H&R Block

Generally terrible experience which started out well. I went to HR Block –Nofrthpoint Office originally — to check cost for preparing a tax return for a small trust I have held entirely in one account at Schwab. The two young women there were very pleasant and eager to be helpful and said there was a 50% off offer for new customers so it should be around $ 100 but they needed to have their more experienced supervisor look at it. Next day they called me back and said only the HR block Sansome St. office could do trust returns and they would transmit there the documents I left with them (a copy of the return from the prior year, 2014 and the current 1099 from Schwab). I waited a day to call the HR Block Sansome St. office — but they hadn’t received anything and didn’t know anything about it but they would take care of it. Next day no call so I called them; they still didn’t know about it as the Trust preparer was at another office. Finally I got here and she said, after some prodding, «Trust returns start at $ 400 or $ 500» so I said «Thankyou but no; please return the documents and she said they would be sent by UPS to me going out Monday as this was a Friday. I waited a week and … NOTHING. I called again and spoke to the manager who didn’t know where the documents were. Finally I called the main national HR Block number and got someone who said they would investigate after I said I was starting a BBB complaint and was going to check into tax preparer regulatory authorities with the IRS. Finally after another two days they called and said they would be sent by UPS. After another two days I finally got my documents back today. HR Block –never, never, never again!

They seem to be in the business of wanting to sell services to you, but have robots who answer the phone, don’t offer any way to leave a message, or have anyone call you back, but will just offer robot appointments where you have to show up for something you should be able to do over the phone. Beyond Epic Fail!

You pay a lot for convenience.

Fantastic! This is my first time using a tax service, and I could not be more impressed. Shirley was patient and taught me several things about taxes, and then went into great detail when it came to my situation. I got into a bit of a pickle this year, and Shirley helped me save over $ 3,000 dollars. Although the prices are a bit high, it was definitely worth it! Thanks Shirley!

Horrible experience. I made an appointment with Roy and yet I was ket waiting for almost 30 minutes! What’s the purpose of an appointment if you keep a client waiting.
I was hoping to take advantage of their 50% off promotion. When I finally sat down with Ray he took a quick look at my previous year’s return and curtly told me I should be going to my current tax person as he would have everything already entered electronically. It was clear he did not want my business! Rude, unhelpful, horrible service. I would never go back and would never recommend them!

Terrible experience.
We were greeted by Anwar, who shook my hand, but ignored my wife.
Anwar explained that the reason he was late was that he was on the phone with IT — they recently installed a new platform, and every morning was spent calling in the latest round of defects. Yes, please take all my financial information into your leaky bucket of an IT system.
Here’s the real kicker. Anwar started by explaining to us up front that the fees at H&R Block would be higher than say, TurboTax, which we currently use. We understand this, and explained that, with higher fees we would hope for increased expertise and hands-​on guidance that would decrease our tax liability. Anwar just could not let it go — he kept insisting that we would be displeased with the high fees and not want to pay them. It was borderline antagonistic, so we walked out.
The only conclusion I can reach is that H&R Block is not able to produce enough value over TurboTax to justify their (much) higher fees. I have to think that Anwar’s dogged insistence that we would dispute the high fees was driven by previous experience. I don’t think people would dispute higher fees if they were seeing a decreased liability/​increased refund to offset it.
We are actually going to try another H&R Block location. I cannot believe that Anwar was following company protocol when he drove us away from his office with prophecies of fee displeasure.

i had a perfectly HORRIBLE experience with patricia and with H & R block in general. having said that, i invite you to take a look at my other reviews. they are mostly very positive b/​c i’m good at picking great places. who knows what happened to my picker this time (but let’s not get side tracked.)
i dropped my 1 and only w2 off early in the week before memorial day. patricia told me i’d either hear from her late in the week or early the following. i hadn’t heard by the end of tuesday so i gave a call. i got put on hold for a very long time so i decided to drop in on my way home from work. patricia told me something was wrong with my w2. i have no idea why it took her several days to let me know, but ok. she gave me a brief explanation. when i communicated this to the bookkeeper at work she did not understand.
meanwhile, i tried to contact H & R block before the bookkeeper came in. no one answered, the call was re-​routed to a main office and i left a message. no one called back so i called again when the bookkeeper came in. they were unable to give a clear, concise explanation between patricia and the 3 other people we were passed around too. the longer we stayed on the phone the more UN-​helpful and passive aggressive the H & R block staff became.
meanwhile, patricia was scheduled to go on vacation, starting the next day, for 2 weeks and my taxes were going to be put off until she got back. i have to admit, i think it’s odd that they only have 1 person in the entire office who can do my taxes.
regarding my w2, we did some digging at my office and according to my boss’ accountant, the way patricia was suggesting my w2 be prepared, was for businesses with over 265 employees. the place i work for has less than 10 employees. when i came to pick my w2 up, the office manager was passive aggressive (again.)
i’m really glad i didn’t have them prepare my taxes and i only wish i’d read the other reviews before taking mine in. H & R block in the financial district is rude and very unprofessional.

Patricia Schumacker has done an amazing job for me the last few years. I highly recommend her.

I’ve been going to see Rebeca Bibliowicz at the 220 Sansome St location since 2010 for my tax preparations. Rebecca is absolutely wonderful. She is detail-​oriented, patient, calm, friendly, and always reliable.
I saw Rebecca 3 weeks ago and I already got my refund back last week.
No doubt I’ll be going back to her again next year.
Thanks Rebecca, you rock!

I would highly recommend working with
Mr. Bhimjee — he is knowledgeable and acurate. My concern was with the corporate protocol — they quote you one rate. Then once in it goes higher and then what you pay is slightly more. I just found that whole process SHADY! I spoke to the distinct manager about this. H&R block corporate should be more clear and upfront with customers — that was not okay with me, and the district manager understood that but offered no insight as to why they say and do what they do.
I was in a hurry and went ahead — the only reason I went ahead was because of Mr. Bhimjee. Otherwise, I would have walked. HR block I would have given you a negative STAR were it not for Mr. Bhimjee. BUYER BEWARE — get clarity upfront — DEMAND IT!!!

I am going to see Rebeca Bibliowicz this morning to do my tax return with her for the third consecutive year. We started working together when I had an absolute tax NIGHTMARE on my hands, the details of which I do not want to publish on the internet. =-)
She calmed me down (some feat!) over the phone, worked with me remotely and then in person through which process I felt guided and a high level of advocacy and concern. In the end, I came in personally to do the paperwork and meet. Lo and behold I got a refund, whereas my absolute best effort with Turbo Tax resulted in an incorrect tax bill equal to four-​months my gross salary, after overpaying my taxes all year at my main job. It ended up a blessing in disguise because now I love working with Rebeca and I look forward to getting my taxes done early (instead of dreading doing them at the last possible minute on turbo tax).
Just sayin’…I love this woman.

I visited this H&R Block location after getting an audit letter from the IRS. Patricia Schumaker helped me resolve the confusion and fix both my federal & state returns for that year — and she also double-​checked my tax filings for the year prior. Thanks Patricia!
I had looked into working with an audit attorney and was quoted thousands of dollars in fees. If i recall correctly, H&R Block charged me ~$ 200 for the audit review & response (which was about half of their fees for a regular tax return). If you get audited, I would recommend going to H&R Block to help resolve the issue!

Horrible! The screwed up my taxes from 2010 and I just got a notice that I owe $ 3K more. When I dropped off the notice to my tax preparer and he lost it. Nobody would fess up that they made a mistake. Called everyday to try and get a hold of him, no return call. This place has horrible customer service.

Really disappointed with service this year at H&R Block on Sansome in San Francisco. Shirley Abbott is worthless.
After waiting for over 20 minutes because the receptionist forgot to tell her I was there, I had a really rude in-​person meeting with her where she was flustered by my tax situation. Having lived out of the country for half of the year in England, I was told when I called that Shirley could handle my situation because she is from England. This was not the case. I was also earning in New York and this threw her off as well.
After I was told that my taxes were done, when I asked if she had filed my extension, she told me she had accidentally e-​filed my taxes — even though they weren’t supposed to be filed until later in the year to qualify for my refund. She tells me that there is no way to get it back and that if anything was wrong with the refund that I can go back to H&R Block later in the year to have them correct it — so more work on my part for her error.
Then I went online to check the status of my refund to make sure it hadn’t been affected by this error — and got back in touch with her to find out the date of filing — and she tells me she was wrong and that you can’t e-​file if you are married filing separate. So apparently she didn’t actually e-​file my taxes already? How hard is it to look into a client’s file before giving them information? Will probably never use H&R Block again.

I had a horrible experience with Helen Mar at H&R Block. I went in for an individual appointment and her customer service was horrendous. Our appointment took 13 minutes in total and as we left her desk she exclaimed, «I already spent way too much time with you. Consultation should only be 5 minutes.» [Please note that I made this appointment online and was automatically registerred for an hour-​long time slot. I was shocked to see her greedy reaction to a 13 minute meeting with a first-​time customer.] She had terrible listening skills and didn’t appear to be very knowledgeable about cross-​state tax issues or capable of answering any of my questions. She showed zero empathy for my tax confusion even after I expressed difficulties I’m experiencing in relation to the recent death of family members. When I sought her help on an issue relating to an inaccurate bill I received for a past tax return she suggested that I should «just pay it.»
I wouldn’t recommend Helen Mar’s services to anyone. Since this was my first experience at H&R Block, it is unlikely I will go back after the poor service I received today.

I had to wait for my appt; The old woman learned I was there for questions not filing tax, she didn’t even want to spend time for my appt to talk about my tax

After receiving some startling news from the IRS I made an appointment with Patrick Perigaud. He couldn’t have been more professional in his determination to find the best possible outcome for me. I highly recommend his service because, aside from being a genuinely pleasant person, he approached my tax issues with care and diligence. Now that everything is resolved it feels good to know that I have someone reliable to count on for the tax seasons to come. Thank you Patrick!

Shirley Abbot was VERY helpful to my husband and myself. We are Canadian citizens who happened to be working in San Francisco (him, not me), and our taxes were somewhat more complicated.
Shirley has dealt with Canadians filing their US taxes (our first year we were considered non-​residents). I felt completely at ease with her helping us. The second year of our US residency, we moved to Texas (I know, what the heck were we thinking?). It became very clear that the H&R Block in Dallas wasn’t as adept at processing our complex claim. Thankfully Shirley was able to process our taxes again, from San Francisco, for us to submit to Texas and the feds.
There are people who know what they’re doing and some who don’t. Shirley Abbott is one who is on the ball.
Was it expensive? Yes, more than I would have liked to have paid, given that it seems all they do is punch numbers into a program. But she knew some great tips to help us get a better refund. In the end, completely satisfied. :)

I wish that I had listened to the bad reviews here, maybe then I wouldn’t be wasting more time on this pathetic business by writing my own.
Patricia took my paperwork, told me that she’d have them done in a week because she was leaving town for vacation, and then the day before they were due emailed me to say that she had an «emergency» and was leaving town for SEVERAL WEEKS and that she would contact me upon her return! WTF! Now the branch is not returning my calls, not open during the posted business hours, and basically holding my records hostage so that I cannot even take them to another tax professional.
DO NOT IGNORE the bad reviews of this branch. If you want to donate your time, energy and money, give generously to a charity, not this bunch of yahoos.
UPDATE: I finally figured out the name of one of the accountants and did some online sleuthing to pose as a potential new client to get him to call me back, made an appointment to go pick up my paperwork and took my business elsewhere after they made no offer to make things «right» with my experience. Run from this place… run far, far away from this place.

This place is an absolute joke. «Professional» tax help from them will cost you more than what the IRS wants. If you are self-​employed you might as well sell your business for the price of this place. For 2 1099-​MISC forms I had to pay $ 352. My meeting with Collin was delayed 25 minutes for who knows why. He sat with me a total of maybe 20 minutes (he is a nice guy though) and told me I owe $ 2600 to the IRS and $ 352 for the preparation. Pretty much ruined my next couple months.
I will NEVER EVER go to H&R Block again and will tweet/​facebook/​instagram/​flaregun/​smoke screen/​yell/​moan and whine to everyone I know how terrible that price is. Seriously? $ 352??? I MADE $ 16,000 last year. 16!
H&R Block, worst company ever. Bank of America isn’t that bad.

I’ve done my taxes with Helen Mar for the last 2 years now and so far I’ve had a great experience with her. Like most tax prep places it’s the people who define a good experience more than the place itself.
I highly recommend using Helen as she will spend the time with you to make sure you understand the process she’s using for your return and will always ask if you have any questions which she answers in plain english rather than accounting jargon.
She will treat me like the imperfect human being that I am by explaining what she’s doing when typing away unlike some other places I’ve been to in the past and she always tells me both what’s going to be different with this years returns along with what I can be doing to save more money in the future.
If you wait until the last minute you won’t likely get an appointment since she has a following but you should try to anyway.
Disclaimer: I haven’t tried any of the other tax preparers at this location because I figured I already found a winner. Just like a good bartender, dentist, or hair stylist if I find a winner then I don’t need to shop around.