JK HARRIS & COMPANY Promised they would not let IRS levy be sent to my employer ripoff North CHARLESTON, South Carolina

In late January 2006 I met with a represenative of JK HARRIS & COMPANY at their downtown Cincinnati office re resolving my tax problems with the IRS by filing an "Offer In Compromise" for me. The representative(JOHN FREY) reviewed paperwork I brought in and noted personal financial info about me in order to determine wheather or not I qualified for the IRS's Offer In Compromise.

According to Mr. Frey, I qualified for the Offer In Comprimise.One of the documents I gave Mr. Frey was a notice I received from the IRS stating that if I did not pay or call them within 30 days of receiving the notice my wages would be garnished. According to my calculations at that point, I had 3 weeks to respond. Mr Frey assured me that they would be able to file my paperwork with the IRS thus avoiding a garnishment of wages. He stated several times throughout the conversation that it was good that I came to JK Harris then instead of waiting until a couple of days before the garnishment was to be processed because many of their customers have waited until the last minute & they couldn't stop the garnishment. Again I was assured that everything looked fine and I would not receive a garnishment notice at my place of employment.

He had me to sign a "Power Of Attorney" paperwork so the process could be started right away. He even pointed to the fax machine faxing the Power Of attorney paper I had just signed.(or so I thought he was faxing my paperwork)

Mr. Frey told me to write 2 post dated checks (2 weeks apart) for $440.00 each to cover the inital processing of my file. I would also have to pay $208 per month(automatically deducted from my checking account) for 10 months for a total of $2,960. He also stated that I was paying "extra" because they would have to file paperwork to stop the garnishment from being processed. I gave him the 2 post dated checks and thought that I was finally starting the process of resolving my tax issues with the IRS.

The next week I decided to borrow $800 so I could pay for the inital processing and I would'nt have to worry about the post dated check. I called Mr. Frey and told him I was going to pay $800 NOW and that he needed to void the post dated checks and give me the address to where I should send the check. I went to my Credit Union and had them to write me a check for $800 and I sent the $800 check from my credit union and a post dated check for $80 to the Cincinnati Office of JK Harris per his instructions.

On February 13 I received a letter from JK Harris identifying my "case worker",as JENNIFER CAPERS.Her letter basically said that she would be handeling my case and if I had any questions to give her a call. Fast forward to March 15- I received a garnishment notice on my job from the IRS. Keep in mind that March 15 is exactly a month after the deadline the IRS had given me back in January. I tried to contact my caseworker, Jennifer Capers several times that day but her voicemail was on.

I have left 2 voicemail messages,I e-mailed her to no avail. I even called Mr. Frey 5 times and he has not called me back. I finally talked to Ms. Capers the next day and asked her what happened. She had no idea why the garnishment was sent. She admitted that it should not have happened but she offered no resolution other than I would need to submit financial info to the IRS to try to release the garnishment. I agreed to send paperwork & I also wanted to speak to her supervisor.

I left her supervisor (Patrice Delee) a message but she never called me back. I faxed 57 pages of all the info (paycheck stubs, utility bills, medical bills etc.) she requested.She also needed a copy of the paperwork from the IRS regarding the garnishment.

I faxed the IRS notice of garnishment to her twice. (she claims she never got the first one)Not only does Ms.Capers seem to not know what she is doing she can't explain why my paperwork wasn't filed with the IRS as promised. I think my paperwork was "misplaced" and therefore they(JK Harris) never started the process.

Today my caseworker told me that the IRS rejected my request to release the garnishment. According to Ms. Capers the IRS said I have 2 options at this point: either let the garnishment go thru ($325.00) or pay them $369.00 per month. JK Harris expects me to pay them $208/month also and that doesn't leave me with enough to live off of.

Please help me get my money back from these "vultures" or at the very least make them do what they promised.I feel that if I continue to let them negotiate a offer in comprimise for me, the $208.00 should not be paid to them until they get the garnishment stopped. My caseworker claims that once my case is issued a number and a Tax agent from the IRS that they will stop the garnishment but that can take anywhere from 30-45 days. At least she thinks it could take that long.She also said that it may take 6 months.

I have filed reports with the OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL'S office and the SOUTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE. If there are other people out there that have been ripped off by this company please file a report with Attorney General's office. You can go directly to their websites and file a report.

Vivian
CINCINNATI, Ohio
U.S.A.