H&R Block

0 stars if I could.
I made an appointment because I had a couple questions about filing my taxes, because I am a new business owner as well. I get there and we get seated right away and the guy who helped us (Asian guy with glasses) I forgot his name, was SO rude. He made us feel SO stupid for not knowing how to do our taxes properly, but THaT’s the reason I made this appointment, so I could get some HELP and clarification. He seemed to be rushing us out of there since I only had «questions» and wasn’t actually there for H&r to file my taxes, and told us that we can go google our questions and find our answers there.
Horrible

I never write reviews, especially negative ones, but I feel a responsibility to others who may consider using this service. When I called to make my appointment I was assured that everyone in the office was able and experienced at doing a tax return for registered domestic partners, well this was not the case. The first thing out of my preparers mouth was this is going to take much longer then the time she’d been allotted. (This is despite explaining to the person who made my appointment that I had a very difficult return.) She then stated that she’d never done one of these before and truly looked confused and overwhelmed. Big red flag!
I was also assured by the person who made my appointment that I would receive the 50%off promotion even if I took the appointment available on the last day of the promotion. She assured me that as long as the appointment was made on the day of the promotion that I would receive the discount. Apparently this was not the case if your return could not be completed that day. It seems as though the fine print alluded all working there until Corporate sent out a memo the day before. Nice one. Since my preparer could not guarantee she would be able to finish by the end of the day and told me that if I didn’t receive the promotion my fee would be $ 600-​$ 700!!! (Last year’s was half that) I asked to talk with her manager to see if something could be worked out. She very kindly called, Sharon, her manager. This part is really the straw that broke the camels back. She was incredibly rude and condescending despite none of this being my fault. Needless to say, I felt pretty scammed and am taking my business elsewhere. I refuse to support a company that is so crooked and does not in any way provide the service they claim. The best part of my whole experience was that my preparer was at least very kind and honest with me. And given better training and better management, would be great to work with. No wonder the two people I was originally recommended to see in this office had left.

This review is for Kelly Hughes at H&R Block at West Portal in SF
This is one of those «I never write reviews for anything, blah blah blah» type of reviews. However, it really is the case. I’ve always done my taxes myself, and continue to learn about the tax system (however broken it may be). 2014 was a bit harder for me to grasp with all the AMT, ISO option, marriage, house, etc. So I did my homework before going in; almost finished everything up on TurboTax and got a ridiculously high number. We scheduled an appt with H&R block on monday and went in on saturday.
My goal was to get my work checked and see if there were any glaring faults.
When we met with Kelly, she asked a couple of questions about what we were looking for, and once I explained the situation she got to the bottom of the situation very quickly. She was very honest and gave us the pointers we needed to complete our return. We chatted with her for 20 minutes tops, and she said we were good to go. The kicker is she did not even charge us!!! At the end, we got great feedback and help we were looking for and saved major $$$ for both filing and the amount we owed thanks to her help!!!

Pros: we were greeted right away and met with the tax adviser (Larry Reid) within minutes
Cons: everything else… Larry seemed annoyed we actually showed up for an 8pm appointment. He stated, «most people don’t show up this late; I guess we’ll be here a while.» We had all our documents ordered and labeled within a PDF. He proceeded to print each page out. One. By. One! We requested a quote prior to him printing. He wouldn’t give a number, dodging the question by stating it was based on the number of forms he needed to fill out. We then suggested he just print out the whole document. He declined by stating there might be pages he didn’t need to print. Frickin’ 30 minutes later he FINALLY finished printing out the individual pages from my PDF. We asked if he could give us a quote now. Larry rifles through the paperwork for a few seconds, replying with «$ 400.» I state that’s way too much, as TurboTax was under $ 100. We take the stack of wasted paper, thank him for the printouts, and say that we will be recycling the documents. Before we exit, he asks if we have a dual computer monitor setup. A bit confused, we say no. He seems shocked and exclaims, «how do you do your taxes without printouts then?!» We state that it’s possible to have two windows open (split screen) on a single monitor. *Awkward silence* We roll our eyes, dumbfounded that anybody in 2015 could be so ignorant of technology. Finally, we get the heck out of there!
TL;DR? H&R block needs to get into the 21^st century.

IM FREAKIN LIVID RIGHT NOW. DO NOT GET YOUR TAXES DONE AT THIS SH*THOLE. PERIOD!!!
I just had an appointment with LARRY REID (supposedly one of the «master» tax people), and he literally told me «we’re very busy and I have other things to do… so if you don’t have a summary sheet, what’s the big deal with waiting 2 weeks?»
ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME? First off, I have a million things to do myself. And the whole reason I would even come to this shi*hole is because I don’t have time! So why the F*CK would you tell me I need a freaking summary sheet or I’m wasting YOUR time? AREN’T YOU GETTING PAID TO DO MY TAXES??? And BTW, no one told me I needed a summary sheet. They take walk-​ins, for Christs sake.
LOSER.
Not to mention the f*cking place stinks and they have no parking. I just now yelled at everyone and stormed out of that piece of sh*t within 5 minutes.
ONCE AGAIN-​TO ALL UnilocalERS-​DO NOT COME HERE. I BEG YOU!
F*CK H&R BLOCK – ALL OF THEM!!! ONTO THE NEXT PLACE. ANY RECOS?

I would give zero stars if possible. Filed my taxes here on ¹⁄₃₁ this year and still waiting on my refund. I understand that I am still waiting because of an error made on behalf of H&R block corporation, not this office individually. However, my latest experience here left me uneasy. I have come to this office for the past 3 years and every year I am assigned to a new preparer because my previous one no longer works here (maybe that tells you something). This time, my tax preparer was confused by my education credit and had to get assistance from a more experienced preparer for most of my return. After paying $ 160 in preparation fees, I left feeling unsure about whether or not I would see my refund, and I was right. Over 6 weeks and I’m still waiting.

2 and a half hours.
That is how long it took another H & R Block tax professional to fix what a first year tax guy from this branch did to my account.
Not only did he file my education loans under wages, but he wasn’t clear about what school expenses were deductible, thus I ended up not only amending (at this branch which she did incorrectly) my filing since my Financial Aid counselor had a fit but then spending over two hours with a very patient and through gentleman at the VanNess branch trying to fix their mess after I got a nice little letter in the mail from the IRS.
I will never return to this branch. Never.

Had a really positive experience here. Having my domestic partnership done was not an easy task, and could NOT have been completed by turbotax unless you manually enter everything. One look at the IRS rules on domestic partnerships, made me realize I was in need of a professional. Thank you again H&R Block and boo at turbotax for letting me down!

Carol White was unprepared and overcharged for 2 ($ 250 each) simple returns. The only out of the ordinary in our returns is that we are domestic partners. I called H&R Block customer service department (some guy named Joel) and he was completely useless, unable to answer the most simple tax questions, putting me on hold for over an hour and refusing to transfer me to a manager. Never again, better of doing it yourself with TurboTax and if you have a question you pay $ 30 and get an answer within an hour form someone that understands the tax code.

First time using H & R block with Alexa and I have to say I was very impressed. She was very professional and courtious. She answered all my questions and was very conversational. I like how the company backs up your return with their error free gurantee. If anything goes wrong because of them they back it up. I enjoyed their free federal return promotion which is going on until monday I believe. I will be going back to this office next year for sure!

I went to this location based on great reviews of Carol White, and it turned out she was also the in house «nonresident tax return expert» as per the receptionist (a service I was shopping around for).
I found her unprepared to perform my return, corrected her through the process (lucky for me I had done some extensive background reading on the requirements for nonresident filings) and to top it all off, she was rushing to get through my return to service the next customer. It wasn’t a pleasant experience at all.
A few items to add context:
–I went to the office in February, well in advance of any impending tax return deadlines hoping I wouldn’t receive rushed service
–I had all my documentation on hand to make her life easierI
–I explicitly told her I was looking for someone to guide me through the process since it was my first time filing in the US — and she assured me she would.
I’ll be shopping around for a better accountant to help me with my returns next year.

Carol White has been helping me prepare my taxes now for almost 10 years, and she’s terrific. Very patient and fun to work with, as my situation is a bit complicated. Kind of makes tax time worth looking forward to!
Larry Z.

I’ve been getting my taxes done at this location for years with Carol White, who is really great. She is always smiling and fun to work with. Also, I like how she sends a letter in January with a checklist and her card to remind you to «get it together.»
My taxes can get complicated and she is very patient. It would not be uncommon for her to do them three different ways in order to find which is the best to way to file.
The cost to get your taxes prepared professionally may be a little more than what you’d expect. However, that would depend on what you’ve paid in the past (if anything) but there is always the «peace of mind» that they are done properly and just DONE.

This is the first time that I enjoyed doing my taxes.
THANK YOU CAROL!
We came in on the last day, without all the information, and she was nothing but charming, real and above all else got us the first refund we have had in five years. Highly recommended