H&R Block

So fin’eto. Posh lime green. Thx, for the cash back sir’z.

Hubby and I were filing jointly for the first time after being married. We thought our tax situation was rather straightforward (mortgage, regular jobs with W2s, some charitable donations, and dividends from mutual funds). So we used Turbotax, but then a friend recommended we use an expert at least once just to make sure we’re not making any mistakes.
So we called HR Block and (after a long wait on the phone) we made an appointment. The next day, I got a call back that our appointment slot wasn’t available because we’d made it online without checking with them (not true). Anyway, we made another appointment. We also asked how much the tax prep fee would be, and after we described our tax situation, the lady on the phone said about $ 175 for federal and state. We figured that was not bad for confirmation that we’re doing it right, or to learn the right way to do our taxes.
So we went in on the appointment date. It took the tax preparer 45 mins to do our taxes and the tax due was exactly the same as Turbotax had estimated (yet another proof to save your money unless you have a complicated tax situation). After the preparer was done (but thankfully before she filed it), we asked her for the fee and she said OVER $ 500! We were shocked! We asked how our fee could be 3 times what we weer quoted when our tax situation was exactly as we described it to them, she said it was beacuse we had high income and THE COMPUTER had to add extra forms blah blah blah, and tried to imply the receptionists providing estimates didn’t ask all the questions. We ended up not paying anything, just upped and left and told them not to file anything.
So if you’re going to these people, make sure you know what you might be in for. The eonly explanation seemed to be that they were charging by income level, even if your tax situation isn’t complicated.
Another annoyance was that after they took our contact information (including cell phone #s), they wouldn’t prepare our taxes unless we agreed to TELEMARKETING CALLS FOR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. Despite the form saying you don’t need to consent to telemarketing to use their services, our preparer said the system wouldn’t let her continue unless we agreed to it. That was when we should have upped and left. lesson learned.

The word «appointment» is a very loosely defined term at HR Block. Despite scheduling a noon appointment, the tax preparer came out to tell me she had a client and it would be a moment.
I’m already upset with HR Block because they made an error on my return, which I had to find myself. Now they are giving me grief for filing an amended return.
I have to admit that HR Block does one thing right and that’s marketing. Those commercials do a great job glossing over their terrible service.

I scheduled an appointment with Zenaida Faller. The first time I went in, she came out and said she was overbooked and said that I needed to reschedule. Why didn’t anyone call me? Also, why are you consistently overbooked?
I went back in today, and Zenaida said that she could not see me when I told her I had my documents in an email to send to her because they were password protected and could not be deposited online. When I asked her why, she told me HER EMAIL BOX WAS FULL AND SHE LITERALLY COULD NOT RECEIVE ANOTHER EMAIL. I was absolutely floored as I walked out, thinking about how irresponsible and incapable this woman was to have a full time job handling sensitive information. Do not see her. Better yet, do not go to this office. Incompetency at it’s ABSOLUTE worst.

I signed up for Unilocal so that I could write this review and no one else has to ever go through the same experience I did. I was filing for my taxes after the 6 month extension and wanted to go to an office which was open all year around and someone who could handle foreign taxes. This branch looked promising on the internet when I browsed the profiles of the consultants working in this branch. I booked an appointment and specifically informed that I was interested in meeting a specialist who understands foreign taxes as well as I had immigrated in the middle of 2013. I was assured that the ‘experts’ can handle this with ease and I should just come in for the appointment. So, on a cold and rainy morning, I head out with my family to their office for my 10 AM appointment. The first lady I met kind of started freaking out when I started talking about my movement to the US. She was upfront in saying that she can’t handle this. I obviously mentioned that I had booked this appointment after being assured that foreign taxes can be easily managed here. The lady looked up whom I had spoken to while booking the appointment and then I was made to wait for this lady called Monita who had booked my appointment. Within a minute of speaking with her, I knew that this had been such a waste of time. She talked about all types of complicated cases she had taken care of but this was out of her league. Come on, as if I was the first man to have immigrated to the US in the middle of the year. And if it was complicated, couldn’t you have the patience to hear me when I repeatedly asked whether the expertise needed to handle my case is available at the office and inform me in advance before booking the appointment. What a disappointment, what a waste of time!

I called two times to make appointmemts with H&R block. After getting a confirmation for the first appointment, I get an email a day later letting me know it’s cancelled, and that I need to go to another location. Okay, no problem, they let me know ahead of time. I called the new location, and was told I had a confirmed appointment. After wasting $ 20 getting to the appointment, I was told at the location that no one was available to take me. «Sorry, nothing I can do.» I’m a small business owner. Obviously there’s nothing I can do beyond leaving my review. That being said, certainly will NOT be using H&R Block’s services, and will be telling others of my experience. While that may not matter to the faceless corporate giant H&R Block is, at least I’ll be saving my friends and family from having to deal with the complete lack of customer care that comes with their (lack of) services.

Horrible service. They never processed my payment to the state and when I called to speak to a manager he was never available and never called me back.

A different H &R Block office prepared our 2010 and 2011 returns incorrectly. They discovered the error when they were putting together the 2012 returns in Spring 2013. We went to the 151 Tremont Street, Boston office in June 2013 to straighten things out and to request reimbursement for interest accrued. Louis Fisher was encouraging, but he was about to go on furlough for the rest of the summer. He told us that one of his colleagues would take over the case. When he left, that colleague had never heard of us.
The office manager assigned us to Abroni (Joseph) Quansah. He was slow to respond to our requests, let his email box get full so that some of our messages bounced back, and lost messages we sent him so that we had to send the messages and the attachments all over again. He also asked for copies of the backs of pre-​printed forms, which contained instructions, not our tax information. I am not sure whether he was intentionally stalling or just being mindlessly bureaucratic – probably just incompetence. It is four months later and we are still waiting to be reimbursed for about $ 600 in interest that we had to pay the federal and state governments.

A disaster. Work just never got done, despite countless promises. Return got filed late; incurred late fees and interest charges as a result. Still waiting on promised reimbursement for late fees. Terrible experience. Don’t even know who to call to complain. Waste of time and money.

Horrible customer service. The older gentleman who prepared my returns told me he’d have them in a few days, then was late by more than a week. And in the process he insulted the company I worked for and divulged potentially sensitive information about another customer to me. It was downright unprofessional.

I have been filing my taxes for 15 yrs with HR. Disappointingly I realized that the service has gone progressively down. Last year in Kendal Square I was treated really bad to the point I decided never to go there again. This year therefore I called the office in 151 Tremont street and the person who answered was really unpolite. It is the first time for me to check the reviews on H&R and I must agree to the unsatisfied folks. A reply from the customer service asked to give feed back and specifics. So there it is. Some of the accountants do not know all the deductions. I was not given critical information I obtained through friends and the receptionists behave as if they are doing us a favor!

Arrived 10 minutes early for a 3pm appointment. Man at front desk was rude and unfriendly. 5 minutes before 3pm another cleint came in and asked for Zenaida. She was immediately seen by Zenaida. Waited until 3pm and asked the angry guy at the front desk when I was going to be seen. Told me I was next. After rephrasing the question a couple of times the guy said he would find out the estimated time of my wait. «About 30 minutes». Zenaida is competent in tax preparation. This is the reason I have dealt with never having an appointment come close to starting on time in the past. One year I booked a 9am appointment to be first of the day… Zenaida showed up to the office at 9:30am. H&R Block is not cheap. The treatment from the front desk and sliding someone in 5 minutes before my appointment without an attempt to let me know what my wait would be was the final straw. I will not return to this office.

Keep away from this place
They took my file with promise to finish within one to two weeks and than at the end of the third week they said sorry we do not have time go find someone else it is extremely unprofessional person I wasted my time it is frustrating
I had someone else in the agency to finish iutter they had previous years forms but I will never use them again

I have used a couple of firms for my personal and business taxes in the past. I was never satisfied mostly because I was the little guy. My returns didn’t bring them several thousands of dollars in fees and I was always put at the bottom. More annoying was when I would send QuickBook files to said firms and they didn’t know how to open them or convert them. I had to write instructions. After much disappointment I wandered into a local H&R block where I met Zenaida Faller and the rest is history.
Zenaida requested three years of previous tax returns (prepared by two other firms). She asked me some questions about why my accountants did not elect certain things that would have given me more money in my return. I honestly didn’t know. I’m not a tax person. After we discussed the various options, I found that my previous «professionals» were remiss in their fiduciary duties to represent, me, their paying client in the best way possible.
Long story short, I have stayed with Zenaida. I have received a substantial refund that I would have never found from a previously filed year, she has helped me during a stressful audit in which she was able to get me an additional refund (versus owing the IRS!), and most importantly has been available to me with my questions and concerns.
Zenaida treats me as a person and not fee to be earned. She works extremely hard on my behalf and I cannot recommend her enough. If you are using a firm for your personal and/​or business tax returns, you should seriously consider speaking with Zenaida. She will save you money on expensive fees and probably find mistakes your overpriced accountants have made.

Stay away from H&R Block. They did my taxes for 6 years, upsold me «Peace of Mind» every year. The one time I needed to use it was, of course, when the IRS did an audit. I went into the office and they photocopied everything and told me they’d call me back.
They stonewalled me.
I had to hire my own tax attorney and found out that H&R Block completely did my returns wrong for all the years. When I asked for them to honor their agreement, they offered a refund on the prep services for ONE of the years, and then told me if I don’t like it, I can take it up with legal.
*STAY AWAY*

When I lived in Boston I went to this H&R Block both years I was there. I cannot say enough good things about their Master Tax Advisor, Gary Nicholson. He is THE BEST. He’s fast, friendly, competent and worth every penny. While my taxes aren’t the most complicated (student loans, multiple state income, no property), I’m sure Gary could handle the most difficult tax preparation with ease. He likely has hundreds of clients, but always takes the time to drop his business card in the mail to me with a hand written note on the back every spring. Make an appointment with Gary. You won’t be disappointed!

I actually like this place. The people who work at the front I think change every year so maybe the service Robert recieved from whoever answers the phones was lacking, but the tax preparer I went to last year and this year was really good (Charlene). Last year I tried to do my taxes myself online and came out owing almost 5K — I took all of my forms to Charlene and I ended with several thousand dollars being returned to me. I itemize my taxes and own a house so my taxes aren’t super straightforward and I got in and out of there this year in about 25 minutes. The fee was a little under $ 200 for my state and federal returns — totally worth it.

If you could give zero stars. $ 300 bucks every time– crappy rude and slow service! Last year some guy told me to «can the attitude» over the phone and eventually hung up after leaving me on hold for a while, after calling back a woman answered and refused to tell me his name. I had to go in person just to find out what was going on -(while waiting two different people called up to complain about «some man they spoke to that morning”-hmmmmmm) THEN they paired me up with the slowest elderly man to walk this earth– I sat there for hours as he scrolled through stuff not asking me anything. They hurt my feelings wasted my time and my money. NEVER GO HERE! I’m doing my taxes for free this year by myself– forms at all post offices people let’s take a stand!!- oh yea and I don’t know what these asses did but I am a server who doesn’t make that much and they made me owe like $ 2500 fed and state on top of their $ 300 fee– AND they sent it out LATE!!! WTF. NONE of my co workers owed that much!!! thank god for that $ 600 refund. The only good thing W ever did for us!