Ever see more people checking in than there were stations?

We all have been to airports where this has happened.  Large churches have this problem in their nursery area 10 minutes before event time. The lines are long, people are looking for the shortest way to the front, and the workers are looking a bit frazzled.  Well take that mental image and now let’s talk about the busy year-end season for the ACS support department.  Our historical phone call records tell us that Tuesday and Wednesday of the first two weeks in January are the busiest days of the year for the support department.  You know the activity list: loading new tax tables, contributor statements, W-2’s, 1099’s, loading updates (which we recommend against in January), and other once a year tasks.
Like the airlines and nursery check-in desks, we bring in extra help for the two fold increase in the phone calls we receive, but at some point you may end up in a line with other callers waiting on the next available support representative.  Like at the airports you know that everyone eventually gets to the front of the line and as always we will spend as much time as it takes to answer your questions.  We also see an increase in the visits to our knowledge base for self-help in January and like our phone calls, we see a two-fold increase in emails to customer support.   Both prevent you from waiting in a phone queue and often provide a quick answer to most common questions.
So be patient, call early (we open at 8:00am EST in January), and be kind to the support representative with which you end up talking.  They are having one of their busiest days of the year and may be a wee bit frazzled.