The Kaseno CPA Firm

I hired the Kaseno CPA Firm during my divorce to do an expert tracing of separate and community property (for a reimbursement issue). When I initially spoke to Karen on the phone, she eased some of my worries, so I set up a time to meet in person and was grateful when Karen said she could meet me in their Carlsbad office, which is much closer to my home. I said I would bring all the pertinent documents on a USB drive and I signed and emailed back an engagement letter in advance of the meeting.
I should have taken my first meeting as a hint of what was to come — Karen arrived late, led me to a room without a computer/​laptop (which meant I couldn’t show her any of the electronic files I had brought), and then pulled out a blank engagement letter for me to sign (apparently forgetting she had already emailed me back thanking me for providing a signed engagement letter). Suffice to say, the meeting was a complete waste of time (for me, not Karen — she billed $ 413 for it) but I was desperate.
I won’t go into all the details of all my ensuing disappointments, but I ended up being billed 30% higher than the estimate Karen initially provided, and I was never informed that the estimate was going to be exceeded by such a large amount. Almost $ 1,200 was billed after a conference call to discuss the *completed* tracing. During the course of the tracing, I fielded a number of questions via emails that I had already answered and/​or provided the documents for. The completed work had major errors on the summary tables (listing year-​end balances for accounts when the date of separation was mid-​October).
I raised all my concerns to Karen and was shocked when I received an email back with one excuse after another. I will copy and paste the text of two emails at the end of this review. Suffice to say, I do not recommend the Kaseno CPA Firm — the work they do is average at best, they seem extremely disorganized, and they have unfair billing practices (invoices are so vague they are impossible to dispute).
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Text from email correspondence
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Email #1 — From Kaseno to me in response to my email questioning billing
«When I gave you estimates I did tell you that I cannot give an exact estimate and that we bill hourly. When I gave you the estimates I did not anticipate so much back and forth in getting documentation. I also did not anticipate having to include the analysis of his accounts. There were not errors in our schedules. We frequently combine accounts and use month end balances. I also didn’t anticipate that a written report would be necessary.»
Email #2 — My response to Kaseno
«Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I don’t want to be argumentative and do appreciate that tracing is time consuming and that you told me you couldn’t give me an exact estimate. However, even when you were halfway through the tracing, you told me (via email) that the estimate stood, so I hope you can understand why I am shocked by the final amount. I must admit I don’t understand what you mean when you say that you didn’t anticipate having to include the analysis of [my Ex’s] accounts — you were the one who told me that judges get annoyed when you don’t track the other party’s separate property and you were the one who requested the documents for the accounts under his control. I also am a bit confused by your statement that you didn’t anticipate a written report would be necessary. I didn’t request a written report — in fact, in my last email, I simply asked for the „Draft“ watermark to be removed from what you had already provided — you are the one who suggested/​decided to write the final report. Finally, the numbers used in your schedules were year-​end numbers, not month-​end numbers, and were over ten thousand dollars off what the date of separation balances were.»
Epilogue — I got no where with my emails. It quickly became apparent Karen was going to use excuse after excuse and was not willing to release the tracing report until I paid my final bill, so I did, only to have my credit card double-​billed, Karen claim they had not double-​billed me, and then me having to file a dispute with my credit card company (which was thankfully successful).