Liberty Tax Service

Hi there my name is Jordan, I had a bad experience with an employee/tax preparer of Liberty Tax the previous week and I have written a review of the experience on numerous websites such as Yelp.com, the Liberty Tax complaint forum, and have even submitted a form of complaint to the IRS.

The review of my experience is below. Her name is Andrea Jerome and she is at the 967 Hempstead Turnpike Location(Liberty Tax) in Franklin Avenue. Some points I mention in the review I have shown to other people is that the place is supposed to open up at 8 am in the morning and often they open much later such as after 9. When my mother tried to take back the 1040 form the next morning that Andrea previously refused to give back to me the previous night and held on to as if it was hers, Andrea turned the key in the door(this was after 9:30 am an hour and a half after this place was supposed to happen) and left my mother standing. Towards the end of this experience with "Andrea Jerome" we ended up calling the police and when they came to the location they told us that this was the third time they have come to the location and obviously something must be up with the owner for that to be the case.

On Tuesday evening I came to this place as a walk in, in order to adjust my taxes that were already filed a week and a half before. I had the request to change my status from single to head of household. When I arrived at this location I had an interaction with Andrea Jerome, who was cordial at first but then quickly changed. She and her receptionist told me to fill out a form asking for my basic information such as name, address, etc and she told me where to sign.

After doing this, she then told me that she had to get something to eat to go on her break so she is prepared for us when she comes back so she is not sluggish and making mistakes. Okay no problem, she says this will just take from 15 to 30 minutes and she will be back. After about an hour she was not back and I went back home. When I returned home I called the assistant and requested an appointment for 12 noon, when I arrived Wednesday at that time, only myself and two other people were waiting. She was speaking to to numerous people on the phone and I was not called until 12:20(again I was only one of three people). She called me and went through my files from yesterday and pretended like what happened yesterday with her being very late never happened and didn't acknowledge it or apologize.

What she did talk about was how I came on a crazy day and how busy Wednesdays are and she is moving about constantly. Stated she is glad how this is once a year only she has to deal with this. She told me days like Tuesday and Thursday are great days and when I reminded her I came on a Tuesday the day before and how I waited a while for her, no word of apology came out her mouth, she simply just said I was a walk in and appointments are best. She then worked on my the figures for my readjustment and wrote a peice of paper what my figures would be for federal and state and then gave me her business card. I had told her previously my return arrives Thursday morning(the next day) to my bank and she told me after the refund arrives she can only just take my word for it and to call her the next day and then come in with proof that the person i am claiming is my dependent and then I should pay then. When I called the assistant's number I am told by her that "Andrea is not in the office" and asks me if I want to make an appointment for Monday. I say no thanks and realizing I dont' want to deal with this experience anymore.

So I decide to go in and ask for my Form 1040 Individual Income Tax Return. When I walk in without even greeting me she is halfway standing up on the phone and screams out " Do you have an appointment"? "I am on a conference call come back tomorrow" . I tell the receptionist who is looking caught off guard by how she is acting and tell her all I came for is my form 1040 document and nothing else. While Andrea is on the phone the receptionist goes under the desk and is taking out of the folder and Andrea snatches it from her and says in order to get my form back I have to be taken out of the system first and she isn't gonna give me back my documents.

I tell her she is not allowed to do that and all I asked for is to get my stuff and that is it and she tells me she is gonna call the police now. I tell her how nasty she has been acting this entire time and she tells me "Your the one who took a couple weeks to realize you had a child you had to claim". Bringing up something that is not her business. Andrea then told me that I came in when the place was closed. When I walked in it was 8:30 and she said well the lights were off we are closed and I told her the business is supposed to close at 9 pm not when she feels like it.

When I am not leaving yet she tells her assistant to walk over since she is on the phone and call the police and tell them to come. I tell her its okay you can tell them to come I''m still waiting for my documents and Andrea says the police wont get involved in an issue of "claim" and will only tell me to leave and believe her because "I am a tax professional". When I say to her its all about you huh? She says yes right now it is. Yes Andrea was doing all of this while on the phone with someone in her "conference call"..Or more like she is talking to friends or her boyfriend while pretending its business. As I was leaving she screamed out to me I'm never getting my form back and pointed to the assistant telling her to close the door.

When I came up to the place I just rushed and did not bring my phone with me so I could not report this myself to the police automatically.

I have already reported her for employee misconduct and holding on to documents that do not belong to her without approval towards the IRS. If you ask around, I can promise you I am not the only person who has had a bad experience with Ms Jerome at this place.

Her cell phone number that she answers for the business is [protected], the number for the receptionist is [protected]

In addition to what I reported about Andrea Jerome before, during the last day of the standoff with her on Friday February 13th I called the police when I was at the location. At the time only the receptionist was at the desk but I just wanted to handle the situation since she(Andrea) always seems to be out of the office and makes her own schedule. Earlier that day, the receptionist had a copy of my 1040 form in an envelope for me but when I was leaving I realized it was the copy, and called back requesting the original.

If it was someone else, any other tax preparer I would be fine with having a copy, but the previous experience with Andrea, made me uncomfortable with her having my original document in her possession

When the two police officers arrived I explained the situation to them and then they asked "Where is Andrea right now" to the receptionist who then told them she can call her cell phone number. When Andrea was called, she told her that the police were there looking for her, and Andrea then told them to put her on speaker phone. The policeman told her not to disrespect him and if I am asking to talk to you, you can come to the office and speak to me, "I'm not speaking to you over the phone". When they asked where she was she stated "I"m far away from the office now" but did not tell them where.

Andrea told the receptionist to tell the officers that she would be back after 7 pm and the officers told us they could not wait that long but understood our frustration because they saw firsthand how she acts towards people. They told my mother and I it was their third time being called to the location and I assure you we only called them once so they were speaking of previous cases. They did not go into detail about that but I remembered hearing that from them. The one policeman(the other office was a policewoman) made a joke about how "There are Statue of Liberties dancing outside the office all the time but when you come here workers are barely inside" ..."They are telling you outside to come inside to an empty place".

At this time it was minutes to 5pm so we all knew she gave the 7pm time because she knew they would be long gone. They recommended my mother and I to try and call back another time when she is there, to let a civilian board know about this matter, or file a police report. After the four of us walked out the door, one second after, the receptionist closed the front door and turned off the lights. I have mentioned before during my interaction with Andrea, the receptionist was fine and just doing her job. It was painfully obvious that Ms. Jerome must have told her to close the door and turned off the lights.

When this happened the officers just laughed and said she just confirmed everything they said about the business and repeated the steps of recommendation they previously gave us. I believe this was the 5th Precinct Police that came when we called, they would be able to confirm going to that location that day and vouch for what happened. I have been trying to find out the franchise owner for the Franklin Square location but I have had no luck.

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