Anyone had BAD experience with H&R Block?

[bbouma]

I am in DESPERATE need of advice!!! Earlier this year, we paid H&R Block $125 to do an ammendment of our 1999 taxes. You know how they can look at your previous years' taxes to make sure you got your max refund? Anyways, now the IRS says that we owe over $500 more, plus interest. The people at H&R Block have not been helpful. In fact, the one lady that I'm working with went so far as to tell me SHE DIDN'T HAVE THE TIME to deal with it. Literally. Anyways, I am beside myself as to what to do. The most that they told me they can do... IF they did something wrong, which OBVIOUSLY they did, is refund the $125 and possible pay the interest. I am SO UPSET. After the lady told me she didn't have the time, I called back and asked for the consumer advocate hotline from them , and then she made a call back to me to try and help. Really, I think she is stalling. I don't know what to do. If they hadn't HELPED me with my taxes, I wouldn't be any richer, but I would not owe all of the money that I owe now, either. She told me that I wouldn't be paying it out of my pocket, anyways, because we get a refund at the end of each year. I feel like because we are poor, we are being taken advantage of...

Any advice? I really need it!!!


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[aprilgail]

I used them once and just didn't care for them...they were like no frills brands tax preparers.

[beffie]

I would call the IRS, and see if they are willing to help you out with finding the "problem", basically auditing your taxes. If it is an actual thing where you owe them money, then set something up with them to pay it off... BUT if it proves that the people at H&R Block made a mistake, see if the IRS will give you copies of the corrected tax forms and show them to H&R Block and then tell them they need to refund your money, you will tell everyone you know about your experience with them, and mention that you've placed an official complaint with the BBB (and do it!).

This is why I do our taxes, if you don't have all kinds of interest/investments/deductions, etc they are not hard to do. My sister's use a local tax preparation office...


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[billsmrs]

You poor poor soul......... I have had some VERY BAD experience with H&R Block. But for the sake of NOT starting a argument I will just say that having them do an amendment is like having a dog pay you rent!! It just won't happen........and H&R Block seems to SCREW things up more than fix them!!

After our HUGE mess they made we ended up going to a CPA who had to straighten out. We tried to go through the IRS to get it straightened out but they even made it more confusing......

Good luck getting things figured out. My recommendation.........find a CPA and ditch H&R Block.


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[jen6889]

Several years back, they messed up my dh's state taxes two years in a row and he was audited by the state and told he owed this large sum of money (most of it in "interest"). H&R block did not so much as even apoligize for the error and the money for the interest came out of our pockets. Needless to say, he never used them again and I don't intend to either.

We do our own taxes. I have always done mine myself. If you don't have many deductions and investments, then it's very simple to do by hand. I did mine by hand until I was 23 years old with two kids, and then my dh took over for me. We now use the Turbo Tax program and it works great for us. Well worth the money spent to purchase it and it walks you through every step so just about anybody can use it. Now, if you have a mega-bunch of deductions, investments and what-have-you then you'd probably be better off using a tax preparation service (other than H&R of course) or a CPA to save yourself the frustration.


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[bbouma]

Well, thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences. I am still SO UPSET. I am really trying to be positive about it all, but you think that they will know more than we do. I couldn't tell hide from hare on the ammended return. I wish I would have never messed with it. I will NEVER go to them again, and I will tell anyone that I know who will listen just to do it themselves or get a cpa. It is just AWFUL!!! I can't imagine that they could get away with that. Depending on how they handle it, I am going to make a complaint with the BBB. I just don't think that they should be able to get away with something like that!!!

[3tbear]

I've only used them once when I was single and had a very easy tax return to fill out so I didn't have any problems with them, but I had heard of people's tax returns being done wrong and people owing money because of it. Anyone can volunteer to work there to do the tax returns so you never know who you are getting. Even if they pay these guys to do the returns, they are just ordinary people who don't officially work for H&R Block.

My DH likes to use Turbo Tax, you just type on the forms in your computer. I've never personally used it, but it looks easy when my DH does it. You just fill in the blanks. Staples stores has Turbo Tax, there is another one too, we've used that one too, can't remember the name right off the top of my head.

[bestmidwest]

We use Turbo Tax too, and it couldn't be easier! It will even ask you questions so you don't have to guess what's deductible. I used an online service called taxslayer last year because they did free electronic filing for military. Their program was easy as cake too...it has to be if I can do it!


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[aprilgail]

I would love to be able to use turbo tax but since I work for the railroad we don't pay into social security and for some reason turbo tax won't work for us...there is a spot to enter in SS amount withheld and since we don't pay it it won't work.