Matlen H Roy & Associates

I reached out to Mr. Matlen on the referral of a friend on Jan. 19, 2016. We had a consultation over the phone. He said he would do well by me and so I booked my appointment with him to do my Taxes Feb. 17 2016 at 1pm. Matlen told me that his services were $ 350/​hour but that my taxes wouldn’t take longer than 2 or so hours since I was a new client and thereafter it would be less expensive. I went at 1pm in the middle of my workday and I waited a half hour. Not only did it take him until 5:30 to finish — my bill came to $ 1884!!! I probably made less than 100K this year and my taxes are NOT that complicated on a bad day. My last accountant whom I will going back to — did my taxes in 1 hour and on a rare occasion 2 hours.(On a great year!) I called Matlen and told him that not only was he ½ hour late, he didn’t save me a dime off my taxes like he said he probably would be able to do during our consult, but it took my entire day which is ridiculous. He knocked the bill down to $ 1500…
Matlen knocked my bill down to $ 1500 after I told his secretary that was ridiculous how much he was charging me and I had written him an email telling him he was way overcharging me. I have NEVER paid more than $ 800 to get my taxes done. In addition, he told me he doesn’t like to electronically file and said I had to sign a paper telling him it was ok to do paper/​mail only. He made it seem like it didn’t matter to the IRS if it was electronically filed and said he prefers to make the IRS do more work and he doesn’t trust doing it electronically. I wanted to get my paperwork and go somewhere else but I felt as though my W-9’s were being held hostage until I paid his outrageous bill even though I wanted to get my taxes and have my old accountant do it instead.
I had written a note to Matlen and got him to «reduce» the outrageous fee to $ 1500 instead of $ 1884 but I felt as though my taxes were being held hostage and he wouldn’t rerelease them to me unless I paid the bill. I had NO idea that I could have just asked to get my paperwork and walk away without paying him for the massive amount of time it took him to do relatively easy taxes and I paid the giant $ 1500.
Have you advised the licensee of your complaint? Yes
See above. I told him all of this. His assistant was like «we have your paperwork»…implying I had to pay the bill or I wouldn’t get my taxes back. So now not only do I have to pay for postage to SEND the taxes and get nothing special for the huge sum of money I paid — but I lost $ 1500 to him.
Now need to shlep to the post office for that apparently are easier and more thoroughly sent electronically as well as I would love to get those 4 hours of my life back!
HE SUCKS!!! Do NOT GO TO HIM.
As a SINGLe mother of twins — he is a THIEF.