H&R Block

As a person who has worked multiple years in customer service, I believe that whether you are a customer or co-​worker, everybody needs to be treated with respect. Respect is vital to a business succession, building long term healthy relationships with customers and co-​workers, and creating a positive environment. For a tax place that claims about caring about customers it loses it’s credibility when coworkers are disrespecting each other in front of clients… I walked into this office on a beautiful afternoon wanting to do my taxes, but instead i walked right out feeling embarrassed and utterly disturbed by this places actions. When i was sitting waiting, i heard a man named Larry yell multiple times that he needed paper in his printer. This man was not with any clients at the moment of his demand. Everybody else was busy, therefore he was ignored. The girls in the front were on the phone as he shamelessly walked up and demanded one of them to hang up the phone and put paper in his printer. He talked to her with such disrespect i couldn’t believe what i was seeing and hearing. After the poor girl, who did what just he said, put paper in his printer, he demanded she immediately check all printers. This rude man did not ask this young lady nicely he literally demanded her in the rudest loudest tone in front of everybody in the office. Scratch my last statement, he YELLED AT HER. I was playing flappy bird on my phone and as he yelled i dropped my phone because i got startled and i lost the game. It was too uncomfortable to sit there so a few minutes after i decided to leave. For a business who deals with customer service it is only logical to think that they would treat each other with kindness and respect, especially around clients. I am still in disbelief of what i witnessed. I recommend to never got to this office, and if you do… don’t go to Larry, unless you want to refill his printer with paper even though he is 1 foot away and it takes 30 seconds.

This review is specific to one tax preparer… Joann Cox… DO NOT use Joann… if you have to use this branch… be sure NOT to request or be seated with Joann… last year we had the WORST experience with her… she ended up delaying our refund by over a month past the 21 days it is estimated to take… from the beginning of our visit… it was bad… normally we would go to the Merced, Yosemite Plaza branch but we thought we would save gas and go to our local branch last year. We were driving down Winton Way, heading toward the office by the Target on Applegate and Commerce… we were in the forward lane and I noticed a bedazzled trike motorcycle in the turning lane from Applegate onto Commerce… well when our light turned green… this trike decided to leave it’s turning lane illegally and cut us off dangerously and head down the forward lane we were in… then I noticed it was turning into the parking lot we were headed in… then I noticed it was turning into the area we were headed… H&R Block… I jokingly told my husband that if that lady is going to the block, we are NOT having her do our taxes… sure enough… we were seated with the lady who cut us off… I begged my husband not to stay with that lady… PLEASE don’t let her do our taxes but he is kind and figured it was just a traffic misstep and she must be an effective preparer… well she had my husband sign the wrong areas… put down wrong addresses on our return paperwork… which caused a delay in our return… I didn’t have my school tax paper yet, she told me to «guess» the amount of tuition this year… then sent us on our way telling us the usual 21 day shpeel so we left thinking all was well… WELL, we find out a week later that my family members have all have their returns accepted and processing… we keep checking the status with NO progress on our return… i get my school tax paperwork and call Joann to give her the correct amount thinking this might be what is holding it up and she stated, «Oh, it does not really matter… you already got the maximum amount for this year». So I, again, figured she knew what she was doing and went back to waiting… my sister-​in-​law tells me on Facebook that the IRS is not accepting those particular forms (school-​related) until a much later date… we were never informed by our preparer… by this time… we were weeks into waiting for it to be accepted… NEVER ONCE called by Joann to inform us of the hold up… I called the branch and asked for my return paperwork so we could take it to our regular preparer to review and be sure it is not all messed up… I talked to the receptionist… she said I needed to talk to Joann… I said I did not need to speak to anyone… I only needed my financial paperwork so I could go somewhere else… she said, «okay, let me check on this»…what does she do… she goes and gets Joann… Joann, very callously, gets on the line and immediately says, «yeah, this is Joann… I cannot give you back your paperwork because it is already sent to the IRS and is on hold pending the acceptance of the school paperwork which is postponed by the IRS… and if you have an issue with that then you need to call H&R Block because it is their fault for not informing their preparers of the situation…» So there was no apology for the hold up or the lack of communication on her part and instead she throws her employer under the bus by blaming them… what she did not know was, our usual preparer already told us that all preparers knew about it… but either chose NOT to inform us or didn’t read the updates they receive. Well, our regular preparer fixed the problem in a day… gave us a credit toward 2013 filing season fees and refunded our tax prep fees for 2012 to say sorry and ensure we stay with H&R Block in the future… I would NEVER recommend this woman to anyone to prepare their taxes… her attitude and behavior about our case was irresponsible and unprofessional.