Greenstein, Rogoff, Olsen & Co., LLP

I have used GROCO for a number of years and they have always been good to me. I couldn’t think of anything worse than dealing with taxes and they have made my battle a lot easier on me personally. I work with Alan and his team and have complete confidence in them.

I used Groco (as they call themselves) this year for my taxes, and will not be coming back. I met them with on Feb 2, and was introduced to the person who would be my tax consultant, Daniel Kufeld. I showed them my last two year’s returns and the info I had assembled for this year, and expressed concern that I did not want to go with a tax company that would be significantly more $$$ than what I had been paying — they assured me it would be in the SAME ballpark, and my return would be done in about 2 weeks.
Daniel contacted me exactly once, to have me sign the letter of engagement, which they had forgotten to do at the initial meeting. That was the last time I heard from him… after phone calls and 4 emails of increasing urgency over the next 6 weeks, I finally contacted Allen Olsen, one of the partners. He did not acknowledge any lapse in communication, and simply said my NEW tax person would be Limei Chen. She seemed pretty competent, and I figured everything was fine… UNTIL I got the bill, which is 4X what I had been paying previously!!!
Allen did not acknowledge my first query on the exorbitant fees, but on the second one, wrote back to say my information had been disorganized (I beg to differ), and it took longer than expected. Mind you, I had given them a list of all inputs at the initial meeting, with supporting documentation for all but 1 source of income, when we met.
I can’t comment on how well the taxes were prepared, let’s hope I don’t get audited like the first person who reviewed them. But the communication was beyond terrible, and I feel there was some bait & switch going on with an initial lowball estimate and subsequent HUGE bill.

Avoid this firm at ANY and ALL costs.
I hired them in 2009 to take care of the books for my small business on a family recommendation. For a year they basically did everything, and anything but take care of the books.
I got charged for every single phone conversation or email I had with their lead associate (shark) Ron Cohen, and for their list of literally 5 – 8 incompetent assistants, which weren’t even doing monthly profit and loss or managing Quickbooks. When it was time to do taxes a year later they told me my books weren’t in order and then charged me an absolutely outrageous amount of money to organize the books and file the company returns.
They then proceeded to tell me book keeping wasn’t part of our agreement of services after charging me upwards of $ 500 dollars a month for an entire year. Pretty questionable and irresponsible business ethics if you ask me. Last time I checked accountants and accounting firms are there to manage the books…
The icing on the cake, was when I found out what I owed the government in 2010, because it was too late to mitigate any of the taxes because no extension was filed or even discussed with us. Goodbye IRA money! Goodbye charitable contributions!
Two years later (2011), I’m facing a potential IRS audit for the lousy work they did, and have been told by multiple professionals in the field that the returns were not categorized properly and are questionable at best.
There are tons of great firms in the bay area, don’t hire GROCO. This company will do nothing but charge outrageous prices and insert grief into your life.

My business grew tremendously over the last six years and we opened an office overseas. My previous CPA firm was not capable of handling my complex tax issues (nor my personal tax planning) which is why I ended up with GROCO. A friend here in Seattle uses them because he has a SF business and he referred me to them. Finding a good CPA firm that you TRUST can be a daunting task. The team at GROCO are knowledgeable, competent, trustworthy, and friendly. They always return my emails and calls promptly (I find it hard to believe that the previous reviewer had a problem with this) and treat me like family. I have referred my friends to GROCO for simple tax preparation and they were treated with the same level of service. Alan and his team will be my «trusted advisors» for years to come.

Shortly after I posted my first review of this place, they got back in touch with me. They immediately sent me my taxes to review and file. Everything seemed to have been done correctly, but 3 months after April 15^th. I will never EVER go here again, I suggest that if you want your taxes done on time (and for someone to return your calls without you having to write a Unilocal review), you go elsewhere.