Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/12/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I used this company to do my taxes. I was happy with them and had no issues. Then the following happened. I am including word for word exchanges between myself and their employees/owner. This began with me asking if I owed the *** after my 2021 Taxes were filed.I have a question.. not sure if you can help. Last year I owed $**** (give or take) which I paid. This year I was told I would get a refund for $*** but the *** sent me a letter saying they are keeping that and I owe an additional $***.. is there anything you can see on your end that says that's correct or odd? Seems odd. I am going to try to log onto their site and sort it out but was curious what your records show.'On Wed, Nov 16, 2022 at 3:32 PM **** wrote:'This notice is stating that you owed a total of $**** still from 2020, so they applied your 2021 overpayment of $**** to the 2020 tax year and still show $**** owed. Can you provide me with the cancelled check showing that you made the payment and that they have cashed it? Then I can respond to the *** via a letter (or you can write a letter with the copy of the check as well if you would prefer) so that they can correct this."At another point she wrote this On Wed, Nov 23, 2022 at 8:22 AM **** wrote:'*******,If you can send me the documentation of that payment clearing your bank account, I can write a letter to the ***.'She wrote the letter, it was handled. Issue resolved. In APRIL I get an invoice from this company for $300+ for writing the letter to the ***. She never advised me of charges she had two opportunities at least, if she had I would have declined and figured out another solution. I fully believed what she was doing was a service extended to customers when issues with taxes they file come up. I paid her $400+ to do my taxes surely writing a letter for 5 minutes would be covered somehow? .Then to wait to invoice 5 months later?! I offered to pay $50 but she rudely declined. She has since sent me to collections.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/17/2023

  Client reached out to me November 14, 2022 relating to a notice she received from the *** as indicated in her complaint. I had many email and phone conversations with her relating to the notice and had informed her that if she wanted us to prepare the response on her behalf I asked for the documentation I would need to write the letter to the ***. Our time for this was based on the phone and email conversations, research into the issue, typing the response, as well as the cost of the certified mailing of the letter to the ***. Client and her husband signed engagement agreements for the 2020 and 2021 tax preparation, which outlines the agreement for preparing the tax return only and states that examination and representing them with the *** is a separate service. The specific section of the engagement agreement states: In the event of a tax examination, we will be available, upon request, to represent you.However, such additional services are not included in our fees for preparation of the tax return. Correspondence to the *** on behalf of Client and her husband was an additional service, as were the phone calls, emails, and tax advice, which we provided.
  

  As requested, we researched the *** and the related payment issues in order to resolve Clients questions. Additionally, after the invoice for these services was mailed in January 2023 she then asked me additional tax questions on January 13, 2023, which I responded to via email. These services were not charged to her due to our conversation on reducing the bill for the *** notice.

  We initially mailed the invoice for these services to Client early in January 2023, which we do not have confirmation of receipt of this invoice since we do not send them certified. Per our records, we then resent the invoice via email to Clients email of record on February 14, 2023 through our billing system, which we show in our system was opened by Client. She then called our office to discuss the invoice and I told her I would reduce the bill since she did not think that our services were worth the amount we had charged and at that time expressed that she thought we were doing the response without charge. I had explained to her at that time that it was an additional service,but agreed to write the bill down based on her displeasure of being charged for the services provided. I wrote off $150.00 of the service charges on the bill and resent the invoice via email through our billing system showing the lower amount of $149.48 on February 15, 2023, which our records show was opened by Client.

  We had not received a response or payment, so a rebill was emailed again through the system on February 27, 2023, which was shown in our records as being opened by Client. We then sent another rebill via email through the billing system on April 3, 2023, which we show as opened by Client as well. Our records indicate that Client opened the invoices in question as listed above indicating that she had received the invoice prior to the April rebill date mentioned in her complaint as the first time she received the fees. On April 4,2023, in response to the rebill, Client emailed my accounts receivable person and stated, Hi. I thought about it and I am not going to pay this. I do not understand how you can invoice me for services rendered without even advising me I was incurring charges. I feel like this was unfair and unprofessional.Thank you for your services in the past, I will file my taxes elsewhere going forward.  We responded to Client stating the reason we charged for the additional services provided as stated in the engagement agreement and that we had already written down the bill by more than half of the service time charged (not including the cost outlay for the certified return receipt for mailing the letter to the *** for $8.48). I had stated that I did not think it was reasonable for me to write it down further than the $150.  I also reiterated that during our emails and conversation I never told her us responding on her behalf instead of her writing the letter as I mentioned she could do would be free of charge. During a phone call I did mention that we bill for additional services,but I did not include that information in the email correspondence directly. We told her that if she did not make payment to us by April 7, 2023, we would turn her account over to collections. She then responded with Please do what you feel you must. I will in turn report you to the BBB. As far as I am concerned this was warranty on your work. You filed my taxes and the *** says I owe when you say I do not. Seems to me thats between the *** and you. Does the paperwork say that if you reply to the *** that you will be $xxx+ dollars? Does the paperwork say that not only will I pay for my taxes to be filed but that you dont guarantee your work? I then explained to Client that her payment made to the *** not being posted correctly by the *** is not anything we have control over. We were not in charge of making the payment to the *** or applying the payment within the *** records. The fault for the errors in the payment lay only with Client and the ***. Due to our firms letter response, Client received the refunds and interest within 25 days of the date we mailed our letter, which I believe is a quick turnaround, especially considering the *** response times since the pandemic.
  

  As a courtesy we waited to receive payment and did not turn her account over to collections until April 26, 2023. She had indicated that she was only willing to pay $50.00 for the services provided, but never paid any amount toward this invoice. We received neither payment nor further contact from Client after her email April 4, 2023, until we received the promised report to the BBB on July 13, 2023 that she threatened in her email.
  

  While we are sorry she was not happy with the services we provided to get her refund back from the *** as well as interest based on errors outside of our control and due to no fault of our firm or our staff, we are simply attempting to receive payment for services rendered in good faith and subsequently highly discounted.