Working with Steuerring has to be my worst ever experience of tax consultancy in life.
I became a member of Steuerring in 2013. My first experience for doing my tax declaration was not great in terms of the speed and efficiency with which I was handled, nevertheless, I overlooked this because I was always able to reach the Tax consultant and receive responses as to the reason of delay and so on.
In the second year (2015) I switched to their consultant Mrs. Yasemin Dogan in Mannheim, Germany. The first appointment was on April 1st, 2015 which was arranged at a short notice of a day by Mrs. Dogan. However, my experience after that has been nothing short of extremely disappointing.
Following our first meeting, I emailed Mrs. Dogan a summary of all documents that I collected and a sent the same to her via post, requesting her for a confirmation of receipt since these were my original documents. I also posed some questions.
Until August 2015, some of those questions remained unanswered. I did not receive a confirmation of post receipt from her until 2 months. After several reminders, she replied saying in one line that she has my documents and will prepare and tax return and get in touch.
I waited again for several weeks without any response after which I tried to reach her. When my calls and emails went unanswered I got in touch with the head office in Darmstadt and complained about the situation. Following this Mrs. Dogan very swiftly got in touch and we managed to fix an appointment to see what she had prepared.
During our last meeting on July 31st, I was offered many apologies which I humbly accepted. Mrs. Dogan asked me if I cancelled my membership because if this experience to which I replied yes. Apparently, this was not enough reason for her to fix things for the future.
During this meeting, I was also shown my tax return and Mrs. Dogan mentioned she will now send the same to Finanzamt and I will receive a confirmation of the same.
1 month and 10 days since this meeting and I still had no email, no call, and no letter from Mrs. Dogan. I then checked with the Finanzamt in Mannheim and my tax return was not filed.
I then wrote complaint letters and emails to the management of Steuerring, and not one person cared to respond to me personally. I was sent a 'general' reply saying thank you for expressing your concern.
Meanwhile I still struggled to received a goddamned reply and status of my tax declaration.
After Mrs. Dogan finally managed to confirm my via email that my tax return was filed (note i have to date not received a copy for my record despite several requests)
the quest to receive my original docs started. It also continues to date.
Finally at the end of the year i saw a charge from Steuerring in my bank account. I sent them an email to ask what was this about and why was I not informed or issued a bill before the money was booked out of my account. I was simply told that is what i need to pay based on my salary and if their consultant failed to inform me about this they are sorry. How convenient.
Now i am trying to ask what consultancy fee Mrs. Dogan entered into my tax return. What i paid initially, or what i ended up paying after the unethical, illegal booking of additional money from my account without informing me and issuing me a corresponding bill. This will show exactly how well informed Mrs. Dogan was.
Also interesting to note that this total charge is 15 Euros more that the rate published on the internet as of today.
If I am lucky I will get a reply in a few months.
But seriously, after this pathetic, shitty service and all that unprofessional attitude, I would have wanted my money back - let alone be ok with paying an additional charge.
So DON'T EVER MAKE THE MISTAKE OF working with this stupid company. Unless ofcourse, you enjoy being treated like crap and are OK with the your consultant charging you a fee higher than what they get you back from the Finanzamt, and not answering your phone and emails. read more
