They never told me why it took so long for them to "wake up" last year - that's the whole issue. They came back out of the blue in July 2019 with a standard letter asking for proof of the AVC without addressing my question on why this is taking so long, and after that the refund was finally processed. Exact same issue this year... Really frustrating. Surely there must be some law protecting normal people? That would push back more than one doing additional AVC contributions in the future.