The IRS sent my refund to my bank for direct deposit on February 9. I waited until February 14, and the bank had no record of it, so I visited the IRS branch near me. My refund went to Santa Barbara Tax Products Group, according to the very helpful IRS agent. She said she'd be happy to do a trace, but it would take 90 days and show the same result - that my refund went to SBTPG, the agency Turbo Tax uses to remove funds.
Before anyone puts this back on me: my routing number and account number were correct. I triple-checked it.
You cannot get SBTPG on the phone. I was on hold for two hours yesterday. I've submitted three email requests to them at no avail. I also contacted my tax attorney/CPA, who I should have used in the first place; my taxes were simple this year, so I stupidly did them myself.
I called Turbo Tax yesterday and spoke to Brittany H, who was very helpful. The poor woman was with me for an hour until she transferred me to Sabrina, a supervisor, who was possibly the rudest woman I have ever spoken to on the phone. She barked SBTPG's number to me several times (the one where you can't get anyone on the phone) and then, when I asked for HER supervisor, she hung up on me. I'm not even kidding.
My tax attorney told me to wait another few weeks for SBTPG before I give him power of attorney to pursue this. I will happily lose a good chunk of my refund to pursue litigation against SBTPG because this is the shadiest thing I've ever seen. I'm a public schoolteacher and it is incomprehensible to me that someone would tie up my money like this for their own gain. But this is America and I am very naive.
I hope someone reads this and decides not to have fees taken out of their refund to pay Turbo Tax. I will never, ever use this service again. I just want my tax return. It's my money and I taught children in person for two years during a pandemic to get it.
