Treasury Direct worked great for about a month. Then, one day, I went to log in, and as soon as I submitted by Account Number, I got a message that my account was locked, and to call *******676. I called, mid-afternoon, and the recorded message said that their queue for calls-on-hold was so long they were not letting anyone else hold. Then it disconnected.

Coincidentally, the same day, I received an e-mail from Treasury Direct, saying that my account was locked and I had to file a form FS-5444 -- by U.S. Mail -- to get it unlocked. The form requires a SIGNATURE GUARANTY from a financial institution.

I found the form online, filled it out, got my bank to give the signature guaranty, and mailed it the next day.

They open at 8:00 a.m. EDT. I called at 8:08, and the recording said that the call volume was high, and I had a wait of approximately 2 hours. Seriously?! 8 minutes into their day they have so many calls they can't get to mine for 2 hours?!

There were a half dozen pre-recorded messages played periodically during that 2 hour wait, one of which said that if you write to them about your problem, expect a 13-week wait before they can address your problem. So, much for rushing to send in the form FS-5444.

Finally spoke to someone who looked at my account, said it was locked with a code she did not have the authority to override, and that all she could do was forward my case to the one person with authority to override the code. Could I have a case number? No. Could I have the name and number of the person with the override authority? No.

But she said that I would receive a call back within 2 days.

I did not receive a call back within 2 days. I have not received that call and it's been nearly 3 weeks.

Every day, for a week after that, I'd try to log in, then I'd call the *******676 number as near to 8:00 a.m. as I could manage. The message always said that the estimated wait was 2 hours. One day, I waited nearly 4 hours.

When they answer, no one can help. No one can give me a case number. No one can transfer me to a supervisor. No one can give me a name or address other than the 13-week-wait address I already had. One woman just hung up on me. With one exception, they all said that my case has been forwarded and that I should wait for the call back.

When I said that the 2 days was long past, and asked what was I to do, just wait indefinitely while the Government uses my money, interest-free? I was told, "You don't have to wait indefinitely. Just until you get the call back."

The one exception: one rep said that they had just had a big conference call with Washington. They are inundated, swamped, with problems just like mine. In that conference call they were told to forward situations like mine directly to a specific number in Washington. She could not give me that number because, on their system, it is just a 4-digit code. But she transferred me.

The phone rang for the rest of the afternoon. Once it got to be past 4:30 p.m. in Washington, I assumed that no one would answer. But I thought I'd let it ring all night. Maybe the first person in, in the morning would answer. Alas, sometime after 8 p.m. someone (probably a cleaning person) picked it up and hung up.

I wrote to my congresswoman and my 2 Senators. My congresswoman said she'd look into it. My two Senators did nothing. I've been locked out for nearly 3 weeks, and my congresswoman has had this for 2 weeks, and I've gotten nothing from anyone.

I heard about these I Bonds, and about the awesome interest rates, so I decided to give it a whirl. I created an account and arranged for monthly withdrawals of 25.00 dollars. I figured that I would see how it worked out; and if it was a positive experience, I would plan to increase the investment amounts. I started worrying when the first payment was not withdrawn on the date specified, from the bank account I had designated,. Then the nightmare started. I used their contact form and asked why the funds hadn't been withdrawn yet, and asked when they planned on doing so. I received a reply via email that they were receiving lots of emails (no kidding!) and that the only way they could address my issue was for me to send them an email after signing into my account. Fine. Except that after logging in, there was no place to send an email from, logged in or otherwise, except in the "Contact Us" section. So I called. The automated voice informed me that they were receiving more calls than usual (ya think?) and that I would have a two hour hold time. It continuously encouraged me to log in because the website had been updated. Uh, just when did that happen? The last time I looked, that website was in serious need of a face lift. The archaic log in page was seriously frustrating to use. So I decided to log in to check on something else. That was when my credentials suddenly were no good. No matter how many times I entered the exact same login information I was told it was wrong. Finally I was locked out of my account.

I decided to call back and endure the two hour wait. When I finally got through, the woman I spoke with really had no idea why my payments had not begun. Here I was, all excited to take advantage of the awesome rates offered, only to be locked out. She unlocked my account and then suggested that the problem might be with my bank. She advised me to call my bank to see what was up. As we spoke, I attempted to log in again. And was locked out a second time. I told her and she sent a code for the second time. I tried logging in with it. At this point she informed me that we would be cut off soon, because it was closing time. I begged her to hang on so that I could log in. The most she could do was preemptively send out one more unlock code before hanging up. I used it and still could not log in. Then came the dreaded message. You have tried too many log in attempts. You are locked out. Yea! I will stay locked out.

If you decide to use this website, be prepared to become very, very frustrated. Until you want to pull your hair out by the roots. How is it possible in this modern age, that such an archaic website is even up and running? And how is it possible that the customer service is this abysmal? They want you to buy bonds, but they don't want you to find it easy to contact them after you have given them access to your bank? You can set up an account, but God help you if you actually need help with it. I am going back to an old fashioned savings account.