H&R Block Consumer Reviews - Page 2

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA -- I have never used anyone to do my Federal Taxes. This year was the first year I would have a child to claim due to the birth of my little girl in January of 2001. I was also getting a pretty good refund. Due to the added difficulty of my taxes and the fact that I was getting around $2000 refund I decided to use H&R Block to do my taxes and take advantage of the Rapid refund they offer. Everything worked out well. I was issued a check for $2000 the very next day. This service cost me $260. I didn't like spending my money on that but decided not to let it bug me. I cashed the check the next day and paid off several of the bills that had been haunting me since my divorce.

I have been working hard to try to get my Credit back on track. Everything was looking good. I even managed to get me a computer with what I had left over. I got a heck of a deal on it. Then about two weeks ago I got a letter from the IRS. My return has been randomly picked for an audit this year. I wasn't too upset about it. My return was pretty straight forward. I have no other deductions other than myself and my daughter. Pretty easy stuff. Besides I kind of thought it might be interesting to have this experience. I was informed by the IRS that my Tax refund would be delayed 2 to 6 months. No big deal I thought. I had already got my Rapid refund.

On February 21, 2002 I got a phone call at work from the bank that issued the Rapid refund check. It seems that the Rapid Refund is a 10 day check anticipation loan. I was informed by the woman I spoke with that I had to give them $2000 immediately to pay off the loan. I explained to her that I was picked for a random audit and that I didn't have the $2000 anymore. That didn't matter to her. The only options I was given was to pay the $2000 in full or 25% ($500) right away.

When I told her I didn't have the money, she told me I should try to borrow from family. Or ask my Employer to loan me the money. RIGHT. She went on about that several times. "There is no one in your family that could loan you the money?" I really thought that it was out of line. I was also informed that I will keep getting phone calls until this is paid. Also that every month that it is not paid I will incur fines and interest. SO when the IRS does send them the check I will still owe them money. Also this will be reported to the Credit bureaus and I could be sued.

It seems to me that a Tax preparation company would be aware that random audits do happen and there would be some sort of exemption to the 10 days for that purpose. I am sure that this was in writing in the contract I signed and I failed to read this. H&R Block was very busy that day and I did feel I was being rushed. I do feel that I should have been verbally notified that this could happen.

Basically when you do Rapid Refund you're gambling that you won't be audited and have your check delayed. I am VERY upset about this. And to make things worse I PAID FOR THIS. $260. At this point I am not sure what I can even do about this. I feel that people need to be told about this before you start working on their return.

AURORA, COLORADO -- Wayyyyyyyy too expensive. For a SIMPLE itemized almost $400!!!

DULUTH, MINNESOTA -- I applied on January 24, 2009 for my refund from my federal return by using H&R Block's TaxCut software on their website. My return was accepted the same day and I set it up to deposit my refund on to my Emerald Advance Master Card through H&R Block. I typed in the routing number and account number and it should have taken 15 days at the most to get the refund back.

The IRS said they deposited the amount on February 6th, 2009. I called H&R Block Emerald Advance Card Member Services several times and I was told twenty different stories, minding you, you have to pay $2.00 each time you TALK to customer service! The charges were wracking up without any reasonable answer given to me. One representative got an attitude with me when I asked for help, stating, "How do you know your refund was supposed to be deposited by now?" Did I mention I waited until the LAST day the refund should have been applied before calling?

I had their customer service, which sounded like it had been out sourced to India, tell me that you never filed your return; oh you did file your return but we're doing 'maintenance' on all of our cards so your return will be deposited in another five days or so; you have to call H&R Block's main phone number (to which those customer service agents said the people I was speaking with were supposed to handle it); you have to call the H&R Block TAxCut software people; you have to call HSBC Bank which handles all refunds (turns out they only handle refunds where you got an ADVANCE from H&R Block which wasn't what I had done and um, I had already told the representative at Emerald Card this information; call this person, call that person.

I spent FOUR hours after a full day of work calling and paying $2.00 each new call trying to get answers and find out where my refund was. Needless to say, my refund is now going to be mailed to me because they were missing the last two digits of the account number for the deposit. Um, yeah the rest of the account number was right and they have my returned money but they just won't deposit it to my account, I have to wait another 10 business days to get a check in the mail from H&R Block. They won't even return the funds that are SITTING THERE to the IRS.

I'd suggest going to TurboTax which I had done a few years ago and never had problems with. H&R Block's stupid customer service stinks.

DANIA, FLORIDA -- What a nightmare!!!!!! My husband had applied for HR Block's pre loan Emerald Card about three weeks ago. Was approved and minus their fees received an advance on this debit card. Fast forward to last Thursday and the nightmare of tax filing begun. First, the tax preparer couldn't get the computer to cooperate. Then onto the rest of the process.. took us an hour for a simple filing. Now we come to the part of subtracting the 1st Emerald Card. Oops, computer can't do it, no one can find this card operational. We also at this time have NO clue where the $30 withholding charge was to add back onto to this original card.

Now the employees, yes we had three at this point trying to figure out the whole mess.. gave us another card and said when the tax return is on the new card call them and tell them to deduct the original loan from the first card. We paid the $$$ to get the 1-2 day RAL and don't you just figure our tax return isn't on the card to this date.. Now 4 days and over 20 calls to both that incompetent Block office and their tax preparers to the Emerald Green Card services and BEWARE!

ALL calls to customer service for the Emerald Card cost you $2 a call guys - $2 a call for you to figure out their mistake. We've been told "computer glitch" to "bank error", etc. This is the explanation for taking the pre-loan out of our taxes twice. They (whoever they are) deposited our refund money minus the original pre-loan amount and then turned around and made an "adjustment" minus of the same pre-loan amount. So in essence they debited our first loan out twice and we now have a whopping $20 of a tax refund thanks to the competent tax people of H&R Block.

Tonight we are still waiting for a regional manager to call back regarding some discount/refund of the 1-2 day charges that my husband has demanded. We WANT some money back - no 1-2 days, then give us the difference!! Ha.. watch how long this will take. We have been filing our taxes with H&R Block for over 25+ years, this will surely be our absolute last!!!!!!! Their computers don't know what their doing, their tax preparers don't know what their doing, their main offices don't know what they're doing and neither does their Emerald bank! We are incensed that we, as loyal customers have been treated in this manner.

CALIFORNIA -- Tax preparer at the Fremont office on Mowry Ave made a mistake on my 2010 federal and state tax returns she filed me as married and filing joint and I am single. She had put ** on my tax returns. I received some forms and a letter from the IRS on December 19th 2011 stating (why are you getting this notice?) and you must return the response form by January 18th 2012. This notice stated that I owed the IRS 801.00 for not reporting this extra income on my taxes for the year 2010. I then had to fill out the response form which read check only one of three options. Then go to step B check the applicable payment options.

So I picked option 3 I like to request a payment plan to pay the tax I owed and fill out the installment agreement request and enter the amount you can pay each month and mail it back before January 19th 2012. I made an appt with the person who did my taxes in 2010, I then informed her that she made a mistake on my 2010 tax returns and told her I now owe the IRS 801.00.

I then gave her all the letters that I've been receiving from the IRS she liked them over. Then she said to me all we have to do is file a amendment which I did and after she was done she said to me "now you owe to federal is 1,467.00 and to state 130.00". I told her I owe them nothing your the one who made the mistake I should not have to owe the IRS any money.

Going back to the amendment she had typed in that the taxpayer made a mistake and filed married and joint and wants to change to single. I told her that is a lie I made an appt with you today to let you know about the mistake she made then she deleted that and typed in that the tax preparer made a mistake filed married and filing joint. Then she looked at me and said is that better in a very mean tone. She did not want to type that she had made the mistake. And then for her to (TYPE) lie and blame me for her mistake is unacceptable. I need to know how H&R BLOCK is going to resolve this matter of paying the IRS. Please get back to me asap.

CORSICANA, TEXAS -- We went to H&R Block for our tax prep like we have for the past nine years and it has turned into a nightmare. During the prep I was treated horribly... rushed, talked down to, my questions weren't answered. I have an 8 wk old son, who started fussing during the prep, and the SECRETARY suddenly appeared at my side and tried to pull him out of my arms so they could "get me finished and out of there". So I finished, paid the $175 prep fee and left. I get home and give the folder of forms to my husband for his signature, and wowee zowee the only forms in the folder were forms for him to sign.

No return for him to review, no receipt for the $175 prep fee, nothing. Just sign here... don't read anything or review anything, just sign it. Needless to say, the husband goes back up there and is told by the owner of the place that my tax preparer "isn't used to dealing with gringos". OMG WHAT!!?? That little comment just about sent my to a whole other level of aggravation. So, the owner re-does our taxes and the amount owed comes out different. So, I have been insulted and my taxes were done improperly and we asked for a refund of the prep fees. You would have thought that meatballs were going to come out of the sky!

We told her we would NOT electronically file anything, and that we would definitely NOT give them our bank account information in order to pay the taxes that we owed. Then I told her that H&R Block charges per form that is generated and one of the forms originally generated was the form for electronic filing and we were due, at the very least, a refund for the electronic filing which we were not doing. The owner got even ruder and after four visits to the office and seven phone calls, she just hung up on me for the last time.

I will be at the Better Business Bureau in Corsicana, Texas first thing in the morning. I checked out the official H&R Block website and there is no way to complain about a franchise. The only thing I can do is complain to the franchise owner, and at this point the only place that is going to get me is put in the county lock-up. Please, please, please... go to an accountant for your taxes. They are up to 4 times cheaper and know more about the tax laws. I will never darken the door of an H&R Block again. NEVER.

NEW PORT RICHEY, FLORIDA -- Against my better judgment we decided to use H&R Block to prepare our taxes this year, thinking they would be reliable and affordable. We had used an accountant in previous years who charged $175 and didn't seem to get us as much back as we could get. We visited our local office in New Port Richey, FL where a very nice man sat down to process our paperwork. We are home owners and have a small home business, as well as my husband being a salaried employee. After about 30 minutes of inputing our information we were told we had a refund of $600 and that we would need to pay $400 to have this refund processed by H&R Block.

After picking my jaw up off the floor, we paid the $29 consultation fee and agreed to "think on it" and decide if we were going to pay $400 to H&R Block or go to our accountant. The man put our tax papers into a file folder and filed it away until we made our decision, ensuring we could come back at any time and get our papers. We decided to go to the accountant after all, and went back to get our file a few days later. The man who prepared our taxes was not in and the man in the office said he knew nothing about it and would not help us. He would not take our name, he would not give us our papers and he said we could only deal with our tax preparer.

This was not acceptable to me as they were illegally withholding our federal tax documents. We called the corporate office from the parking lot. The woman at corporate was very helpful and called the store to speak with the manager and instruct him to give us our papers back. The manager responded by hanging up on her. It wasn't until we threatened to call the police to settle this subject that they finally agreed to get our file, but not without a seriously nasty attitude. Being that it's tax season, buyer beware! H&R Block is shady and unethical.

IRVINGTON, NEW JERSEY -- This is the worst service ever from appointment down to the supervisor **. I called to make my appointment over the phone and one of the representatives took all my information; name, social security number and phone number telling me our appointment was schedule and to come in at the appointment time. So I get to the office and there was no appointment in system, the staff acted as if they didn't know what they were doing. So I advised the young lady at the front desk I have taxes which requires a exceptional representative and instead of giving me what I ask for she put me with someone who didn't know what they were doing.

I then asked for supervisor and the representative stated she not in the office yet, after waiting for the supervisor ** for over an hour never being available. The representative finally find someone there who has more experience after processing the paper work which all was messed up and now have to owe and be amended. The supervisor then come in the office late, I explained the situation to her she states she going to take care of the problem. First she never calls me but has someone else call to tell me I can't get a refund for the poor service. Then I contentiously call the store leaving messages she never calls me back.

After a weeks worth of trying to get in touch with her, she sides with her staff stating that I never told this information to them, when I know I definitely did. I wouldn't just make this up, I came there for a professional service and got garbage. I had to remind her that she we wasn't there in the store to address any of the issue anyway. I would no advised anyone to go there ever in life or you will definably be screwed in the process. DON'T DO IT TO YOURSELF!!!! TRUST ME!!!! I'M IN PROCESS NOW WITH REPORTING THEM TO THE HOME OFFICE!!!!! BEWARE!!!

MOUNT PLEASANT, PENNSYLVANIA -- Recently, I applied for an Emerald Card through H&R Block, so that I could have my refund direct deposited onto the card. This is because I'm having problems with my National City Bank account due to technical difficulties using automatic bill pay (they took out my car insurance twice). So until my bank clears up their mistake, I'm not giving them anymore money.

I thought it would be a good idea to get the emerald card. I e-filed my taxes, because it was free and after a few phone calls, I was able to receive the right routing number for H&R Bank along with my card account number. My refund should be coming in a few days. The agent assured me the money would be there. I thought I was being smart, being that I found a way I didn't have to pay 200.00 at the tax office to have it all done. Well now I am not so sure. I have been using the card and everything had been fine until today. I called the number on the back of the card to check my balance this morning and discovered that my pin number didn't work. This really upset me.

I hadn't changed it myself, so how did it get changed? I called customer service and had two people give me two different answers, one of them told me to reset my account. I explained that this concerned me because my refund was coming. He told me that it wouldn't hurt anything. Another cut in on the line and told me that I didn't need to do that, just to call and follow the instructions to reset my new pin. I called the card and it asked me to re-activate my account. "NOOOO!" I was really mad. I called customer service back and the man told me to go ahead and re-activate my account, that my return would still be there on time.

I asked him how all of this happened and he told me some bull crap about it being because I called from a cordless or cell phone and not from a land line phone.... "huh?" Needless to say I am super pissed and if I don't get my refund I am going to go ape ** on someone!

LIVONIA, MICHIGAN -- Currently, I am unaware of whom to speak to concerning the experience I had recently at H&R Block located on: 30230 Plymouth Rd. Livonia, Mi 48150. My appointment was on 01/20/09 @ 3 P.M. with **. On the day of my appointment at 2:30 P.M. ** contacted me and said she was running late "could I come at 3:15 P.M." and that was not a problem. But when I arrived at 3:15 she didn't see me until 4:13 and I was told when I made the appointment that the price would be the same as I paid last year ($75), but when my bill came up it was $96.00.

I was extremely unhappy that I was quoted the wrong price so ** went and got the manager who came over to me and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for me except tell me that ** made another mistake in trying to file my $300 stimulus with my return amount and made her take it off. And then after she took $300 out of my total return she turned to me and said “Ohh so sorry there is nothing we can do for you about your bill.” I cannot begin to explain how angry and taken advantage of that I felt when I left that office. H&R Block had me in their place of business under false pretenses and REFUSED to honor the quoted rate they gave to me when I made my appointment.

When I left that day I was in tears. I was so upset. I've never been treated so poorly by an establishment and the most disturbing part is that while this was happening I was just trying to hold back tears and ** made a comment to me that will forever boggle my mind: “What do you want to hit me will that make you feel better?” How utterly disturbing and unprofessional is that????