Our first impression of Ashcroft and Associates was positive, however this changed once we received…read moreour returns. Our initial meeting with Jan went well. We asked questions, explained our personal and business situations, and Jan made us feel comfortable that she would be able to handle our tax returns. Our confidence declined once we received our returns for review. Jan's husband Alan prepared our returns. Jan had never mentioned to us that someone else would be preparing our returns when we met with her. We understand that others work in the office however it would have been nice if it was communicated to us in advance that someone other than Jan would be working on our returns. There was a glaring error on our returns so we arranged a time with Alan to discuss this and other questions we had with our returns. When we asked Alan about how he calculated our medical expenses, we were perturbed by his response. He said he was very busy because it was tax time, he was confused by the benefit provider statements, and he didn't have time to dig deeper into what amount to put on our claims. Had we just signed off on what he sent us, we would have submitted a false claim, resulting in a substantial overpayment to us. The amount that he included on our claim was nowhere in line with any of our prior year returns and would have raised a red flag if we had submitted what he prepared. This was concerning to us and we didn't understand why he didn't just reach out to us if he had questions. We ended up having to calculate the medical expense portion of our returns ourselves and provided him with the information to include on the return. We didn't understand why we had to calculate this section of the return ourselves (something that is a pretty standard tax claim), and it was something we were paying Ashcroft to do in the first place. In our meeting with Jan we had also requested that they prepare and submit our GST return. Not a problem is what we were told, however it was not done initially and we had to call back to be walked through the process of submitting the return ourselves. A couple of weeks after our returns were completed, we were shocked when we went to our mailbox and found an opened envelope containing hard copies of our tax returns. We were upset and concerned that our returns were sent to us this way, and that our personal information was exposed. At this point we felt that we needed to follow up with Jan directly and let her know about our experience. We spoke with Jan and explained our concerns...from the errors in our returns to the method in which we received paper copies through the mail (we even sent her pictures of how the envelope was delivered). We relayed our disappointment in how our returns were handled and explained that we were not 100% confident that they were accurate given everything that had gone on. Jan was surprised and sounded concerned herself with what had happened. She seemed empathetic and offered to review our returns to ensure that there were no discrepancies, and she would get back to us in a couple of days. That was on May 17...it is now June 12 and we have yet to hear back from her. We have followed up with her at least 3 times however we were told she was "in meetings" each time and would get back to us...we never received a call back. Her assistant called us on June 4 to say Jan would be sending us an email. Again, we have not received anything from Jan or anyone in her office. We have also sent an email to Jan requesting a status update on our returns. Once again, no response. We feel we have no choice but to write this review and let others know about our negative experience with Ashcroft and Associates. We have been more than fair and patient with them, and we don't feel that they have shown us the same respect or delivered on their promises. We have found them to be unprofessional, incompetent, and unresponsive. We would absolutely NOT recommend using them.

From the owner: Based in Courtenay, Ashcroft and Associates provides business and personal tax services to clients…read morein the Comox Valley and beyond. Our tax professionals can tailor your services to suit your needs. Call us today.