Mixed feelings about my experience here. It was my first time ever getting my taxes done. They got way too complicated for 2015 so I decided I'd just bite the bullet and get them done this year since I didn't want to screw them up.
I made an appointment on the website and got email confirmation as well as text message reminder. I made this appointment I think about a week in advance. I show up a few minutes before my 1pm appointment that Saturday only to find out that the 12pm appointment hadn't even been seen yet! The lady I was scheduled with just told me I could either wait about an hour (um, what?) or reschedule. Ok I get that she had an appointment run over but they clearly had both my email and phone number so it would've been nice to get some sort of notification. What was the point of me even scheduling an appointment if I had to wait an additional hour? I said I would wait, but I was basically just figuring out what I wanted to do.
There was no receptionist and the front area was chaotic because there was no one there to check anyone in, and no one had any clue what was going on. After waiting a few minutes and one of the girls happened to be up front, I asked her if there was anyone else available for me because I didn't want to wait for the other lady. That girl actually had availability so she brought me right back to help me.
My taxes were complicated which is why I came in. I had just moved to DC at the end of last year so I had 2 states in addition to rental property in another state, and also my federal of course. There was some back and forth between the girl helping me and another one because one was certified in all states while the other wasn't. Basically this added to even more confusion and the girls kept swapping helping me and then one didn't want to do my taxes so told the other one to, but then that one didn't want to do my taxes so told the other one to... you can imagine my frustration dealing with this.
Ultimately, the original girl (Natasha) ended up mostly doing my taxes with help from others. She was good about explaining what she was doing and how things worked, which was very helpful for me so that I can do this myself next year. She was incredibly friendly and personable, and once we worked through the previous kinks, I was glad to be working with her.
After going through everything for an hour and a half and not able to figure some stuff out, they ultimately decided that they needed more time to work through everything and make sure it was right. While frustrated it was going to take even longer, I much appreciated the whole making sure it's right thing. So I made an appointment for a few days later to come back and tie up all the loose ends.
My second visit, they had a receptionist this time and he checked me in. I was early so I only had to wait a few min and Natasha came up front. She recognized me immediately and called me by name, which I was honestly surprised at... it felt good to know that I wasn't just a number or random person to them, they actually knew who I was. This visit was great and totally different from my first visit. Everything was in order and Natasha walked me through all the final numbers and how they got to those amounts. I felt confident with the work and am so glad that I actually understood how everything worked.
One thing that was lacking is that no one explained the pricing to me at any point during my visits. When she showed me the final price, I was pretty shocked (over $400!) and I asked how it came to that number. That's when she pulled up the list of the costs for all the forms, etc. I knew it would be more expensive than filing on my own but I was just surprised at how much it actually was. She did have a coupon for me to use, so that brought the cost at right around $400 so I was definitely grateful to save a little bit of money.
So, first visit was awful then generally ok. Second visit was way better. Will I be back? I hope not lol! I say that because next year I plan on doing my own taxes and not needing their services. If I need to use a tax service again, I'd maybe go back here. read more