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:06/20/2024

  Type:Order 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 hired Heard in December 2023 to complete my bookkeeping and annual taxes. They operate by a monthly subscription fee of $299.Heards email advertisment sent on November 29th, 2023: "Therapists deserve a stress-free tax season. With Heard, you get an on-time, accurate tax return with optimized savings. The deadline to sign up for 2023 tax services from Heard is December 31, 2023."I completed my portion of taxes in March 2024. Informed some weeks later that an extension was being filed on my behalf. Reached out to Heard to inquire as to why and requested my taxes be completed by the original due date. I received generic responses from Heard and was told there was no option to talk on the phone with anybody, as I had made the request.Heard assigned a tax preparer that ended up doing nothing with my account. I continued to reach out to Heard asking for my taxes to be done ASAP. Heard assigned new tax preparer 10 days ago and this person actually completed a draft of my S-Corp taxes. I refuse to pay Heard additional money until my taxes are completed. They suspended my account and continue to firmly deny tax services until I pay them for services this month and ongoing. One person even told me that I would need to commit to 12 months of service for them to complete my taxes. THIS WAS NOT THE AGREEMENT that I signed on. They are not trying to resolve. I find this business to be out of contractual agreement with me. To date, I have paid them $1,800. They are not holding to their promises over my taxes. I am happy to forward emails with Heard and also the advertisement they sent on November 29th, 2023.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/21/2024

  Hi ******,

  As discussed, your subscription fees are a monthly subscription for tax, accounting, and bookkeeping services. You did not purchase a separate tax preparation package for tax year 2023 and an active subscription is required to receive continued service. We will not be able to complete your taxes given that you have stopped payment and are now one month in arrears. Please refer to the timeline shared in our most recent response which shows that failure to file on-time was not the result of any inaction or mistake on Heard's part. I've enclosed that timeline again below:

  * On March 1st, you completed the 1120-S tax checklist and submitted for bookkeeping review, which is a step we require so that we can ensure that your 2023 books are complete and accurate. Your bookkeeper began their review but found that you hadn't provided us with all of the documents we needed to finalize your 2023 books.
   
  * On March 3rd, your bookkeeper requested that you upload a missing bank statement for December 2023. On March 6th, March 11th, March 15th, and again on March 19th they reminded you that this still needed to be done. On March 24th you finally completed this but by this point you had already missed the March 15th deadline which made an on-time filing impossible.
   
  * We also discovered you hadn't completed other required actions that you'd been asked to complete previously. In particular, you hadn't uploaded all of the year-end documents we'd asked you to upload. The missing documents were uploaded on March 11th and March 24th, and the latter finally unblocked your bookkeeper.
   
  * On March 25th, your bookkeeper discovered a discrepancy with the Venmo statement you'd uploaded and reached out for clarification. You confirmed that there was a discrepancy and were asked to upload additional documentation we needed to reconcile this since otherwise your tax return wouldn't match the 1099-K that had been issued by ***** which put you at risk. We reminded you on April 3rd that we were still awaiting this, and you uploaded the requested documentation on April 4th.
   
  * On April 5th, your bookkeeper finished the reconciliation as they now had everything from you they needed to proceed. They completed that review, and you were automatically notified then that you needed to do a final review of your income and expenses and submit the checklist. This wasn't submitted and this is where there seems to be a gap of about a month in the conversation history related to your 1120-S taxes. You reached out about the **1 for your personal return and about per diems for a business trip, but nothing related to submission of the 1120-S tax checklist.
   
  * On May 10th, you reached out asking what still needed to be done and we reminded you to submit the checklist. We didn't hear back from you about whether you were able to do so.
   
  * On May 20th, you reached out again asking what needed to be done and given the earlier conversations one of our staff checked in with our Bookkeeping team to confirm that they'd completed their review and that you were free to submit your checklist. They let you know you were free to submit the checklist and you did so on May 20th.
   
  * At this time your 1120-S filing job was created and assigned to a tax preparer so that they could begin preparing your 1120-S tax return. This normally takes 7-14 days to complete depending on the completeness of the documents you provided us, time for discussion/review, etc.
   
  * Unfortunately, by May 29th the tax preparer still hadn't followed up with you which was a concern. We requested a status update then and on June 4th the tax preparer confirmed that they had begun work and a June 10th deadline for the draft was set.
   
  * On June 10th, the deadline for the tax preparer came and unfortunately your draft wasn't ready so your tax job was reassigned, with the new tax preparer accepting on June 11th.
   
  * On June 17th, your new tax preparer provided you a draft for review.
   
  * On June 18th your account was finally suspended for non-payment after you were reminded you needed to pay on June 4th, June 9th, June 14th, June 16th, and June 18th.

  We understand that you're disappointed, but we are not able to honor your request to receive tax preparation and filing services at no additional cost.

  Take care,

  *********************
  Heard

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/26/2024

   
  Complaint: 21879586
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  These are not ALL of the facts.  Please see response to **** (representative of Heard) below:

  You have provided amazing detail.  To which are all facts, yet there are more facts that are missing.

  
  I requested a phone call at some point in April, you can see from my emails that I was stressed and trying SO hard to figure out what else I needed to do in order to get my taxes completed.  You can see in my correspondence that I was going in circles about this checklist.  A simple phone call could have sufficed.  I had done everything I knew I could, and tried submitting this checklist.  Is there a way to confirm what was missing from this checklist that appeared to not be submitted until May 20th?  Can you tell me if I changed anything after the request to verify on April 5th (final review of your income and expenses and submit the checklist).
  
  
  I am highly disappointed as I feel like ALL of this could have been avoided and my taxes taken care of if Heard had just made a quick call to let me know what simple task I needed to do to move it forward in your system.  I have been diligent.  I reached out multiple times for help.  
  
  
  What I remember is getting a response from more than one member of your team to submit a document that I did not have access to because it was populated by my S-Corp taxes being completed (!).  Is this the 1120-S document you reference?  S-Corp documents are new to me and you have kept me from being able to access my inbox, despite your email communication that I would have access to my inbox while my account was suspended.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/26/2023

  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 have used Heard for bookkeeping and for filing my annual taxes. They have been unresponsive since they have incorrectly filed an extension on my behalf. I want to cancel the service immediately and receive all my bookkeeping and tax data so I can relinquish control of my return. I cannot get a response from my accountant or from customer service.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/22/2023

  Hi *******,

  Thank you for reaching out to share your experience during this busy tax season. We recognize that our response times have been longer than usual, and deeply apologize for any stress and inconvenience caused by this.

  On reviewing your communication with our team, I can see that there was a gap in communication between April 19th and 25th regarding the extension filing process. It is not lost on ** that this length in time would have caused you anxiety around your tax return's status. This delay was unacceptable, and again, we sincerely apologize. 

  Your tax return has been completed, and our Customer Support Lead will be reaching out to you directly regarding your account with **.

  Thank you again for your feedback, and for allowing us to respond. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to contact us at **************************************.

  All the best,

  Heard Customer Support