - Taxes prepared and filed online at Turbo Tax.
January 18, 2009 - Email received from TT stating that our Federal return had been accepted, money's on the way. Dandy.
January 23, 2009 - Email received from TT stating that our State return had been DENIED, and to log on for more information. We logged on, found out the "error" was their software error, and we were told to refile. We did so.
January 27, 2009 - (And here's where I got my first headache, folks.) Email received from TT stating that our State return had been accepted, but that a signature form was required, that we needed to print, sign and send in. What huh? Unfortunately, at no point in the email were we informed of exactly what form that was, and no place on our paperwork or on our account online gave a definitive answer either. All research indicated this may, in fact, be a miscommunication and the form may not be needed at all. Sent an email to TT Customer Support outlining my need for clarification and assistance.
January 27, 2009 - Later that evening. I receive a "response" (and I use that term loosely) from TT CS (we'll call her M_09). M_09 give me the most standard, canned, unhelpful response in the history of customer service responses, simply giving me a link to their support site where forms are downloaded from. Well, where they WOULD be downloaded from if the links were clickable, which they were not. Now I'm getting worked up.
January 28, 2009 - Tweeting ensues, and over the course of the problem, THREE very helpful folks from Turbo Tax offer their support and assistance on Twitter. (I'm going to assume one or all of them played a role in the resolution that came about today. Thanks to prgully, TurboTaxPRJulie, and TTChristine for looking out for me and for listening.)
January 28, 2009 - Sent a second email to TT customer support, again outlining my questions, and expressing my displeasure at their first response, requesting significant assistance from someone other than M_09.
January 29, 2009 - Second standard canned response comes from TT (this time from T_09), this one at least telling me that I do not need to file the signature form, but still not addressing my specific issues with my experience.


This brings us to now. I stewed about my next step this morning, hoping for more information from someplace, but not sure where to turn next, short of calling and sitting on hold for their estimated 70 minutes waiting to find someone from whom I could get some help.

But instead, help came to me. Scott in Tuscon works for Turbo Tax. If you get a call from Scott in Tuscon, good things will happen, be assured of that. I speak from experience, because he called me this fine afternoon.

He explained clearly and concisely what happened with the signature form, why the mix-up occurred, and assured me that our return is fine, it is accepted (this was vague based on two different status pages online), and confirmed for me that I do not need to sign and send a form to NE DOR. He was friendly, he was sincerely apologetic and apathetic, and listened while I expressed my exasperation over the entire ordeal. When I lamented that the ease of e-filing had been taken from me because of this experience, he graciously refunded the fee I paid for filing our state return.

Why did he do that? In my opinion, it's because he understands good business, and he understands how to truly satisfy a customer when something's gone wrong. Nobody's perfect, and no company's perfect, but despite the lousy email response from M_09 and the mediocre-yet-incomplete response from T_09, Scott at Turbo Tax re-earned my business for his company today by taking the time to talk to me like a person, rather than as Complaint #23959486946 (not the real complaint number, by the way) who just needs a stock response. One 6-minute phone call made it possible for me to blog THIS, instead of what I planned to blog about Turbo Tax, which frankly could not have been read aloud in mixed company.

Scott in Tuscon needs a raise, you folks over there at Turbo Tax. You need more guys like him. Thanks again, Scott!