H&R Block / HRB Digital review: scam and cheating! 13

My husband, daughter and I went to H & R Block last year up here in Canada. They actually had the nerve to call us tonight looking for a repeat performance of last year. First of all, the woman who did our returns was unbelievably rude and unprofessional. I had collected disability payments throughout the calendar year, and she mentioned that I had no documents on what I paid into the premiums. She didn't tell me how to obtain this information, so I doubt she claimed it on my return. She dishonored a joint tax-sharing document used between my son's father and I even though other tax preparers had honored it in years past. Then to top it off, I was told I was not eligible for a cash back because I was a discharged bankrupt over a DECADE ago and no other institution has ever held that against me, including other tax preparers. Our situation is a rather complicated tax return and I doubt that most of these people can handle complex returns. This year we are returning to a tax consultant like we did in years past and had everything done correctly the FIRST time.

Some of the people that work for h& r block have been in jail last year selling your information to pimps. WACTH OUT FRAUD IS IN THE AIR! CHECK YOUR NAMES NOW ! DRUG HEADS DO TAXES TO.

Why would a pimp want your tax information? Do you have facts to back up your claim, or are you just spewing crap? Smells funny to me.

This year we filed our taxes with HR block. They charged us the normal filing fee, no problem. Understood that. Then they tell us to get a renters certificate from our landlord to collect the homestead renters credit here in wisconsin. Ok, we go to get that. Then, once we are there, they charge us 49.95 to go back and fill out the WI-H form and send it in. Ok, now waitaminute. Last year, that was included in the original filing fees and prep costs. Every year it has been. But now you punks are gonna charge me 50 dollars for what amounts to writing a few numbers, a paperclip, and a stamp?

i work for block sorry that you all feel that way about block may be you haven't met the right tax professional to do your taxes i have been doing taxes for them for 16 years and my first priority is to do my best for my client the client must come first before anything else no matter what it take you must always make the client feel comfortable with you doing their return and so to all of you that had a bad experience with block i apology for the tax professionals that you had a bad experience with and hope in the future that you will find someone who will put you first when it come to your taxes because doing taxes can be a scary thing to do.

My common law spouse and I went to Block this year in January to get our taxes done (Canada). I was on maternity leave since October, and my spouse had drawn unemployment a few times because the company he works for was doing a buy-over. We called the office ahead of time to check and see if the tax "proffesional" needed these statements to which she replied "no, that's fine". We went and had our taxes done, everything was fine, until a couple months later when the tax preparer called my spouse saying that he owed her over $800 because he didnt tell her he had drawn unemployment! He said he wanted documentation of the amounts and how she had come to this conclusion, and she denied them to him unless he went in to sign a paper saying he was going to pay the money back. She said she'd get her boss to call the following Monday, and of course, he never did. We received a couple of letters from her saying that the money had to be payed within 10 days or interest would be applied, but we ignored the letters because there was no documentation to go with them. Today, we received a call from a collection agency telling us that we have to pay the money back asap or its going to be put on our credit report. Why in the world should we have to pay for a mistake that we clearly tried to avoid?! This woman should not be doing taxes. Any comments as to what we should do would be greatly appreciated.

NEW YORK TIMES NOVEMBER 21, 2008
Let me start off by saying my husband and I have had H&R Block do our taxes each year for five consecutive years now. Each year, H&R Block has offered a Holiday Loan in November and December which is paid back by withdrawing what you owed on the loan from your tax return the following spring. For five years we have participated in this Holiday Loan and remained with H&R Block BECAUSE the loan has helped us out so much in the holiday season. Without fault, we have paid this money back all five years. We are aware of the fact that if we wanted to avoid paying this money back, we could have easily had our taxes prepared by a private source who would not take out the loan money. By doing this, we could have avoided continuing paying $450 dollars to H&R Block each tax season. We NEVER would have done such a thing and thus, have continued doing business with the Block and paying UNGODLY charges to do the simple paperwork. This year, the loan was set to begin on November
20th, my only child's 12th birthday. We made the FIRST appointment available and arrived at the Block fifteen minutes early. On arrival, we were asked if we met the following criteria:

pay stubs showing at least $10, 000 in earnings for the year.

Valid photo ID

Well we obviously met the criteria, and have ALL five years. It's usually a fairly breezy process; in and out in about twenty minutes. This year was "different" to say the least. After the paperwork was filled out, our estimated refund for 2008 was quoted at 3, 800 dollars. The holiday advance is for one thousand. Paperwork was electronically submitted and then... NOT APPROVED. Why? Who knows, no one has yet even taken the time to answer this question for me. We were given a phone number (loosely used) and told by calling the number we would be given a reason why this did not go through. The tax preparer claimed to be "shocked" and stated "WOW, you guys have been approved every year! I've never heard of such a thing!" When we called this STELLAR 800 number to get some answers we discovered quickly that this is a generic number that is a pre-recorded message basically saying "you weren't approved, you'll find out why when we send you something in 6-8 weeks". The number then hangs up on you with no option to speak to anyone. Consequently, our daughter received NOTHING from us on her twelfth birthday. I am not an ignorant person and never rely on something that is not for SURE but MY GOD...FIVE STRAIGHT YEARS WAS FOR SURE! We trusted H&R Block, we have been loyal. SHAME ON US.

I applied for the loan this year and have NEVER used HR Block before. My husband and I always file jointly though, so I brought his paystubs along with mine while he was at work. They kept insisting that I did not need his income, that I should do it alone. So I did, after 2 experts told me this. They estimated I would get over 6, 000 back, which has NEVER happened. It has to be because it didnt take into consideration my husbands income, but it took our two children as dependents. Well, long story short- I got denied - for credit reasons provided by Experian. Okaaay, my credit isnt perfect, but I got a house and a car on my credit ! And have never made a late payment and we've had the house 5 years, and the car nearly 3 yrs. But what I really don't understand is how the people in front of me walked out with loans when they just told me in the waiting area that they have horrible credit and if they didn't get this loan their car or house was getting repoed because they never pay it on time?!?!?! Then why was I denied? I am very upset. My husband is going to try to do it after he gets off work, but his credit is about the same as mine. I hope he does get it though, otherwise, I don't think my children will get to have hardly anything this year for Christmas.

h & r block charges their clients per form. the more forms you have to submit the more your tax prep fee will be. h & r block is not your MOMMY and should not have to hold your hand and tell you what to bring to complete your return if you don't have everything they will send you home to get. the tax preparers can be audited by the irs and if they do something illigal then they could have fines, fees, their job terminated and even jail time. they don't know you and they sure as hell are not will to go to jail for you cause you are lazy. think about what you do for a living if someone came in and yelled at you cause you wouldn't do something illigal and risk going to you jail wouldn't you think they are crazy. i know i would, i would do anything for my family but someone who walks in off the street no freakin way! my h & r block office is a franchise and the owner is awsome, he will come in whenever you want to meek even if its 3 in the morning. he gave me his cell # if i had a problem i could call anytime and even if i don't get the peace of mind he is always there to help me. people think that CPA'S know all but i have seen some returns and these people should even be allowed to use the computer. just cause they take a deduction does not make it legal! h & r blocks software will only do the wrong thing if you lie and give them wrong info.

H & R Block charged me $554.00 to do taxes that took my previous accountant (now moved out of State) 1 hour to do, out the door. I am a very good bookeeper and am informed before going to the preparer, but like to have other's coomplete my taxes because they supposedly "know the tax program".

My previous accountant / tax preparer charged $100 / hour. Asking H & R block up front of what cost should be they can not give you an answer other than "after we put everything in then we will know". Of Course, at the end of session you can choose not to have prepared document submitted. What a crock! My wife and I spent nearly 2 hours with the preparer that had to make numerous phone calls to another office because she could not figure how depreciation and rental housing went into their system. This from a 5 year H & R Block Vetran! After, spending 2 hours with this office in Midland, Michigan, wasting time with incompetance and coached the preparer along in their own program to complete. I was ready to leave. Questioning the fee of $542.00 I was shocked. I tried negotiating with office manager and was advised to contact the District Manager about the unfairness of the charge. All I got was lip service. Figuring we already put too much time into the 2008 returns we paid and got out. After settling a bit, I called corporate business office in Kansas made a formal complaint with no response back. Of course I called to check status 3 or 4 times and get "I will upgrade your complaint status to priority, you should here back from somebody in a couple of days". It would have been satisfied with paying up to $250.00 - but, not happy.

The peace of mind I agree that is a scam. That only does cover their mistakes in calculations. Not entry errors or your errors.

I will never use this rip off service again. A matter of fact I might even apply for a job at H & R Block. Side note! My family owns a dairy farm and has very complicated taxes. They go to a privatley owned H & R Block and were charged $380.00. Wow... most Lawyers charge $200 / hour. Is Henry Block worth it?

I am an 8 year veteren tax preparer at H&R. I agree that their fees are too high and the POM is skewed in our favor. You must submit IRS corrispondence within 60 days and we will pay ONLY if it is our error. However, if you can get a tax preparer who has a few years under their belt and have a relativly standard return we are very good. We are very good at standard schedule "A" stuff, schedule "C", schedule "E" etc... When you get into inheritence, K 1's, LLC's, I usually recommend my clients start looking for a CPA, as they are more trained and experienced in these matters. Tax preparation is an art that is subject to interpretation. Many times I call the IRS and they cannot even give me correct answers to questions. We are not infallable, and can make simple human errors. The client is responsible for giving us the correct information and we are responsible for putting it in correctly. It is a joint effort.
If I see a big difference in a tax return from a prior year, I compare the two and see what differences there are. Did the client make more money, pay less tax, pay off the house so less interest...? Get comfortable with your tax preparer and stick with the one you like. Go to them year after year, create a relationship with them. Too many times I see people come in and say "I don't care who does my taxes", but in the end ...you should care.

H & R Block is a joke. I will not go into detail but to say every comment here by someone who feels ripped off by the Block sounds like my story. Had been a regular customer since I was 16, now 26 and brought my wife in with me for the past 4 years too. The price is far too high now, also..

If anyone considers shelling over hard earned cash to these people- remember.. If you are on the internet now you can manage to do it yourself for free using pirated software made by H&R Block downloaded from BitTorrent which can be found all over the internet. Thousands of us do, you don't have to know anymore than the average tax pro who works at Block (which as I've discovered is nothing that can't be learned in a few clicks within the Block Tax prep softwares HELP section in just a few minutes) and best of all it will do your state AND federal return as an e-file for free..

If you search and research hard enough you can even find a version that will handle small business, rental, investment income, etc, just like the one I used did!

If you choose to use Block anyway, I hope your experience is better than ours. It's true, when you complain about price they refer you to the District Manager who gives you lip service and then they escalate your issue.. and you''ll never heard about it again. My tax preparer didn't even ask me to deduct the $450 in tax prep fees I paid in ''08 AT Block from my '07 return. LOLOL

Nothing you can't do yourself. They rip ya off, get even.

Do yourself a favor. Since their software is the real brains behind Block, download a bittorrent client and use an indexer to find yourself a free copy of H&R block At Home 2009 Premium to do your taxes. 100% free, can e file for free or print a copy and mail them in, and it's the nearly the same as what they use. If you like the software, of course you should purchase it. But at least this way you can try it out first. And unlike their "tax professionals" this software will never charge you an extra amount for a form, tell you to call the district manager, be snotty, call another so called "tax pro" and ask simple questions or make you go home and grab a document you forgot and be a little punk about it nor deny you based on your credit. I've known people who have used this exact method, very good friends (only two, so i'm not saying I know 100 people who do this because that would be dishonest) as a matter of fact, and their taxes are flawless every year. Their results are the same as if they would've paid 500 in blocks office to do it in person. The software helps every step of the way. And best of all is that when you decide you want to purchase it (since you will love it when you use it for yourself) you will find it's very reasonable (only $50 or less) and it can do even the most complex business returns or farm/rental income/investment income, etc. It worked for me the past 3 years excellent and even though they changed the name, it still is the best tax software I've used.

If you do not decide to purchase a copy after using the downloaded software, shame on you, but at least your taxes are done!