I’ve been doing my own self assessment (SA) tax return for eighteen years now. The only time I ever need to contact HMRC is if something is wrong, and I can count the number of those instances on the fingers of one hand.
Having said that, HMRC (His Majesty’s Customs and Revenue) is a bit of a pain to deal with if you do need to speak with them. At the time you usually need to do it, everyone else is too, and there’s often a queue, and they can’t discuss certain things – the very things I am likely to want to address – over the phone.
But at least they have humans at the other end, and a fairly straightforward menu system. So, guess what they are trialling now? Yup. Support via text messages.
Oddly, this general topic came up the other day for different reasons. I was having a discussion (aka ‘argument’) on a message board concerning online help. My personal preference when I Google for a solution to some problem is for a detailed text script of instructions. I hate video or audio podcast-type instructions, and avoid them whenever possible.
The reason (for me) is that with text, you get ‘do this, then this, then this’ – and even if it is padded out with a load of crap you can scroll past that and find the bit you need. And words tend to transcend accents and – to a large extent – poor communication skills.
Videos don’t. They are primarily a vehicle for the presenter to perform and get revenue from his sponsors, and a 30 second instruction set is likely to be a minimum ten minutes long. Heck, if I want to know where the on/off switch is, I don’t really want to hear five minutes of talking as the presenter repeatedly fondles the unopened box before eventually getting round to the unboxing ceremony. And if they have poor communication skills – most do – there’s no telling whereabouts the 10-second segment you want (and which Google directed you to) is in the video timeline, so it’s a pain trying to fast-forward to it. Audio-only versions are even worse.
But anyway, it will be interesting to see how the texting service goes. I’d have no trouble at least trying it, but I can see more problems than solutions, because there is no way they are going to text personal data to you, and I suspect they’ll be even more cautious when they can’t hear you.