SARS: EXTREME POOR SERVICE FROM SARS EAST LONDON OFFICES

I have a VAT registered business and owed SARS an amount I could not pay at once as business was very slow, therefore I went to the SARS offices in East London May 2016 and was given payment plan forms which i submitted and had to wait for approval. I asked for a case number and was told I don't need one and that someone from the debt department will get back to me in about 4 days to discuss a payment plan. Never heard from them so I returned and they said they are very busy and will get back to me. I left this till September 2016 and returned to SARS East London offices where they told me I never submitted any documents with them. Luckily I made copies of everything, so I could show them that I indeed did submit and told them that this is bad service. I then resubmitted and again asked for a case number and they again said, I do not get one when submitting documents to the debt department asking for a payment plan, so I left it at that. I have been out of business since then and relocated, and never heard from SARS. I recently received an opportunity to submit for a tender and had to re-open a bank account and contacted SARS as I need a good standing certificate and needed to know my status with regards to my request for a payment plan and the East London office yet again said they never received any documents from me. THIS IS NOW 17 MONTHS LATER!!!! AND INTEREST HAS BEEN CHARGED TO MY OUTSTANDING AMOUNT. I have relocated the business as well now and had to ask my book keeper to handle the matter in East London and gave her power of attorney. As I am in a small town and there are no SARS office here. She submitted the new forms on Wednesday 21 February 2018 and I followed up by phoning SARS that Friday, 23 February 2018, only to be advised that I need a case number for them to follow up and that they cant see anything on notes or that anything has once again been submitted. Now fuming, my bookkeeper returned to the East London SARS offices on Friday 23 February 2018 around 3pm (almost closing/home time for SARS workers) to ask what has happened to the forms submitted and the lady handling our papers, VERONICA (she refused to give her surname) told my bookkeeper that she has not yet submitted the forms because she is very busy and haven't had time. - WHAT GREAT SERVICE!!! This matter is time sensitive as I need to sort this and get my good standing certificate to submit for the tender. Again we asked for a case number and VERONICA told my book keeper to go down stairs and take a ticket, fall in line to see a consultant and they will give her a case number, they don't give case numbers in her department. - HAVE YOU EVER. WE DEALING WITH A DEPARTMENT THAT TELLS YOU THAT YOU NEED TO GO TO ANOTHER DEPARTMENT, SIT IN A TWO HOUR QUE TO JUST GET A CASE NUMBER, WHICH IN ANY EVENT DOESN'T HELP AT ALL BECAUSE VERONICA JUST DOESN'T WANT TO SUBMIT OUR FORMS. I then again called SARS (my reference for the call: ********** 30) and the gentleman was very helpful and gave me an email address to scan and send the forms myself ********** He is the first person to put notes on the system regarding my issues but still he himself could not help me more. Now we scanned and emailed all of the documents to ********** and received a confirmation of receipt. (Monday 26 February 2018) I wonder how long this matter will still drag out and if someone will actually get back to me now that the forms has been EMAILED? Is there indeed someone on the other end of the line? Funny enough, when my bookkeeper spoke to VERONICA all she asked was how much will we pay every month to settle this account and my bookkeeper said, well if we can't sort out the payment plan and we can't get the tax clearance certificate, then I will not be able to get more work and get more money and then we can only afford R100 per month. She doesn't submit our documents but she wants to know how much we will pay per month. So very sad that SARS wants our money but yet, they do not all work together to help the client in need.