Just lost a client.....

[veritas]

That reminds me of when I got our first computer back in 1988. An XT with a 20 Meg HD. You know, the kind you needed to know DOS.

I think it must have been the very first week. I was trying to delete something when I typed the command:

del C:/*.*

The early years of computers....those were the days...

It was del c:*.*

Dos? CPM is where it's at.

[geekgirldany]

Hate it for the fellow that developed CP/M.

"IBM tried to contact Kildall for a meeting, executives met with Mrs. Kildall who refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. IBM soon returned to Bill Gates and gave Microsoft the contract to write the new operating system, one that would eventually wipe Kildall's CP/M out of common use."

[Chief]

Fellow Picker

Ken: Include me too. I just purchased a banjitar. The instruments looks and sounds like a banjo but it has 6 strings and is tuned like a guitar. After tax season I plan to spend some time picking it.

[Black Bart]

Thanks anyway, Brad, but

Nice to see you came back. Armando has been reprimanded for his sloppy use of the delete button. He was trying to delete someone else's post for inappropriate language when he took out half the board along with the offender's post. Yours got deleted along with the rest.

Sorry.

don't be too rough on that boy--he knows too much stuff to make him mad and quit. First thing you know, he might turn into one of those irresponsible and offensive so-and-sos that Unregistered was complaining about. Besides, he wasn't all wrong--even though the asteriks in my post were put there by me, the censoring machine would have put them there if I'd said what I really meant.

But now I've got a bone to pick with him.

[Black Bart]

Back on task? Grannie taught me how to do taxes (say a Hail Mary and send it in). She also taught me a great way of handling the less fortunate clients. You can do all the returns you want for free, but no discounts. You get to help out folks if you think they really need it, and you don't devalue your work or the work of other tax preparers. You also don't need to explain why you doubled their price when they got back on their feet, or why you charged your loyal client of 10 years three times what you charged that guy down the street.

Dang it Armando, I wuz just tryin' to give a broke boy a hand, but I didn't wanna take him in to raise. I cayn't afford to do it for free. I just wanted to get that good, noble feelin' without losin' my shirt. Why do you have to go and bring the "larger social implications" into it--you know, all that stuff there about "devaluing the work of other tax preparers?" What do they have to do with it or say about it? I'm the one givin' the guy a break. You sound like those guys on the news a couple of months ago sayin' that, since I was drivin' a gas-guzzlin' SUV, I was aiding terrorists someway or another. I thought (and still do) that he was nuts. Heck, it's my car. If he wants to drive a VW, it's okay with me. And if I want to cut my price now and then, I don't think it's anybody else's business. Put another way, I think "linkage" is for the birds.

So there. Phooey (delete that-I dare you) to you and the "concerned" busybodies stickin' their collective noses in my biz (that includes you too, jainen--even if you probably would like to take Ken up on his offer and shoot him for "admitting that your work has no value").

[Black Bart]

Snag had it pretty much right

Yet Block continually successfully challenges us in the market with every device ranging from discount food tickets to same-day RALs.

Bottom-line...Block KNOWS THE PUBLIC, and they know enough about taxes to do the job. They target the public en masse with big advertising dollars and offer them the things what they think they want! I don't know a single HRB office who wants to prepare a few international 1120s for the millionaire on the hill. They want to do 1040A's for the thousands in the general populace and they want to MAKE MONEY doing it. They are closer to General Motors, Citibank, and Exxon than they are to our corner tax prep offices and they don't really care whether we like it or not.

Don't paint HRB as the consummate evil and incompetants in our industry, or defend them as patron saints either. Recognize them for what they are. Don't allow them to determine our agenda for us. We surely will not succeed in changing theirs.

about Block. A lot of us don't like them, but a lot of us are just a little afraid of them (and JH) and what they might do next to make us jump through some very unpleasant hoops to compete with them.

[jainen]

pretty fine bread

Well, my work doesn't have much value, but I bake some pretty fine bread in the cast iron camp oven. As for shooting people, I let our elected representatives take care of all that.

[Black Bart]

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they

Well, my work doesn't have much value, but I bake some pretty fine bread in the cast iron camp oven. As for shooting people, I let our elected representatives take care of all that.

shall have camp-baked bread.

Nice to hear from you, my jousting friend. Your apt/wry comments do not go unnoticed and, for your noble efforts in maintaining camaraderie on the board, you shall duly receive a gold star for rising above the fray.

[Bees Knees]

don't be too rough on that boy--he knows too much stuff to make him mad and quit. First thing you know, he might turn into one of those irresponsible and offensive so-and-sos that Unregistered was complaining about.

Armando might know a few things about taxes, but when it comes to computers, he's like a 16 year old who just got his license. He knows just enough to be dangerous with a mouse. We sometimes have to humor him with meaningless data just to keep him away from the important files.

[Armando Beaujolais]

So there. Phooey (delete that-I dare you) to you and the "concerned" busybodies stickin' their collective noses in my biz (that includes you too, jainen--even if you probably would like to take Ken up on his offer and shoot him for "admitting that your work has no value").

I'm searching the list for "Phooey," and alternate spellings as well.

I don't have anything against discounting for needy clients, but there's not a warm fuzzy feeling until I give til it hurts a bit.

It's also great PR. The person who you do for half price wants to tell everybody how nice you are. "So and so did my tax return for $30. You should go there!"

Again, if you discount, people will remember that it's a discount for about two minutes. After that it becomes the perception of the value of your services. If you do it for free, there's no question there's a higher value, and free isn't it.

[Don B]

[QUOTE= Those of us who think Block has toilet cleaners and handmaids who have taken 14 hours of training and are now sitting behind an HRB desk need to remember that there are nuclear physicists as well.
.[/QUOTE]

Actually I think it's more like 88 hours.... but for some that won't be enough, and for others
its just the beginning of their training..

:}

[Bees Knees]

The H&R Block courses I took back in 1984 and 1990 were better and more practicle than any of the college courses I took.

[BOB W]

Anyone remember......

..... what a hard card was???? Not too many out there will know this answer.........

[jainen]

That's not memory

That's not memory. People don't know because not that many were using computers back then, but it wasn't so long ago. I've still got a couple around here somewhere.

[Black Bart]

(POINT # ONE) I don't have anything against discounting for needy clients, but there's not a warm fuzzy feeling until I give til it hurts a bit.

(POINT # TWO) It's also great PR. The person who you do for half price wants to tell everybody how nice you are. "So and so did my tax return for $30. You should go there!"

Okay, okay! I give up. You've got good points--but I don't want to "give 'til it hurts;' I just want to get a lukewarm noble feeling with a minimum of pain. And, yeah, they may blab to a few people and create a price problem for me, but like Sova--I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Just curious, but have you ever conceded a point?