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blackshoebox

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Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2001
Messages
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I know the first mistake I made was going there, but save me the slack and read this story about my experience!:mad:

Wife and I go in to have taxes done, at our local branch in St. Augustine. I have used them for 8 years in S. Fla, with no problem. Meet with women they select to do our taxes and start going over the numbers. Lady is an older lady who could not type or enter data if her life depended on it, that should have been my first clue. So we get through entering all the info and get to the crunching #'s, and I had ask a few questions about the child tax credit and some Roth IRA's that we had drawn some money out of for a down payment on a house, and the women had to fan through a tax manual, another clue I ignored. So when we get to the IRA portion of the tax's the lady tells me I will have to pay a penalty on a portion of the money we withdrew and a portion will be added to my AGI! I told here I wanted a second opinion from someone else in the office, which I end up getting from the office manager, who knew nothing if not less then the original women helping me, but he states she is correct as he try's to randomly enter numbers into there program to find a better solution. At this point I am pissed off, beyond belief. I walk out before I explode. Come back in a tell the office manager I do not want to pay for this tax prepartion as I feel it is wrong and do not intend to use it! He tells me, your financial instutions coded the IRA distibutions wrong and they are at fault. Finally, I chuck my credit card at the guy and pay for the prep. but confirm if they are wrong I will get a refund.

Send all my info to a CPA of 35 years, and a family friend. Wala, taxes complete, I pay no penalty or additional income tax on money my wife already paid taxes on and only withdrew the original principle she put in to the Roth IRA. On top of that, the refund jumped $1400, all coralated to the IRA being properly addressed!

So I go back into HR block for my "mediation" about getting a refund. In one word, it was a JOKE. I show the same office manager how the mistake was made and the ending result(my larger refund). He answer is, "I agree it appears we made a mistake and I will submit info to the branch manager, so he can consider giving you a refund." He went on to say he did not have the authority to refund my money on the spot, and was not even interested in seeing where they went wrong!! I was told I should see a check in 6-8 weeks! Thankfully I put it on a credit card, knowing I could dispute it and have the charges put on hold, which I did. :p
 
If someone doesn't have the authority to say "yes" to something, then don't take "no" from them.
 
I am not surprised...

I own a laundromat in a strip mall and 4 doors down is a HR Block office and about Mid Jan they start to advertise with flags/banners/tv ads etc etc. I figured if people were sitting in my mat for an hour and a half they could go down a few doors and get thier taxes done. I would put up sinage in the mat for HR block in exchange for $$. Simple idea (I thought) since I had a captive aduience that was looking for time to kill. Anyways, I went to pay them a visit and when I walked in, two older ladies were both trying to figure out how to tun on a computer. I had to do the old "clear my throught/cough thing 2 times before they noticed me. When I asked for the owner/manager I got the 3rd degree of what I wanted (should have just left then) so I proceded to explain the idea to them. They did not get it. I explained it again and they looked confused. Then the real old and big one said neither was the manager/owner and they would give him my name. I bet as soon as I walked out the card went in the trash.

Looked to me like they hire anyone off the street and basicly enter data into thier program. My wife is a CPA and laughes at thier commercials noting that some are misleading and false.


At least your taxes are done. We always file an extension and file in August. :eek:
 
I find it hard to believe with the ease of use that tax cut and turbotax have that anyone goes to one of those places. I guess I could see it if you have extensive investments or something other that regular income but even that is addressed in the programs.

I have been using tax cut for years. Even when we had a rent house. The only problem we have run into was one year we got a letter to verify one of my children's ss number. I guess some one else was filing with it.

Good call disputing the charges. As with anything you get what you pay for.
 
I am not surprised...

I own a laundromat in a strip mall and 4 doors down is a HR Block office and about Mid Jan they start to advertise with flags/banners/tv ads etc etc. I figured if people were sitting in my mat for an hour and a half they could go down a few doors and get thier taxes done. I would put up sinage in the mat for HR block in exchange for $$. Simple idea (I thought) since I had a captive aduience that was looking for time to kill. Anyways, I went to pay them a visit and when I walked in, two older ladies were both trying to figure out how to tun on a computer. I had to do the old "clear my throught/cough thing 2 times before they noticed me. When I asked for the owner/manager I got the 3rd degree of what I wanted (should have just left then) so I proceded to explain the idea to them. They did not get it. I explained it again and they looked confused. Then the real old and big one said neither was the manager/owner and they would give him my name. I bet as soon as I walked out the card went in the trash.

Looked to me like they hire anyone off the street and basicly enter data into thier program. My wife is a CPA and laughes at thier commercials noting that some are misleading and false.


At least your taxes are done. We always file an extension and file in August. :eek:

Sounds about right. The lack of knowledge in this branch I was in was amazing during both of my visits and then the lack of interest in learning about their mistake with my particular situation was the icing on the cake.
 
Each HR site I have seen is independently owned. There is one that a friend of mine does IT support for. They really seem to know their stuff. Most employees have 15+ years in at that office. Sorry you got a crappy one. Yes, most of the time it's seasonal work and they will train just about anybody to fill those seats.

A few years ago our bank had turbo tax online through the bank. You weren't charged until you printed the PDF it generated...that's cool, everybody would just print the preview page straight from the browser and never had to pay$$$$ They corrected it a year later.
 
They suck, my women didn't even send my files in and then I got stuck with the $100 fine from the IRS for a late filing in which H&R had to resubmit.

After countless calls to their main branch, nothing, no refund, nothing.

What good is a guarantee if they never honor it.

New guy is almost the same price and gets it done.
 
They suck, my women didn't even send my files in and then I got stuck with the $100 fine from the IRS for a late filing in which H&R had to resubmit.

After countless calls to their main branch, nothing, no refund, nothing.

What good is a guarantee if they never honor it.

New guy is almost the same price and gets it done.

Ya...I did not get a formal gurantee of a refund, but thank god you can dispute just about anything on a credit card for any reason.:D

...and if I do not get a refund, this is a small town, I intend to splatter them in the local paper..
 
Why would anyone ever consider going to HR Block? Get turbo tax and do it yourself. It could not be any easier.
 
Why would anyone ever consider going to HR Block? Get turbo tax and do it yourself. It could not be any easier.

Yep, been using Turbo Tax for over 10 years now. Easy, very easy. Did my taxes this year sitting at the bar, had them done and e-filed in two beers!!! :biggrin:
 
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