Calling the Calif State FTB

[Nakosis]

So this is really a pain.
Call the number. Wait through advertisements in English and Spanish. Wade through several menu selections.
Get to some point where you enter your tax information. Another series of menus. Hear a recording of some information about your tax status. Then silence for about a minute. Then maybe two minutes of something that sounds like a lion purring. Finally, maybe 15 minutes after first placing the call more menu options that if you select anyone of you get returned to a previous menu to start your journey all over. Then a pause, finally you here a press to speak with a representative.

Still not an actual person, but you have the opportunity to enter your phone number and hope for a callback.

 

[icehorse]

been there with the FTB, I feel your pain and I'm happy to not live in CA any more.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Pretty much everything is backed up due to larger than normal traffic. Such as the EDD. Or the ACA website when it was rolled out.

 

[Twilight Hue]

So this is really a pain.
Call the number. Wait through advertisements in English and Spanish. Wade through several menu selections.
Get to some point where you enter your tax information. Another series of menus. Hear a recording of some information about your tax status. Then silence for about a minute. Then maybe two minutes of something that sounds like a lion purring. Finally, maybe 15 minutes after first placing the call more menu options that if you select anyone of you get returned to a previous menu to start your journey all over. Then a pause, finally you here a press to speak with a representative.

Still not an actual person, but you have the opportunity to enter your phone number and hope for a callback.

Welcome to the early stages of Ai dystopia.

 

[sun rise]

FTB? You mean "Franchise Tax Board" presumably?

I've dealt with phone menu hell from businesses and government. What you described to me is sadly all too common in every large organization. I have bookmarked one or two 'get human' web sites which tells you how to break out of phone menu hell and get a real human on the line.