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speakthetruth
August 24, 2009
Unprofessionalism and fraud - bait and switch
In February of 2009 I started looking for a new accountant, since my taxes had become fairly complicated having started a business the previous year. I was recommended to an accountant who worked for Tax Tigers, Inc. in Lulburn, GA. I met with him, hired him and paid him the money. When I first gave him my taxes, he worked for Tax Tigers. However, by the time he was ready to file, he had left and I paid him directly as an independent accountant. 4 Months later in June the IRS still had not received anything at the state or federal, not even the extension. What I found out later is that he was a convicted felon, and had served time in prison for unarmed robbery and some type of fraud, two things that don’t really go well with accounting. I am baffled as to how he got through the background checks to work for Tax Tigers in the first place, or if any checks were done at all. I called Tax Tigers and spoke to the owner, Norm and told him what happened and asked if they could file for me. He said yes, and assured me they would take care of me. I got everything together and brought it to theie office. When I spoke to the employee that would be handling things, I made it clear that I wanted to pay whatever fees they would charge out of my return. This is for two reasons, first I had just got burned having paid money and the taxes never getting filed, Second, I was completely broke having been unemployed for almost a year and having spent the last of my extra money on the previous accountant. They said they would have them done in about 3 days. 2 weeks go by and I don't here anything. I call his employee and she says Norm, the owner is the one actually doing the taxes. I call him and leave messages wth his receptionist about 3 times over the next few days, with no call back. The following week, his employee tells me that Norm is having to finish up other corporate clients before he starts on mine. Another week goes by and a few messages, and still no word. This goes on until I finally get in touch with him over a month after I dropped my taxes off, and he says he will have them done the following week. I call the following week, and his receptionist said he had an emergency and had to go out of town for a few days. So finally the next week, after a month and a half, his employee calls and tells me the taxes are ready for me to sign. Then, she tells me that he's charging me $350 and it's due immediately, before they file. I told her that I had said before that I needed to pay them out of the return and she said she would call Norm. She calls back and said he said either pay the $350 now, or take my paperwork back. Now, I was pretty patient and pretty understanding having had to wait a month and a half for something I was told would take 3 days, with barely an apology, and barely any contact or updates. After all that, they can't extend the same courtesy after going through all I had to go through. To me it seems like he intentionally waited a month and a half till it got close to the extension deadline, and then demanded the $350 to file immediately, knowing it would be hard to find someone else to do them in that time frame. The lack of caring, lack of responsibility, unprofessionalism, and overall horrible experience have forced me to write this, and I have never went s far as to write a public complaint before.
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