H&R Block

This review is not of H&R Block, in general, as I’ve been a happy customer of theirs for 5 or 6 years now. This review is specifically for the branch at Litchfield and McDowell, as I strongly question the competence of their staff to accurately handle taxes.
My husband and I had our taxes done at another H&R block earlier this year. We got a notice from the IRS saying that there was an error and we owed additional money, and since we had bought the Peace of Mind Guarantee I just took everything over to them (the branch I had originally gone to was only open seasonally). I have no background in accounting, tax law, or anything of the sort, but before we had our taxes done this year there were a few things I had looked up on the IRS website.
Well, that few minutes of reading on the IRS website made me better informed than the employees of this branch on current tax issues. When I handed my tax returns and IRS letter to the accountant who was helping me, she told me that the reason we must owe money is because of an error in how the last accountant documented something (let’s call it Issue A). I told her that Issue A was done was correctly for reasons x, y, and z, and she proceeded to argue with me. I told her I had consulted with multiple non H&R Block accountants on the issue prior to having our taxes done that year and was positive it wasn’t a problem. She then calls another accountant over and they both start telling me that I have obviously misunderstood. I had to pull up the IRS website and show them what section to read to convince them they were wrong. Their response: «Oh. Well then this has been a good learning experience for us.» WHAT???
It ends up the reason we owed more money was because of a glitch in the IRS computer system and everything got taken care of. But, in the 45 minutes the accountant was on hold with the IRS office, I overheard the conversation of the customer in the next cubicle over whose taxes had been royally screwed up by that office. Her accountant kept apologizing to her profusely, but it was obvious that there was a significant problem.
The reason I am giving 2 stars instead of 1 is because the accountant I worked with was very nice and patient. I’ve always trusted H&R Block (there was one year that we used one of those at-​home tax prep programs, then went in for their second look and they found an extra $ 1000) but this was an eye opener that the competency of each branch is different.

Do not, I repeat, do NOT go to this H and R Block! They are awful!
We stopped in last week prepared to get some information on doing my boyfriend’s taxes. Our biggest red flag was probably the girl at the front desk area– I’m guessing she was a secretary or something. She had nails that were seriously over five inches long each. It was disgusting. She couldn’t even hand him a pen or write anything. Just gross!
We weren’t told what to do or anything so she handed us off to a girl who wound up screwing my boyfriend out of $ 192. She sat us down and we explained that this was his first time doing his taxes on his own (our parents usually help us out). We told her that we came here since my mom uses the H and R Block online program.
Anyways, she repeated about three times that we were «married, right?» We kept telling her we weren’t and finally she opened up a screen on the computer. She flipped through every page entering information at a rapid speed. She didn’t give us time to read what she was filling out and on some of the questions, she didn’t even bother waiting for an answer. She even got an attitude when my boyfriend was reading over a contract she wanted him to sign.
When he asked questions about it, she had no real answers. Then, she told him it would cost $ 160 (his orginal refund was only going to be about $ 300 from his civilian jobs). We asked why and she said something to the effect of, «Well, because that’s how much it costs.» Wrong! Mine was only $ 50 last year with just as many W2s as he had (she said this was the reason– he has three W2s). Then, there was a $ 32.95 «direct deposit» fee. Ridiculous.
We stopped in the H and R Block office at Luke Air Force base (my boyfriend’s an officer in the Air Force) and asked them if we’d been jerked around. They informed us that his fee shouldn’t have been that high and that the woman didn’t help us the way she should have.
Steer clear of this location.