Until this year, I'd done my family's taxes myself. It took me next to no time to do them and until last year I'd never made a mistake.

After last year's mistake (we ended up getting $200 more back than I'd figured) and the fact that this year we would need to file for my Epinions earnings, I told my husband that I would feel better if we had someone else - a professional, do our taxes.

The first place that came to mind was H&R Block. It was a mistake to go there, they were not the least bit professional!

The help and cost

My first negative thoughts about H&R Block occurred when I called them to make an appointment. The receptionist was extremely rude. Perhaps she was just having a bad day, or was sick of so many people calling, but good grief. There was no need to be so short with me.

Upon arriving for our appointment, it didn't take too long for my husband and I to realize that our tax preparer was not too bright. Since I've done them before I know it really doesn't take a genius to prepare my family's taxes. We don't have tons of deductions, or little extra things that need to be done.

Yet, it was very frustrating to sit there and watch her do our taxes.... for heaven's sake all she had to do was fill in the blanks on her computer screen, and yet several times she had to get up and ask someone else a question. Many times I already knew the answer! Besides that, when she's just sit there and try and find the code she needed to enter she took forever to find it - yet sitting a couple of feet from the computer screen I could plainly see it!

The cost, I felt was outrageous. We were charged well over $250.00 for the little they did. Considering how simple our taxes are to do and how incompetent our tax preparer was, my husband and I both felt that was a total rip off.

The good...

I was told that appointments were not required, that they welcomed walk in's. However, there may be a wait if one doesn't have an appointment. While we did make an appointment, I'm sure this can be a for those who may not know when they'll have the time to get their taxes prepared, and just want to walk in and wait for someone to have the time to take them.

For a small fee (I was told it would cost us $20) H&R Block would go to court with me if there were any problems with my tax return.

We were able to get our refund back the next day! This did cost us a fee, but it was well worth it. Another huge plus was how H&R Block automatically took their fees out of our refund.

Supposedly, they will go over last year's return with you to see if they can find any ways you could get back more (or pay less). We weren't offered this, and I only ever saw it advertised on television.

Overall

My own family will not ever go back to an H&R Block to get our taxes done. Next year, I will go back to doing them myself. I feel that while many who work for H&R Block may be very good at what they do, from my experience, obviously, not all are. For what they charge they need to find a better way to train and or screen who they hire.

If you're in need of finding a tax preparer, my suggestion would be to ask others who they use. Try and find someone with a good reputation, someone who you can use year after year who really will be looking out for your best interest and not just a way to rip you off. If a tax preparer appears to know less than you do, as ours did, there's no reason to pay them to do what you can do better.




Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 250.00