I'm so glad I know

[Ken]

It works both ways.

While I have seen a few negative posts here about H&R block in general, I have never heard anyone badmouth the preparers themselvs. As I wondered about your post and thought about it for a minute, I realized why most preparers are turned off by Block.
Its the same reason I dont like Notre Dame football. Notre Dame gets all the breaks and are treated like royalty in the world of college football, when in essence they are just another football team. All the big name "Bowl Games" just drool all over themselves at the thought of having Notre Dame play in their bowl.
When it comes to taxes, H&R Block is the first word out of most peoples mouths. They are looked upon as the "Royalty" of the tax world.
Thats why all the tax preparers want to know how much Block is charging so that they can mimick them.
And Block with their million dollars commercials, would have everyone believe that they are the only ones who know how to do taxes.
So you see, it works both ways.
I think Block has a very good tax school (my wife is an H&R Block grad), and I think most of their prepare'rs are very good. I just dont think they are as good as THEY think they are.

[Snaggletooth]

White Oleander

White Oleander, most likely I am the guilty party whose message prompted you to begin this thread. I have respected highly your posts, and there is scarcely one on this board whom I regard any higher than Gary Marmer, also an employee of HRB, and a retired nuclear physicist. Gary is certainly not a "second-class-citizen" as far as intelligence or anything else.

You cannot have a forum about the tax preparation industry without an occasional discussion about H&R Block. All of us concede that there are some good preparers at Block - in fact one of our foremost authorities on this board began taxes with no formal training other than the H&R Block course.

I'll speak for myself although I believe most here will agree with me. You can reduce all my complaints about Block to the fact that their thrust emphasizes their financial products instead of tax savings, and these products are more harmful to the customer than good. This may not sound very appealing to those of you who work for HRB, but I believe strongly that I have spoken the truth. I also believe they target short-form and EIC customers and avoid getting bogged down with more complex returns - this was told to me by the former manager of all HRB locations in Huntsville, AL. If it is more compatible for you, you may also believe I have a tinge of jealousy because they are able to sell their services to so many customers.

I believe many of the personalities who frequent this board identify with my opinions, although most people can state their opinion with more diplomacy and grace. I can tell you that I have perceived the Oleander as being an enlightened comrade, without even knowing for whom you work. Please don't let me fall from your grace, or hold this forum responsible for perceived insults.

[WhiteOleander]

White Oleander, most likely I am the guilty party whose message prompted you to begin this thread. I have respected highly your posts, and there is scarcely one on this board whom I regard any higher than Gary Marmer, also an employee of HRB, and a retired nuclear physicist. Gary is certainly not a "second-class-citizen" as far as intelligence or anything else.

You cannot have a forum about the tax preparation industry without an occasional discussion about H&R Block. All of us concede that there are some good preparers at Block - in fact one of our foremost authorities on this board began taxes with no formal training other than the H&R Block course.

I'll speak for myself although I believe most here will agree with me. You can reduce all my complaints about Block to the fact that their thrust emphasizes their financial products instead of tax savings, and these products are more harmful to the customer than good. This may not sound very appealing to those of you who work for HRB, but I believe strongly that I have spoken the truth. I also believe they target short-form and EIC customers and avoid getting bogged down with more complex returns - this was told to me by the former manager of all HRB locations in Huntsville, AL. If it is more compatible for you, you may also believe I have a tinge of jealousy because they are able to sell their services to so many customers.

I believe many of the personalities who frequent this board identify with my opinions, although most people can state their opinion with more diplomacy and grace. I can tell you that I have perceived the Oleander as being an enlightened comrade, without even knowing for whom you work. Please don't let me fall from your grace, or hold this forum responsible for perceived insults.

I don't disagree with your points. They are valid. I will say that in my opinion, there is a difference between company owned stores and franchise stores.

I work for a franchise. And while we certainly do advertise for the "fast money" clients, that is not the core of our clientele. In our office, we have retired folks, Corps, S-Corps, Ptnshp, Estates, Trusts, Payroll, etc. I much prefer this type of work.

I cannot tell you the number of times I have tried to show a client how much money they are needlessly paying to get their money fast. They rarely listen. I don't really know why. Some say because it's not really their money so they don't care if they are not frugal with it.

I had a client that wanted their money that day. I explained how much interest they were paying just to get their money about 10 days sooner. The client said that it was the end of the month and they wanted to pay their property taxes before they would be charged a late payment penalty. I told them that the property tax penalty was a fraction of the interest charge. They didn't care. They wanted their money now.

My fee is the same no matter what method they choose to receive their refund.

I also think the IRS actually likes these programs. I believe the EIC program was originally begun to get people to co-operate and actually file their return. There are so many out there that meet filing requirements, but due to standard deduction and exemptions, they have no taxable income. Or very little. And no withholding.

So, if this group of people decided I'm not going to file. Let the IRS catch me. The IRS would not have enough manpower to get them all. The whole system would implode. So, Congress came up with an incentive to get them to file. And maybe it's gotten out of hand.

But, the IRS likes these programs (in my opinion) because, the returns are usually prepared with realtively few errors compared to the alternative.

Thanks for all the input everyone. This is a "stand up" board.

[Bertandbull]

Whew!!!

I seriously thought I ugly bugs. I do not post on here much, but I do read the posts a few times a day. I too work for Block, since 1999. We all might not agree with what corporate comes out with in products, but we try to stick together. I have learned alot from Block courses, and this forum. I too have felt the sting a few times of Block bashing on the board. But now that I know that I am not the only Block Pro on this board, I can ignore the bashing and ugly bug feeling.

[Larmil]

Henry & Richard Bloch

WhiteOleander is probably referring to the thread started by Skate1968 in trying to get good clients away from H&R Block.



The rules on this message board are you cannot insult other posters. There is no rule against insulting institutions or businesses. If you don’t like H&R Block bashing, I suggest you defend them. I am not going to start censoring opinions.

Personally, I do not ever recall having insulted H&R Block on this message board. Why would I do that, when I learned how to do taxes from H&R Block. I took two of their courses, which were far superior to any of the college courses I have taken. Many of the other authors and editors I have worked with over the years were former H&R Block employees. Imagine that…the most popular tax books on the market having former H&R Block employees working on them.

How's that for giving your company a plug?

I have no problems with H & R Block. They are them and I am I. I have never worked for them, but many of my close friends have. I do have a lot of respect for Henry Bloch and especially the late Richard Bloch. Their company has survived over 50 years so far. I would guess that the company is not all bad.

[RLymanC]

H&r

One of the, infact one of the BIGGEST complaints I get from former H&RB customers is the absolute lack of a personel relations with the client, a totlal lack of a one on one experience.

Most all of the former HRB customers complain of how rude their preparer was, how insulting they were if all documntation was nor in order.

This is the feed back I'm getting about the local HRB office. They simply were not treated as a customer.

[thomtax]

View from both sides

Even having taken college tax courses, I took the JH tax course and worked for a franchisee for a year to get the practical experience. In our offices, we had good people and some real jerks (that did not last long).

The thing that needs to be remembered is that, no matter what business you are in, one bad deal will get more publicity than a hundred good ones. And as many returns as they prepare, the "big box" stores will have more stories. Unfortunately, for them, the franchisee in my town has more than their share of bad stories, the biggest of which is an employee that discusses clients income with their friends and family.

However, there is another office of a preparer here, who has a lot of clients, that basically does her return preparation beginning at the amount of return that the client wants to receive. I have some of her former clients that when I begin to go through the depreciation list asking about still owning pieces of equipment, have been told "I never owned a piece of equipment like that". And these are $10,000 items put in to lower the tax bill. And guess what, most of her clients love her, because she gets them a good refund. It is after the audit that the rest of us get these clients. But it can sure get frustrating at times, hearing people tell you how good she is.

I will get down off my soap box now.:-)

[oceanlovin'ea]

Ex-HRB employee

I worked for HRB for 15 years. The time served me well. I went to work for them when my girls were in school and I wanted to be able to be home with them most of the time. So I took the tax course and started working there.

I had the privilege to work with some of the smartest people I have ever known.They never looked down on you for asking questions or answered in terms you couldn't understand. They helped when I got stuck, showed me how to do things, sometimes they let me see if I could sink or swim and then they helped me through the return. The first couple of years I worked there I had some of the hardest and strangest returns I have ever done. I loved the people I worked with and I loved my clients.

Of course, there were good preparers and bad ones, but more good than bad. The classes were always very informative.

But the time came for a change. Now I am very happy to have my own business and make my own decisions and charge my clients what I want to.

I know I wouldn't be doing what I am today if I had not worked for HRB.

Linda F

[lsmith]

Hrb

I also work with Block and have received much of their training. I have learned more from working with Block than I did from the previous CPA office and enjoy working with Block more, although I don't always agree with many positions held by Block.

[OldJack]

This thread has turned into glorifying Block and implying that non-block preparers are not as good since they were not trained by HRB. Rubbish! Doesn't HRB have a tax forum where they can chat about how great and smart they are? This thread is ridiculous and certainly not on a worthy tax subject.

[jainen]

any other tax subject

>>This thread is ridiculous and certainly not on a worthy tax subject<<

That's never stopped us on any other tax subject.

[Black Bart]

Perhaps if you repeated your post.

...I myself have repeatedly praised Block...I think Block is a great company...

Jack may have overlooked it (he seemed unpersuaded to me -- you?)

[jainen]

bashing Block

>>Perhaps if you repeated your post<<

How am I going to search through everything I ever said? I've made almost 1500 posts here, probably 1/3 on roses or poetry or something totally off-topic that doesn't make any sense at all.

Half of the rest are at least controversial if not outright lies. Be logical--do you think jainen would have passed up an opportunity to take the contrary position when so many people are bashing Block?

[OldJack]

I've made almost 1500 posts here

There you go again.. exaggerating everything, even upping the number of your posts.

[newbie]

In the past months, there have been posts that imply that Block lacks integrity.

Some posters have said when a new client asks them to prepare a return with questionable things, they refuse and tell them to go to Block. Block will prepare anything.


Offering the RAL program is akin to theft.

And saying that just attacking the "company" Block is OK, just not individuals doesn't make sense. There are only individuals doing the returns at the offices.

I have seen some bad returns come out of all kinds of offices. But, I don't lump all that type of preparer into the same group and say they are all the same.

Some of the posters on this board are indeed smug.

I don't disagree with your points. They are valid. I will say that in my opinion, there is a difference between company owned stores and franchise stores. .............

So you are also saying there is a difference between Block offices even though you are also saying attacking the "company", just not individuals doesn't make sense?

You can't lump all HRB's, all JH's, all EA's, all CPA's or all non-licensed preparers together. Take it to HRB or JH is just slang for I don't want to deal with it and there are enough of your offices around, as you can find one this time of year at your local WalMart, maybe you'll find one that will agree with your position.