I think I was just ripped off

[RWilson2526]

Every year I use turbotax to prepare my taxes.....this year I had some 401
K money cashed out and I was getting pretty well hammered by Uncle Sam so I went to H&R block just to make sure I was doing it right and see if they could help me get my deductions up and my bill down.

Well I was there 1 hour and 9 minutes.....my bill came out pretty much exactly the same as Turbo tax was telling me and they charged me $545.00

Thats insane right? I am looking all over the internet to see what people pay to have their taxes prepared and it seems like $300 is on the high side let alone $545.

I never asked how much they charged (I know kind of dumb) but I figured how much could it be $300 or so. Literally as she was walking me to the front desk she shows me my total cost. I think I'm going back tomorrow for a fight. Does this price sound right to anyone?

 

[Twidget]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

Yikes, that is outrageous. I pay a CPA only a couple hundred.

 

[Drowned Rat]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

I wonder if they jack their prices up the closer it gets to April 15th.

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

I had HRB check mine years ago for the same reason. I didnt like their lack of effort to save me some bucks. Had my sister-in law do them for me and I saved almost 2 k. Im not saying everything was "correct" and didnt ask. HRB only charged about 40 bucks cause of some special deal they had going. We use turbo and cant see why not to now.

 

[aspeck]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

I have been less than impressed with HRB's service. I have never used them, but have had friends use them.

I do returns for friends, but have a CPA do mine because of their complexity. I pay by the schedule (1040 is $40 then you add for each schedule needed) and my return booklet was almost an inch thick and $250.

With that said, yes, I think you got ripped off!

 

[chicknwing]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

I agree thats an insane price to prepare taxes. My CPA did my business taxes for less than that. I would be there fighting.

 

[dave11]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

The people Block hires are off the street. They get a few hours training at night, and then off to the desks. All they do is fill out the forms and send them out to be checked. I have a CPA do mine for $125 a year.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

I used HRB for a few years and became unhappy with them. Their charges are determined by the computer program that they use to do your taxes. I'm not going to say that the bill is computed by the keystroke, but it does bill in accordance with the amount of work that they do in the program.

My returns involve W2s, 1099s and K1s. I don't particularly want to do them myself because I don;t want to make a mistake that will either cost me money because I didn't take advantage of something legitimate, or because I made a mistake. What I have found is exactly what was said here a post or so ago, HRB's tax people seem to be marginally qualified. The ones that I have dealt with did not impress me.

This year I went to someone else and got my return done for half the money that HRB charged me last year. I also got a lot more money back.

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

To me turbotax is self explanitory. I did my taxes for 9.99 and they guarantee it accurate. Fill in the blanks, yadda yadda yadda. It's not that hard. Even complex returns can be done that way.

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

Unless you had a lot more pages to fill out than you're letting on, that's WAY beyond what you should have paid. I paid about $75 a few years back under similar circumstances. You might have better luck fighting this with HRB's corporate offices as it would be my guess that this person is not in line with their prices and policies.

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

They are robbing your eyeballs out....

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

tax prep is big business, basically a rip off. you can take your stuff down to irs, and they will help you for free. how do you think H&R Block pays the lease on those empty office for 9 months a year.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

Glad i could do a 1040 this year.I have been using Taxact.com,took all of 20 minutes to do state and federal,i think it was under 10 bucks.

 

[JB]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

Only a CPA can do a better job than TurboTax, and then only if it is real complicated.

Several years ago I made an error using TurboTax. . . figured capital gains based on the price my Dad paid for some stocks rather than their value when I inherited them. When I realized my error, several months later, I went back to my TurboTax and did an amended return. Got my money back from IRS, with interest!

A CPA would have caught that error the first time and charged me a couple hundred bux. HRB probably wouldn't have caught it, charged me too much and then charged me again to do the amended return.

If you can read you can use TurboTax. If you screw up you can use TurboTax to file an amended return.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

I feel you got ripped off. If it was me, I would have disputed it on the spot. For that amount, there should have been an estimated cost presented to you prior to the services.

I have used Taxslayer for the past 4 years without any problems.

HRB employees are only a link between you and their computer keyboard. If a person can't read and comprehend, then a tax service is for them. All others should be fine using a computer based program for themselves. This cuts out that middle persons cost IMO.....Good Luck it getting this dispute settled......SS

 

[eeboater]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

I went to HRB one year... watched them enter stuff into a computer from all the forms, printed out the returns and then charged me 300 bucks.

I was so angry at myself after that whole ordeal, I was spitting fire.

Any moron can read from a sheet of paper and type into a program... it was apparent they had plenty of them.

Why can't this moron just do it myself. And thats what I did... Turbotax.com works awesome...

Sean

 

[RWilson2526]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

Just go back from HRB.....I gave them back their paperwork (fortunately I was mailing in forms so they did not efile) and they refunded my money based upon their "customer satisfaction money back guarantee". They were pretty good about it. I offered them $250 but they wouldnt go for it. In their defense I did have some forms that each cost about an additional $30 each. we took some home office business expenses and apparently every portion of it is a different form with a charge.

Their contention was that it was a complicated return. My point was it only took 1 hr and 9 mins how complicated could it be.

When I told them that I ran turbotax last night and came up owing about $600 less they just gave me the money back guarantee.

All in all it worked out well. I do feel kind of foolish but I agree with Mayfloat that they should give you an idea of course before hand. Well I have to get back to Turbotax and finish up.

 

[bassman284]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

Just go back from HRB.....I gave them back their paperwork (fortunately I was mailing in forms so they did not efile) and they refunded my money based upon their "customer satisfaction money back guarantee". They were pretty good about it. I offered them $250 but they wouldnt go for it. In their defense I did have some forms that each cost about an additional $30 each. we took some home office business expenses and apparently every portion of it is a different form with a charge.

Their contention was that it was a complicated return. My point was it only took 1 hr and 9 mins how complicated could it be.

When I told them that I ran turbotax last night and came up owing about $600 less they just gave me the money back guarantee.

All in all it worked out well. I do feel kind of foolish but I agree with Mayfloat that they should give you an idea of course before hand. Well I have to get back to Turbotax and finish up.

Just curious. What did you do differently the second time through TurboTax to reduce your tax bill $600?

 

[RWilson2526]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

Just curious. What did you do differently the second time through TurboTax to reduce your tax bill $600?

Well I probably wasnt completely accurate when I stated in my first post that the numbers came up pretty much the same.

Although both sources had me owing around $9700 (thats why they tell you never cash out a 401K!!!) The first time I went through turbotax I had a penalty of a couple hundred dollars because I contributed to a Roth IRA last year which due to the extra income I was not allowed to do. Since I have since withdrawn those contributions that was removed....secondly when I first did Turbotax I did not claim my home office which I did at HRB. So really when I said they came out about the same I was not really comparing apples to apples.

And then the real kicker on this whole fiasco is that because of the extra income this year it seems that I may not qualify for my tax stimulus package that comes out in May.... and finally the real shame of it all is I had all that cash in hand and didnt get a new boat out of it. Well you live and learn

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: I think I was just ripped off

Even with the tax issues that you mentioned, what you were charged is ridiculous. It sounds to me that the tax consultant who was working for them didn't know what he/she was doing and ended up bouncing around in the program trying to get things right. Since the HRB tax software seems to bill based on program activity, doing so may have pushed the price way up.

Also, most tax preparers charge extra to e-file. Since you did not do this, what you were charged is even more outrageous. As I mentioned in my previous post, my tax returns are fairly complicated and I e-file every year. Even the HRB office that I was going to didn't charge me that much.