Complaint Lodged Against H&R Block

Mark and Keith of Toddville filed a formal complaint against H&R Block located in the Dorchester Square Shopping Center (next to the Walmart) today. They filed the complaint through H&R Block’s website.

The complaint alleges that they were misled on what they would be charged to have their taxes prepared, but zeroes in on the rude treatment by the H&R Block representative, Ms. Juanita. They further claim that they have never felt so embarrassed and belittled by a business simply because they can't quote you a good figure” before rendering their services.

H&R Block quickly responded to the complaint stating that they wish to have the district representative contact them to discuss the complaint. The email then provided a link to re-file the complaint since the original complaint didn’t make it clear which store treated them rudely. After clicking the link, Mark was directed to the complaint form he originally filed only fifteen minutes earlier.

“Now this don’t make sense,” said Mark. “When I first filed the complaint, I filled in the fields with the exact address of the store in question, but, judging by their response, since I didn’t include that information in the body of the complaint, they couldn’t figure out which store I was referring to. Maybe it’s a good thing I decided against letting them prepare out taxes.”

The complete complaint and H&R Block’s response is printed below.

Complaint:

About three weeks ago, I stopped in and asked how much it would
cost to file my taxes through them. They said they couldn't quote a
price, but prices started at $49.95 for a simple return and went up
depending on itemization and how complex.

Last week, I decided to take my taxes to them. Ms. Juanita greeted
me, with food in hand, and led me back to her desk. In ten minutes,
she copied all my info from my W2 (no itemization) and told me
the price would be $85. When I told her that we (me and my friend)
were told prices started at half that for returns with no itemization,
she said that price was for federal returns only. State returns cost more.

I told her that was not what we were told. She adamantly insisted that
is what we were told and that we only heard what we wanted to hear.
I told her I'd take my taxes elsewhere. At that point, she got rude about
"all the work she did" and do her a favor - if we come back next year,
don't ask for her.

Now, "all that work" was ten minutes of filling in a simple online form
that did all the work for her. Please tell Ms. Juanita that there are
computer games that require more skill and work than a simple tax return.

That said, I will never step foot in an H&R Block store again and most
certainly will dissuade anyone I know from utilizing your services. I have
never felt so embarrassed and belittled by a business simply because they
can't quote you a good figure for services they will render. Just what
reputable tax company would quote a figure for only federal returns and
not mention state returns cost more? Most people will bring all their
taxes to be done - not just one or the other.

My old tax preparer, Sedgwick in Baltimore, files my taxes for $37.
(They went up two dollars this year.) Ms. Juanita tried to bully me into
accepting her terms claiming I would waste more gas getting to
Baltimore and end up paying more. Please inform Ms. Juanita that even
if I didn't work in Baltimore and need to be up here every day anyway, I
could still bring my taxes here and, with round-trip gas prices - end up
paying two dollars more than what she wanted to charge for all of her
"hard work". That extra two dollars is worth alleviating the harassment
and embarrassment of dealing with your company representatives.

And please tell Ms. Juanita that I am not stupid and I heard the quoted
price correctly.


Thank you

Mark

H&R Block’s response:

Thank you for contacting H&R Block!

To address your concern, we would like to have a representative from
the District Office in your area follow up with you.

For future reference, your concern has been assigned a case number of
E032107-160158

Unfortunately, we were not able to determine the office where your
return was prepared from the information provided.

Please re-submit your inquiry at http://www.hrblock.com/customer_support/submit_a_question.jsp
and be sure to include the following information in the body of your e-mail:

- Address of the H&R Block office where your return was prepared
- Case number

You may also call 1-800-HRBLOCK (1-800-472-5625) to speak with a
Customer Support Specialist who will be happy to assist you. Please
reference the case number when calling.

Thank you for choosing H&R Block

The Client Relations Team
H&R Block

© 2007
Mark Darien
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