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H&R Block Taxcut

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Eric of North Liberty, IA February 8, 2008

I purchased the H & R Block Taxcut Premium + State product. After filing, I discovered a serious error on my State of Iowa return. The amount for Home Mortgage interest and points reported on Federal forms is exactly double what I entered when I went through the interviews. When I log into Taxcut and review what I entered for the different questions, the amount I entered for Mortgage Interest was correct. The Federal form was correct, but the State form is showing that I'm deducting an amount that is exactly double what it should be for Mortgage Interest. I called technical support. They agreed that it was a technical problem with Taxcut, but they told me to call the Tax Advisors. The Tax Advisor all but scoffed at me and told me to call Customer Service; and Customer Service had me write an e-mail and send it to some random e-mail address. The e-mail was not returned after 9 days, so I called Customer Support and demanded a refund of my fees.

So, I've had to call Technical Support, then the Tax Advisors, then Customer Support, had to write an e-mail (which wasn't returned) then call Customer Support again - when the very first person I talked to recognized the problem. Customer Support said I can have a refund of my fees, but I'll believe it when I see it on my credit card statement. That is a lot of passing of the buck, even for an accounting firm. That was also a lot of waiting on hold, a lot of time out of my work-day explaining this mess all over again to each individual department and a lot of frustration. I'd say I've spent five solid hours on this issue. In addition, to contact the tax advisers, you have to log into Taxcut online and send them a message to call you. I did this, and 20 minutes later, I got an e-mail saying that there was no answer at the number I entered. This is not possible. I was sitting at my desk from the time I sent the request for them to call and when I got the message saying they couldn't get a hold of me. The web page where I submitted the request was still up, so I could see that I entered the correct number. The other phone that they could have possibly called was my cell phone, which was also at my desk. To get them to call me again, I had to submit another request...which cost me 19.95. They saw it as a second question, which isn't free. The refund for the 19.95 is pending, but it was even more hassle and evidence that their customer service and online application is broken.

Both returns have already been accepted by both the IRS and the State of Iowa Dept. of Revenue. This means I have to wait until the State of Iowa processes my refund and sends it to me. Then I have to return the check with an amended Tax Return, thus drastically delaying my State refund. I used Taxcut not because I don't know how to do my taxes but because it is more convenient. Because of this error which is definitely some sort of bug in Taxcut Online, this experience has been incredibly ridiculous and time consuming both by the initial error and because I had to make four calls to three different departments, wait on hold and then explain this mess to them. I also had to write an e-mail, which is insulting because it seems like they are hoping most people will just let it go if they have to write a complicated mess in an e-mail in order to get a refund. All of the agents that I spoke to at H & R Block were nice enough but were completely clueless and seemed to want to pass me on to someone else. Furthermore, I now have a wildly overstated tax return accepted by the State of Iowa. This is the kind of thing that gets people audited.

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