<story><title>My business might have 32 days before it&apos;s shut down by NYC [video]</title><url>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oDjSoic9Zk</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>&amp;gt; And people wonder why there is staunch support for less government involvement. At least when I get screwed over by a private company I can talk to someone...so long as it&amp;#x27;s not Google.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t bother wondering why people are ignorant anymore, some things just are. You get a vote simply by existing as a citizen and can put effort into changing government. Businesses can tell you to pound sand unless you&amp;#x27;re a shareholder or management. Government can be held accountable (caveats such as Venezuela and Somalia aside), businesses less so.</text></item><item><author>MeinBlutIstBlau</author><text>And people wonder why there is staunch support for less government involvement. At least when I get screwed over by a private company I can talk to someone...so long as it&amp;#x27;s not Google.</text></item><item><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>If you have a moment, please call the IRS&amp;#x27; Customer Advocacy Department to file a complaint regarding this. Gotta be the squeaky wheel.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.irs.gov&amp;#x2F;advocate&amp;#x2F;the-taxpayer-advocate-service-is-your-voice-at-the-irs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.irs.gov&amp;#x2F;advocate&amp;#x2F;the-taxpayer-advocate-service-i...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>ta1234567890</author><text>&amp;gt; c) You can&amp;#x27;t show up in person without an appointment.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; d) Appointments are only granted by means of contact that don&amp;#x27;t reply.&lt;p&gt;Similar thing happened to me recently with the IRS. Got a notice about them needing to verify my identity and gave me a number to call. Had been calling for months and would always get a message saying they were too busy and to try the following day. After trying a few other options to no avail, I decided to show up at my local IRS office without  an appointment (which I couldn’t get anyway). They first turned me down, then told me that maybe if I waited for a few hours they might be able to see me at the end of the day, then after about 20min and them clearly not being busy, they talked to me and was able to resolve the issue within 15min.&lt;p&gt;So, even though I was told I couldn’t show up without an appointment, and they tried turning me down, just by being there they finally paid attention to me. Yes, it was uncomfortable and annoying to have to do that, but it worked.</text></item><item><author>dt3ft</author><text>Here is a summary from the Louis Rossmann YT comment:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;To answer some common questions:&lt;p&gt;a) I have already emailed &amp;amp; called, and I patiently await a reply...&lt;p&gt;b) You can&amp;#x27;t re-renew with a 13 month old PIN if you already renewed.&lt;p&gt;c) You can&amp;#x27;t show up in person without an appointment.&lt;p&gt;d) Appointments are only granted by means of contact that don&amp;#x27;t reply.&lt;p&gt;e) Yes I have two other licenses that AREN&amp;#x27;T expired, but those are useless, they are for selling laptops, not fixing laptops, which I don&amp;#x27;t do anymore anyway after the city was unable to give me a straight answer on how to do so without being fined: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok&lt;/a&gt; - I need this license in the video to be able to actually do repairs.&lt;p&gt;f) Just listen to this. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok&lt;/a&gt; This is what I am dealing with. After 15+ minutes and being transferred to two people, they can&amp;#x27;t answer a basic question about a rule they fined me for breaking that they can&amp;#x27;t even explain. They never emailed or called me back, which has been the behavior I have come to expect over the past nine years.&lt;p&gt;I am serious, if you work for the city and have any way of applying my 13 month old payment to this license renewal, you have the gratitude of myself &amp;amp; 14 of my employees who will get to continue paying their rents, mortgages, &amp;amp; food bill for their kids.&lt;p&gt;In spite of what people think, I am not a millionaire. If I&amp;#x27;m forced to close - I can&amp;#x27;t afford to pay these people. I do not want that to happen.&lt;p&gt;I am not meming, I never get responses to DCA emails - not 3 months ago, not for NINE YEARS, and I don&amp;#x27;t expect to be able to now. Since I cannot sort this out in person due to the COVID closures, this channel is my only hope of reaching someone who can help me sort this out.&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jvanderbot</author><text>Boiling this down to biz vs gov is a false dichotomy.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s some fundamental &amp;quot;usability&amp;quot; spectrum aligned with &amp;quot;optional-ness&amp;quot; vs &amp;quot;mandatory-ness&amp;quot;. Equifax, Experian, Trans Union, etc have some of the worst customer service of all time. They make egregious errors and are not held accountable. My experiences with the DMV (another semi-mandatory service) pale in comparison with those 3 companies.&lt;p&gt;Of all the bad experiences I&amp;#x27;ve had, it almost always comes down to &amp;quot;Do I have other options and how easy is it to opt-out?&amp;quot;. The harder it is to opt-out, the worse my experience has been.</text></comment>
<story><title>My business might have 32 days before it&apos;s shut down by NYC [video]</title><url>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oDjSoic9Zk</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>&amp;gt; And people wonder why there is staunch support for less government involvement. At least when I get screwed over by a private company I can talk to someone...so long as it&amp;#x27;s not Google.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t bother wondering why people are ignorant anymore, some things just are. You get a vote simply by existing as a citizen and can put effort into changing government. Businesses can tell you to pound sand unless you&amp;#x27;re a shareholder or management. Government can be held accountable (caveats such as Venezuela and Somalia aside), businesses less so.</text></item><item><author>MeinBlutIstBlau</author><text>And people wonder why there is staunch support for less government involvement. At least when I get screwed over by a private company I can talk to someone...so long as it&amp;#x27;s not Google.</text></item><item><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>If you have a moment, please call the IRS&amp;#x27; Customer Advocacy Department to file a complaint regarding this. Gotta be the squeaky wheel.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.irs.gov&amp;#x2F;advocate&amp;#x2F;the-taxpayer-advocate-service-is-your-voice-at-the-irs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.irs.gov&amp;#x2F;advocate&amp;#x2F;the-taxpayer-advocate-service-i...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>ta1234567890</author><text>&amp;gt; c) You can&amp;#x27;t show up in person without an appointment.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; d) Appointments are only granted by means of contact that don&amp;#x27;t reply.&lt;p&gt;Similar thing happened to me recently with the IRS. Got a notice about them needing to verify my identity and gave me a number to call. Had been calling for months and would always get a message saying they were too busy and to try the following day. After trying a few other options to no avail, I decided to show up at my local IRS office without  an appointment (which I couldn’t get anyway). They first turned me down, then told me that maybe if I waited for a few hours they might be able to see me at the end of the day, then after about 20min and them clearly not being busy, they talked to me and was able to resolve the issue within 15min.&lt;p&gt;So, even though I was told I couldn’t show up without an appointment, and they tried turning me down, just by being there they finally paid attention to me. Yes, it was uncomfortable and annoying to have to do that, but it worked.</text></item><item><author>dt3ft</author><text>Here is a summary from the Louis Rossmann YT comment:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;To answer some common questions:&lt;p&gt;a) I have already emailed &amp;amp; called, and I patiently await a reply...&lt;p&gt;b) You can&amp;#x27;t re-renew with a 13 month old PIN if you already renewed.&lt;p&gt;c) You can&amp;#x27;t show up in person without an appointment.&lt;p&gt;d) Appointments are only granted by means of contact that don&amp;#x27;t reply.&lt;p&gt;e) Yes I have two other licenses that AREN&amp;#x27;T expired, but those are useless, they are for selling laptops, not fixing laptops, which I don&amp;#x27;t do anymore anyway after the city was unable to give me a straight answer on how to do so without being fined: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok&lt;/a&gt; - I need this license in the video to be able to actually do repairs.&lt;p&gt;f) Just listen to this. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yi8_9WGk3Ok&lt;/a&gt; This is what I am dealing with. After 15+ minutes and being transferred to two people, they can&amp;#x27;t answer a basic question about a rule they fined me for breaking that they can&amp;#x27;t even explain. They never emailed or called me back, which has been the behavior I have come to expect over the past nine years.&lt;p&gt;I am serious, if you work for the city and have any way of applying my 13 month old payment to this license renewal, you have the gratitude of myself &amp;amp; 14 of my employees who will get to continue paying their rents, mortgages, &amp;amp; food bill for their kids.&lt;p&gt;In spite of what people think, I am not a millionaire. If I&amp;#x27;m forced to close - I can&amp;#x27;t afford to pay these people. I do not want that to happen.&lt;p&gt;I am not meming, I never get responses to DCA emails - not 3 months ago, not for NINE YEARS, and I don&amp;#x27;t expect to be able to now. Since I cannot sort this out in person due to the COVID closures, this channel is my only hope of reaching someone who can help me sort this out.&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>autokad</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Government can be held accountable&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;LOL. I remember when the city of Philadelphia flooded my house because they were doing some work on a neighboring structure. COP&amp;#x27;s response &amp;quot;We have a law that says the City of Philadelphia cannot be held accountable or sued for their actions&amp;quot;. As Mel Brooks once put it, &amp;quot;its good to be the King&amp;quot;.</text></comment>