The Saga Continues (Subtitle: TurboTax Not Loading)

[dcuster]

Grab yourself some coffee and take a load off, this one's going to take awhile.

Our story begins a few days ago, but will likely continue for years to come. Actually, it seems the story started about two years ago judging by former posts on this very forum. The issue? The TurboTax website failing to load over and over again. There's almost a beauty in how horrible the TT site has been, if it wasn't for being on the last step of finishing my taxes for 2021.

I've done the math, imported my W-2, connected API keys to crypto exchanges, reviewed and reviewed, and double-checked my math. Things were moving along albeit slowly, but progress was being made. Then it happened: I paid TurboTax $180 for an order to submit my Federal and State returns. Almost done! I cried in delight, this annual slog coming to a close.

BUT! Not so fast! TurboTax's website decided to throw a wrench directly in my face. The first issue appeared when attempting to review my documents (you know, the screen that suggests reviewing your name, SSN, and W-2 info before eFiling). No big deal, I thought. I'll review and get a chance to print PDFs for my records. Was I wrong.

A screen popped up saying, "Hang tight, this may take a moment." Then "504 Bad Gateway." Strange, but I'm seen weirder things happen. Take a beat, hit refresh. Another Bad Gateway. Not a good sign. Against my better judgment, I decide to proceed. I'm confident my information is correct as I've checked, double-checked, triple-checked my information before arriving at this yet unknown looping Hellscape.

Proceeding to "Finish & File," TurboTax proceeds as usual with the spinning circle. It's thinking, things take some time. But then I'm greeted with yet another error, "Oops!" TurboTax exclaims. "Sorry about this! Sometimes the connection between your browser and our server can be dropped as it traverses the Internet." Kitschy. 

No worries, I'll click on your provided "Try Again" button. And again, "OOPS!" 

Strange. I'll switch from Chrome to Safari. "OOPS!"

Okay, I'll try Firefox. "OOPS!"

Hmm, perhaps Microsoft Edge will do the trick. I've never used it, it won't have any cookies or cache stored.

"OOPS!"

Perhaps if I cycle through each browser, using their respective Incognito/Private modes? "OOPS!"

Not looking good, friends. Clear cache/cookies? That's an "OOPS!"

Be sure to disable any adblockers? "OOPS!"

Try a VPN. Maybe it's a regional outage? "OOPS!"

Try to tether to my phone's hotspot. "OOPS!"

TurboTax has an app! That has to work. "OOPS!"

TurboTax app not on WiFi? "OOPS!"

No luck.

On the verge of defeat, I decide to reach out to another human being. Maybe this is a known issue at TurboTax. Besides, I've come across forum posts dating back to 2020 with users reporting a similar issue. Surely, a 131 billion dollar company would have rectified such an issue. But you know what they say about making assumptions..

Enter Emma. She's a sweet woman, although possibly a bit out of her league when dealing with tech issues. But that's okay, she attempted to help me the best she could. We shared my screen, had a few laughs, but ultimately was told to contact my ISP because it's an Internet issue. Very unlikely to be the case as my Internet is functioning just fine.

Calling back to the extremely helpful people at TurboTax, I proceeded to be placed on hold for about 20 minutes while listening to music that would very likely cause permanent hearing damage had my phone not been on speaker. But, I digress. I'm met with another woman who proceeds to place me on hold while she "gathers information." That's fine, she didn't even listen to my issue, but maybe she knows something I don't. Unfortunately, I will never know as she hung up on me.

It is said the third time is the charm. So, I dial up TT again. This time I'm met by a very pleasant Customer Service rep named Jasmine. To her credit, she was very sweet and genuinely wanted to solve my issue. Quite honestly, I think her talents are wasted at TurboTax. Alas, Jasmine could not help me as we tried sharing a screen, clearing cookies/cache, and cycling through my now vast array of browser choices. We decided that it was potentially network congestion causing the issue. Granted, it is tax season, and I'm sure there are thousands of people trying to file at the moment - but that brings up another issue in itself: the lack of preparation on TT's end for the annual influx of users to submit tax returns.

I warned you this was long.

It's now been six hours with no answers. What shall I do? Someone suggested reaching out to CEO Sasan Goodarzi via Twitter for help. Seems a bit unnecessary, but I'm desperate. I just want this story to end. 

No luck.

I see TurboTax fielding Twitter complaints left, right, and center. "Please send us a DM and we'll be happy to assist you!" At this point, I seriously doubt anyone can help, but again, desperate. 

This is where Kiauna, Cain, and Lindsay enter our story. Although, their appearances will be short-lived as their only suggestions are..

You guessed it:

Clear cache. Clear cookies. Restart router and modem. Try mobile app.

Sure, why not? I'll go through all of it again.

"OOPS!" 

"OOPS!"

"OOPS!"

Like clockwork at this point. 

So, here we are. Twenty-four hours later and still unable to e-file. Hours lost due to support not listening to the issue, or lacking any kind of knowledge about said issue, and $180 lighter in my wallet. Funny how TurboTax had no issue charging me for an order but seems to hiccup every time I attempt to file. Telling sign of where their priorities lie.

I'm reaching out to you, yes you, those reading and posting issues on this forum. Has this been affecting anyone else? Anyone have any luck resolving such an issue?

From my research thus far, the following have been found:

- June 2019: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/after-you-file/discussion/oops-it-appears-there-was-a-drop-in-our-...

- June 2020: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/oops-it-appears-there-was-a-drop-in-our-connectio...

- February 2021: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/error-message-oops-it-appears-there-was-a-drop-in...

The post from June 2020 being the most promising as users started to share the servers in which they are connecting through. (For what it's worth, I'm connected through https://us-east-2.). 

Now, before @DanielV01 ,@EbonyL122824, @MichelleLO, et al. come swooping in with their sage advice to clear cookies and cache, try a different browser along with Icognito modes, restart routers and modems, try the app.. this vehemently do not work. It's not a user network issue. It's not a cookies/cache issue. It's a TurboTax issue somewhere. So please, for our collective sanity, do not suggest those things. If you do, I will surely know you are automated bots and/or trying to placate frustrated users by reading from a script.

As I am bringing this story to a close, Lindsay contacted me on Twitter suggesting I follow this post: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-topics/help/why-am-i-getting-an-oops-there-was-a-drop-in-our-c...

Unfortunately, the last update appears to have been from one month ago and is marked as "SOLVED."

Sorry, TurboTax, this is certainly not solved. Please, for the love of all that is good left in this world, figure something out to fix this issue. 

[Bsch4477]

Your post is hilarious.  I’m glad that you were able to keep your sense of humor. You might try uninstalling and reinstalling the program if you haven’t done that. 

[dcuster]

I'm not sure if it's humor or if I'm just losing my mind at this point.

I'm using the online service anyway. Nothing to uninstall/reinstall at this point.. unless you're just trying to ruffle feathers 🙃

[jagg1]

i am in the exact same boat as you are

i have been on the phone with them for 3 hour today

the rep just dropped me after 2 hours

i called back again and was placed on hold for one hour with a promise to be called back but no luck

I have been with turbo tax for 7 years and now seriously rethinking switching

i will print out my old tax returns and go to H R block tomorrow if  they don't get this resolved

keep me posted if anyone comes up with a solution

[jagg1]

So just got off the call with their customer rep

They basically told me they cannot fix the issue

there is no way for them to let me clear and start over. they cannot move my information to a new account.

They leave me with no choice but to move over to another provider.

It is sad to see a customer of 7 years leave turbo tax because they cannot fix their own issue

good luck

[NathanMLim]

I'm thinking I'm going to go the same route...but the already charged my card. Did you have success in getting a refund?

[jagg1]

Yes i will  be disputing the charge on my card especially since this is a faulty product..

I am sure some  lawyers somewhere are paying attention to this as well.

[dcuster]

@NathanMLim & @jagg1 

sorry to hear you two are still experiencing this issue with this awful product. I think your best bet at this point is trying to get a supervisor on the phone and giving them the case number I posted in Nathan’s thread. 

149- - -282- - -5209 (no hyphens)

The supervisor I spoke to said she took notes of everything so maybe if you can get someone to pull up that case number, they can see all the steps I took to prove it was a TT issue. It’s ridiculous that the first level of support remains ignorant to this problem. 

If that doesn’t work, the only other option would be to pursue a chargeback with your credit card company. Still waiting for my refund as well. Not holding out hope for that though.

I’m confident when I say we’re not the only three who have experienced this. Only in time will the bigger issue be revealed to TT once all those who have large amounts of crypto transactions bite the bullet and attempt to file. May god have mercy on their souls. 

[NathanMLim]

Hey @jagg1 

Just wanted to follow up with you on an update since we're in the same situation. I'm posting this here so I hope it gets more visibility: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/re-unable-to-transmit-return-but-paid-fees-alread...

[jagg1]

UPDATE and good news!

I got a call from their customer service and they left a VM

i logged into the account and tried the print button. it worked.  but i kept getting a tax return cannot be filed at this time error. meaning it wasnt getting transmitted to IRS.

Then i just on a whim clicked on my info and then the my info screen opened up

i clicked on wages and income and that screen opened .. then I was able to go back change my 1099 B entries to summary instead of individual .

once that was done everything worked great!

all taxes filed and accepted

The key is the software does not work for high amount of transactions/entries on 1099B

I am just happy Turbo tax took the feedback seriously and fixed it for me

not sure if they have fixed it for all of us..

[TatTBTX]

Stuck in the same situation, although I don't think it hung up on the summary transactions in my case, but instead on the miscellaneous income from staking rewards. Now I'm locked out of any access to continue with the return. Don't want to go through the tech support song and dance to try to get an escalation. Anyone successfully use the download version instead to complete their taxes? I started looking at H&R but their import system is terrible and 8949 data has to be manually entered, which is horrible even in summary form.

[shashireddy]

I'm struggling to continue due to the below error. NO HELP WHATSOEVER

"Sorry about this! Sometimes the connection between your browser and our server can be dropped as it traverses the Internet."

CUSTOMER CARE not good enough to help.

[dcuster]

hey @shashireddy , not sure if you're still struggling with this, but some users have had success using the app version of TT. See replies in @NathanMLim 's post here: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/re-unable-to-transmit-return-but-paid-fees-alread...

[shashireddy]

@dcuster Yeah Im still struggling and waiting for turbotax to get back. App version is not crypto friendly.  I have to report crypto and I have to use online version.

I consolidated some of my transactions over a crypto aggregator, but however I cannot even clear and start over.

The customer service cannot reset. I cannot reset from my end, to re-enter and consolidate . Stalemate continues.

[TatTBTX]

@shashireddy what are you finding is missing from the downloadable version, and which one did you try? Was planning on downloading this tonight to get around my issues.