My husband and I went to Bruce E. Ermolovich at Middle Island Accounting for the first time last year in 2016 for our personal income taxes. He came as a referral from a local and we decided to use someone close to home. He charged us $250 and the process went fairly well. This year, we received a postcard from Bruce personally asking us to do business with him again this year, with a handwritten price of $300. We felt that price was fair and did not see why we wouldn't return for a second time to do our taxes with him. When we arrived to do our taxes with him, the process was very dragged out. Bruce argued with my husband about his back-up documents and changed some aspects of the returns after speaking with my husband multiple times throughout the year and giving him tax advice on what we can use to help us get the maximum tax refund. Mistakes were made clearly in front of us, as I noticed he entered incorrect dollar amounts in incorrect sections of his work, which I had to point out to him before he submitted to the IRS. During this meeting we were promised he would file our taxes that day and everything will be squared away. After a lengthy 2 hrs in his office, when we were ready to write a check for $300 (proof picture posted along with what we did pay) he looks at us and tells us $450 "because it took him so long." I was very upset that he raised his price $150 with no warning. My husband told me not to say a word and write the check, which I hastily did.
A month prior to him lying about his 2017 income tax fee, we inquired with him about a family member who had tax issues and we asked how much it would cost to review her documentation and help us resolve her issues accordingly. After explaining this situation with him in detail, he told us that this would cost in between $250-$500. I thought that was reasonable and mentally prepared myself for this cost as I did with my $300 price for tax returns that all of a sudden turned into $450 for absolutely no reason. After a month of holding her tax returns and doing absolutely nothing but finding out about a warrant which he already knew and took about 9 keystrokes and 3 minutes of his time, he looked at us AFTER we handed him our personal check of $450 for our returns and said $900. We thanked him and walked out due to sheer disgust and lies once again about his pricing. I had my husband call him while we were in the car driving home within 5 minutes of leaving his office and tell him "no thank you" and asking when we can come back to pick up her documents. He not only ignored us, he created a fake auto response that came in 2 hours later about waiting a week to pick up our family members personal documents which are sitting on his desk. We didn't want animosity, and agreed we will come in a week.
During this week, we texted him inquiring about why our taxes we not filed on the day he said they would be filed which is the same day we paid him. NO RESPONSE. Texted again the day after, NO RESPONSE. Next day, NO RESPONSE. Very unprofessional and just as appalling as his unkept office and dirty restroom.
A week later, while we were out to lunch with our family, he sends nasty, childish, petty tough guy texts to my husband demanding $150 for no services rendered, claiming he was working on the family members returns but was not. So not only does he not respond to his clients when they have questions, he sends "tough guy" texts. My husband responded that he is not paying $150 and he wants his documents ready for him to pick up the next day. Bruce agrees. 20 minutes later, he had a change of heart, the same way he changes his pricing. Tacky and tasteless none the least. He TEXTS my husband claiming that he's throwing the documents in the mail. When my husband asked him another question regarding our 2017 tax return, he told my husband that he will not be scanning the returns as he did the prior year and told my husband to take the $150 we owe him and go scan them himself. Classy guy. read more
