H&R Block

Hard to get too excited about tax prep but the accountant I had was great and brought me peace of mind. I’m sure they are not the cheapest place to get this done but they know what they are doing more than some random family member armed with turbo tax. I think the low ratings here are from people that don’t value expert help.

My husband and I scheduled an appointment with Suezhen Hong in the Alameda branch to complete our taxes. When we were introduced to her she did not offer us a hand shake, her name or offered us a seat. We sat ourselves and she began the process of preparing our taxes. She had questions about our taxes, however due to her limited grasp of the English language it was difficult to understand her. I am not trying to make this about the language barrier but rather her rudeness and lack of customer service. When we discovered that we would owe money, we opted to not file, instead waiting until the final deadline (April 15^th). She was very upset with us and told us we wasted her time. She got up and left us at her desk and we had to assume the appointment was over. She did not say good bye, shake our hands or thank us. Very poor service and I do not recommend you schedule with her.

Worst experience ever! I moved from NY to California in October. I have used H&R Block for years in NY and have never been disappointed. My experience here in California was terrible with Sylvia, she was not prepared, took an entire day to complete my taxes and to get a call or email back has been futile. I will never use an H&R Block in California again. Terrible customer service. Time to find a accountant. My advice: avoid H&R Block unless you have had a good experience with them. I can’t say enough good things about the H&R Block offices in NY, but in California: thumbs down.

My husband met with a worker there during tax season in 2013. The worker, I come to find out later, is not an accountant at all, just someone who is hired for the busy season. The returns she prepared showed us getting back $ 4,000 more than what Taxslayer, an online company, was telling us we should get.
After reviewing the return we realized she had missed a crucial step counting scholarship money (above tuition and books) as income. I met with her and discussed the problem. She showed me their computer program and said it had no space for the part of the form (1098-​T) that needed to be entered in. To reassure me she proceeded to look up the WRONG IRS law link online and then just told me the laws are hazy. She said if I was concerned I could buy their $ 35ish worry free policy that meant they would take care of an audit.
After looking up the IRS law myself and realizing the horrible mistake she made, I went back. Well, she still didn’t believe me, but I insisted, so she called her manager over. Her manager, who the worker claimed she had spoken with earlier, promptly informed her that scholarships need to be entered manually as a W-​2. As a «gift» for my patience I was told we could have the worry free policy for free, but I had to pay for it and then get a refund by mail (which never came). Our return dropped by $ 4,000 and we owed money, just as we suspected. Unfortunately we had already paid H&R at this point, and could not receive a refund as they had filled the taxes on my second visit.
My recommendation is that you try an online site (free until your actually file) until you run into a problem or form that not’s included. You certainly don’t want the IRS auditing you and finding a mysterious $ 4,000 difference.

This company did a good job for the most part for me over the past couple of years. But this year was the last straw for me with this damn company. It’s bad enough that their prepaid card had horrible customer service the last couple of months and now I’ve had it with their damn fees when it comes to getting taxes taken care of. Their tax fees have gotten so expensive! Where do they come up with the charges that they charge when taxes are being filed? I’m moving on and taking my tax business and my prepaid card business elsewhere. H&R Block can go KISS my ass! So long and good riddance!

This year they let me review my return online. That was helpful since I don’t live locally. They even walked me how to respond to a tax notice I had received for a previous year (it wasn’t their fault) and they didn’t charge me more for that advice.

Anna did a perfect, wounderful excellent job on my taxes. It took about 2 weeks to figure out since I’ve used somebody else for years. I was very pleased with the outcome, she understood what I was trying to do to have my taxes filed easier for years to come. I will be back. The only issues was at check out, somebody checked me out and charged me wrong and took the manager and 3 trips to get it resolved, but I got a discount :-)

The service we received was horrible, basically I ended up doing the return because the lady that was behind the computer was clueless. After close to 2 hours we were done and not only did she forget to ask us if we wanted to get the fees from our return, they said that the whole return would have to be redone for that to happen. Will not be doing any more business with them and I will definitely will not recommend them to anyone.

I’m a new customer who made a same-​day appointment over the phone. I arrived armed with four w-​2s, five 1098s for my school loans, and a 1099 for an investment account. Bob was patient, made the process painless, and he seemed pretty knowledgeable. I paid $ 190 but got more than two times what I estimated with turbo tax online, and I’m no longer freaking out about whether I did it right or not.
Pending my return depositing into my account in the next week or so, I have no complaints and will definitely return next year.