Mr. Goldberg Responds

[George Boutwell]

It is better to light one candle, than to curse the darkness. And sometimes it might help to hold one CEO's feet to the fire, rather than put up with the shabby treatment of all his company's customers.

Having lots of spare time on my hands the last week of tax season, I sent this letter to the CEO of a bank whose 1099's have possibly the smallest type (5 point ?) of any I have seen.

Feel free to use it with your own least-favorite 1099 provider, either this tax season or next.

April 9, 2007

Robert Goldberg
Chief Executive Officer
Ohio Savings Bank
1801 E. Ninth St. #200
Cleveland OH 44114

Dear Mr. Goldberg:

Congratulations!

Your financial institution has won our annual

“WE HATE OUR CUSTOMERS AND OUR 1099'S SHOW IT” AWARD

This honor is presented each year to the bank or brokerage firm whose annual tax statements are judged most difficult to read. I have to look at a lot of these, so I am the only judge.

It is obvious that you have given the job of designing 1099 forms to some junior employee who is under 25, has perfect vision, and files a short form that does not report any interest income. This employee was not instructed to use the smallest type possible in order to save vast amounts of white space on the rest of the form, but that was the outcome anyway. I am enclosing a sample of the work.

The competition next year is expected to be tougher, so I suggest you look into reducing the type even further. You could always hand out free magnifying glasses with every new account.

=================

Yesterday I received a letter signed by Mr. Goldberg himself. It was dated April 13, metered April 17, postmarked April 18 and delivered April 23, perhaps because they copied the address incorrectly from my letterhead. But he writes:

"I have forwarded a copy of your letter to Sarah Schneider, Senior Vice President - Operations, to address this matter with the service provider for future consideration. Thank you for writing and sharing your concerns with me."

[jainen]

Never mind

>>It was dated April 13, metered April 17, postmarked April 18 and delivered April 23,<<

Never mind all that. What size font did he use?

[Gretel]

It is better to light one candle, than to curse the darkness. And sometimes it might help to hold one CEO's feet to the fire, rather than put up with the shabby treatment of all his company's customers.

Having lots of spare time on my hands the last week of tax season, I sent this letter to the CEO of a bank whose 1099's have possibly the smallest type (5 point ?) of any I have seen.

Feel free to use it with your own least-favorite 1099 provider, either this tax season or next.

April 9, 2007

Boy, you are really, really upset, which is understandable. I know how hard it is to just let the other person, who does something so obvious stupid, know, that it doesn't work what they are doing. I mean, nobody does something like this on purpose. Sometimes it helps to scream first, at your walls not at the other person.

I also get very upset at a lot of place where I don't feel like a customer rather like an intruder.

Gabriele

[dyne]

One of my pet peeves

Banks and other orginisations who use wording on their 1099-INT and 1098: We received interest from you-- instead of: you paid interest to us. And vice versa. And they make the 1099-INT and the 1098 form appear almost identical which can confuse the taxpayer who has difficulty in determine whether the amount is interest income or home mortgage interest payment. I have written to several banks about this suggesting that the wording be in the CLIENTS point of view, NOT of the banks. So far, they keep issuing the DUMB 1099-INT and 1098 forms. I can tell them apart, but I wonder how many taxpayers got them confused? I plan to KEEP sending letters to these banks, etc.

[Joe Btfsplk]

The worst ones I've seen

Some companies continued using carbon paper forms for years after laser printers were available. I recall a TXU W-2 form on which the EI number was impossible to read. The client wanted it e-filed and I had to get the correct EI number. I think some other TXU employee had one that was clearer so I got the number from his copy.

[ChEAr$]

Only carbonized W2's I still see

are those issued by local school system. I can never read copy B, and always have
to resort to any other copy.

I just wish their warehouse where all the overstock of these forms is located would burn.

[Snaggletooth]

Goldberg is Typical

The bank is like the one I talked to the other day when they renewed a CD for 3.5% instead of 5.0%. This bank started as a small-town bank on the corner, and ended up a huge multinational bank headquarted in Cincinnati. The phone attendent told me how much they wanted to be our "personal" bank, and told me the branch manager would call me back. He never did, so I moved the CD and ate the early withdrawal penalty.

Over the successive sizes of fish that got swallowed over the years, each one of them said they wanted to offer the same cordial and personal support we had enjoyed over the years. And like one of the tax software packages I used years ago that got bought out.

I had ATX during their 2003 e-filing disaster year (Feb of 2004). This was two sell-outs ago, when ATX was run by a CPA, Glenn Willett. Fortunately for the rest of you, this disaster did not recur. My letter to Willett with suggestions was forwarded to his "implementation" committee for review, and he thanked me for my resourcefulness in forging suggestions. None of these "resourceful" suggestions ever became part of their product or policy.

At the end of that tax year we users received a letter of apology from Mr. Willett for the disastrous e-file and technical support problems. to be followed with a monetary offering for our trouble. The monetary offering turned out to be a 10% discount on vacation packages to Vegas and other tourist traps. This was a week before announcing a 15% increase for the next year's product.

"Corporatespeak", like George Orwell's "Doublespeak", is alive and well. Goldberg is only typical. I remember my parents reading to me from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Land of Counterpane" when I was a small child. I wonder if Veritas could rephrase this into the "Land of Corporatespeak."

Real leadership is not sired in this "Land of Corporatespeak." Free thought, ingenuity, and courage are sacrificed at the altar of conformity and shell games: those who accede best have fashioned an art to themselves.

It seems I have worn out this subject of corporate amorality in recent days, and I promise this will be the last one for awhile. I have droned on and on, and probably have made my point. I believe most of you probably agree, but don't think anything can be done. I'll stop because I don't want to sound like Bob Dole and the Monotones.

[George Boutwell]

Maybe you're the last to know ...

Banks are no longer interested in the banking business. The only reason they ever did any banking is that for many decades, the law prevented them from doing anything else. Now they would rather sell you a shabby annuity, or a shabbier mutual fund.

No, I suppose you're not the last to know. There are many elderly Americans who grew up knowing that they could trust their bank. I tell these people to picture their bank with three doors. Above one it says "Bank," above another it says "Insurance Agent," and above the third it says "Stockbroker." When they walk into the building, they have to remember why they came.

Usually, the next year they show up and they have switched their CD into some high-commission annuity. Or, like one of my clients a few years ago, they have paid a 3% commission to buy a government-bond mutual fund that was yielding 2.5%.

Then there was the couple in their 90s who sold their house and went to Wells Fargo, insisting that all they wanted was to put the proceeds into CD's. Wells Fargo opened an investment account for them, and bought short-term CD's from another bank with a higher yield. When those matured, of course, they could be switched to something else with just a phone call.

Crooks. Thieves. Liars. And you didn't know they can't be bothered with the banking business?

[jainen]

green ink

>>you're not the last to know<<

It's getting almost impossible to know. Banks have started buying the entire business sections of news organizations -- the Philadelphia Inquirer publishes in Citizens-Bank green ink!