H&R Block

I’ve been going to this H&R Branch for a few years now and Diane always does my taxes. She’s the most competent and stable tax preparer there as opposed to others who just finished taking the course that H&R provides them and simply follow the message flags on the software. Diane is the only tax preparer that takes time to actually make sense of your situation and prepare your taxes properly. The office is managed in a seat-​of-​your-​pants kind of a way and you’re very lucky if your appointment is actually ever on time or scheduled even on the correct day. There have been several times where the scheduler typed my date, or name or other pertinent information incorrectly which negatively affected my appointment. That is extremely frustrating! Besides the poor administration of the office, there’s one gem of tax preparer there though. Diane’s the only reason I go there.

I’m really torn on how many stars to throw up there for this review. One one hand, I was happy with my tax return, so obviously the accountant was doing her job correctly, right?
On the other hand, this office was quite poorly run. Even though I booked an appointment for 10 AM, another client was taken in before me just because she complained. I wasn’t seen until about 10:15 AM. What’s the deal with that?
I’ll admit, this was the first time I’ve taken my taxes into a place like H&R block. It was usually easier for me to just hand over all of my docs to my ‘rents and let them handle it. A week later, I’d get a cheque. Easy as pie! But it was time to grow up and start handlin’ my money like the workin’ girl that I am. So because of that, I didn’t have any previous experience with getting my taxes done, but I think I can tell when things aren’t right. She was confused about how political donations worked, spelled the name of my former employer wrong, etc. Not major things, and the tax return all worked out in the end, but I didn’t feel 100% about the process.
Also — and this may not be their fault, it may be the set-​up that Sears provided them — but their phones didn’t work. At least, not all of them. We had to move to another cubicle to call the Canada Revenue (or something office). Sort of unprofessional.
I feel like this review may have been confusing, probably because I still am, so to summarize: yay for tax returns, yay for next-​day appointments, and yay for inexpensive H&R Block services, but boo to poor customer service, boo to confused accountants, and boo disfunctional office supplies.