Optima Tax Relief review: Customer service lack, of contact, rudeness, client portal

On 9/28/23 I received an email from Angelica Sinajon, Closing Department Customer Service rep at Optima, informing me that my case was being closed due to her being "unsuccessful in reaching you verbally." This is my second encounter with Ms. Sinajon - the first was when she called me at work, despite my REPEATED REQUESTS TO NOT BE CONTACTED AT WORK BECAUSE MY JOB REQUIRES ME TO ANSWER THE PHONE. Before Optima took thousands of dollars from me to negotiate my case with the IRS, they were able to call me in the evenings. Once they had my money in hand, the only hours they were available to discuss my case were 8-5, Mon-Fri. During that first call, Ms. Sinajon assured me that the call would take 5 minutes at the most, then proceeded to reduce me to tears by telling me that the IRS determined how much I could pay them before I ever came to Optima and I had to agree to make the monthly payments or Optima would not be able to begin "negotiations." I have spoken with kinder collection agents. That conversation took place in January or February of 2023, so about 6 months after I gave you my money. I was stunned. Why did I compile $175K worth of medical bills if the IRS was going to base my payment on last years W2? Instead, I incurred 6 months worth of penalties. My case with Optima has been dragging along for more than a year. My last conversation with anyone from Optima was a month or two ago and I agreed to the payments and was told I would be sent paperwork to request penalty relier. The guy I spoke with at that time didn't know anything about any negotiations. I have been watching my client portal for the penalty relief paperwork and have seen nothing, so Ms. Sinajon's email today informing me that my case is being dropped for lack of communication is a shock. I've been waiting over a year to find out that Optima hasn't even spoken to the IRS on my behalf, a fact which is made clear in the email Ms. Sinajon sent yesterday.

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