Block Advisor

First of all, I have been coming to H&R Block from probably over 25 years, but… I will never foot inside a block office again. Incompetent. The gentleman that did my taxes acted as if he didn’t know what he was doing and actually stated he didn’t know program so another woman came and sat down and she even mentioned «I don’t program real well yet either.» Im thinking you can’t be serious, oh but it gets better… Finally after 3 hrs and 3 diff people trying to fit out the program coming up with diff numbers etc, I said I GOTTO go and was told it would bev

Horrible. Service. They act like you bothering them. They can’t handle all the services needed for tax season

I had a frustrating experience yesterday at a branch here in St. Louis, and here’s the message I sent to H&R Block about it on their facebook page.
«As others have already said, I’m posting here some feedback since there’s no customer service phone number on your website. I had a frustrating experience at one of your locations here in St. Louis: 3655 PAGE BLVD
SAINT LOUIS, MO 63 113 (BTW, I usually go to TurboTax to tackle my tax needs, but decided to give H&R Block a try.)
I’m new to the state and don’t have any state or federal taxes withheld from my income (I have a stipend from my university and it is not to pay for school, I have a fee waiver for that). So, I need to make estimated quarterly payments and went to this office to get help with that. The lady, Kathy Smith, was very nice but highly incompetent in this matter. She didn’t know anything about what she was doing, and that’s fine, it seems like my situation is a rare one. She kept getting help from the manager, and all I wanted was to genuinely know what taxes I need to pay so I don’t end up with a huge amount at the end of the year. Finally, she came up with a number, which was more than half of my yearly income. Obviously it was wrong since no one pays more than half of his/​her income in taxes, so she was like „OK I don’t know what’s wrong so let’s go back and change some numbers.“ Btw, she admitted she didn’t know what she was doing. She wanted to charge me $ 75 for 4 hours, but I had called the day before and the person who picked up the phone gave me a different price: $ 30. I told her this, but I ended up getting charged $ 45.
Anyways, at this point it was obvious that I would fare better just downloading the forms myself from the IRS website and doing the numbers myself (which is what I ended up doing). So I just wanted to finish doing what we were doing, pay, and get out of there. She finally came up with a different amount that I needed to pay in taxes and she gave me the 8 vouchers to send in the mail: 4 for the state of MO and 4 for the federal IRS. That’s it. Just the vouchers. I’m like „can I have the rest of the sheets that have all the numbers? My income, my wife’s income, etc.“ She didn’t want to give them to me and was very adamant about this, saying that they had her employee number and had to shred them. So when the manager came by (I didn’t catch her name) I told her „we were wondering if you could help us. I want the sheets with the income numbers and all that for my own records“ and she also didn’t want to give them to me. I’m like, „well I’d like to keep a record of everything and I forgot what number we put in for my wife’s withholdings so far.“ So she manager’s like „it was $ 650, I remember.“ And still didn’t want to give me those sheets! I insisted, and after a while they game me one incomplete sheet with some numbers.
Anyways, it was a very frustrating experience. I came home, did the calculations myself, and came up with very different tax estimates. Needless to say, I’m going to follow my own calculations since I feel more confident that they’re more accurate than what Kathy, who admitted didn’t know what she was doing and didn’t want to give me what I paid for, came up with at H&R Block. It’s frustrating, because I paid $ 45, and I feel like it was for nothing. I’d like something to be done about this by H&R Block. Thanks.»

Where to start???
I attempted to do my taxes on turbotax but it was a hot mess. Between living in 3 states all in one year, having over 4 different jobs in those different states, each job with its own payment form (scholarships, 1099s, w-​2s), investments, school, IRAs, you name it, I was about 99% sure I did SOMETHING wrong. So I desperately sought the help of Mary, and she was my knight in shining armor!
This was my first time doing my own taxes, as my parents had always done them before (and it was about the most complicated, awful year to choose to start doing my taxes!). I told Mary how confused I was and she was really patient in explaining to me everything that we were doing and why. And she is actually a cool person to talk to and made tax time less of a drab than it actually is. I really felt she went above and beyond to make me tax prep successful and a non-​horrifying experience. Everyone else I interacted with at this HR Block was also very friendly and nice, so customer service gets an A++.
Turns out I HAD done my taxes completely wrong on turbotax. My numbers were not even close to what I got with Mary. Turbotax had me owe about $ 1500 in state with a $ 500 federal refund. So I was at -$ 1000 with Turbotax. I ended up with an enormous federal refund doing my taxes with Mary (like $ 1800 worth… don’t remember exactly), and owed about the same in state taxes. So I broke even.
Since I had so many forms to fill out, my H&R block cost was in the mid 400s. I literally cringed when I saw it. But in the grand scheme of things, I am at -$ 400 with H&R block (and peace of mind for a correct tax return) vs -$ 1000 with Turbotax. So it was totally worth it.
I’d say if your taxes are simple and youve had consistent employment and housing etc, you’ll probably be ok with Turbotax. H&R block will also be a whole lot cheaper for you than it was for me. But if you’re confused and have a tens of tax papers flying around, find Mary and seek her help, because she is great.
Even next year when my tax situation is a lot calmer, I will be back. Working with Mary is totally worth the money, if not for the frustration you’ll save yourself trying to figure out what goes where or refund you’ll get (which is not guaranteed, per se), then for the peace of mind of actually having someone do your taxes who knows what she’s talking about. You’ll also have the chance to hang out with a genuinely good human being, and nowadays those are really hard to find.

Oh, the dreaded tax time. It really is pretty painful every year, but the refund we are going to receive makes it all okay, I guess.
My husband and I made an appointment with Mary. Let me just start by saying that Mary was the highlight of this experience. She was extremely patient, funny, and made sure we understood everything she was doing, and why she was doing it. I really appreciate the fact that she didn’t expect us to automatically know everything about the process.
Ours should be one of the simplest tax filings ever done. Somehow it still took an hour and didn’t end up seeming that simple. We definitely got the best return by having Mary do it, since she is a professional. But for the price (a whopping $ 250), for a simple return, I feel like we probably could have done them on turbo tax (like we did last year) and be just fine.
I’m a bit frustrated with this process and feel a little jipped out of the deal. That being said, if you are more comfortable with a professional doing your return I highly recommend making an appointment with Mary! I am confident that Mary got us the highest return possible.