KC Truby cashcowaccounting.com 8020 Accounting Lonesome Cowboy Publishing qbexpress.com He called to insist that my company pay a $3000 fee he had agreed with us and others to waive. He cursed all accountants and me in poarticular. Called me a cheap M F B and then holds my data ransom. Libertyville, Illinois

I have done business with KC Truby for over 10 years and I have found him to be a valuable resource to my company. Further, I have also found him to be ethical and honest in his ealings with me and more than fair. I would strongly recommend him to anyone wishing to obtain help in marketing their accounting services with the caveat, YOU must do the work he recommends!

I have personally found that complaints of this sort are usually due to misunderstanding or people who fail to do what they are supposed to and then expect to not be responsible for the results. I hasve never witnessed him address others in this manner.

I would agree with Mr Truby - there was definitely a difference of opinion as to the value to be received for his set up fee.  I discussed this with him and his staff at his Las Vegas "seminar."  At the conclusion of the seminar as I understood our agreement, I, as an existing client, would be allowed to continue service for a monthly fee with no set up fee.  So...I signed the agreement with the zero set up fee.  The SEO work and web design was not directly related to my sign up and was done prior to my signing up.  So it was natural for an existing client to feel that a long time relationship would count for something.  Obviously not Mr Truby's feeling.

But that was not the reason for my post.  I was complianing about the way I was addressed both verbally and in writing.  It is most unprofessional to curse your clients even if you're having a bad day.  I just do not think it is wise to do business with individuals who demonstrate such poor business judgement.  Mr Truby did not address the point of the posting.

Cash Cow accounting is the victim here. We are suffering a rip off complaint when it is our firm that was cheated out of $3,000 for work we delivered. This complaint was initiated against us after multiple attempts to collect on services already delivered.

The accountant filing this complaint (Mike Murray CPA of Libertyville IL) modified the small print on a sales order for web site design, SEO work, business process training and the printing and publishing of 1,000 CD ROM for practice development to read zero dollars on set up fees. My staff did not notice the changes and delivered the services.

The customer has a track record of being difficult and we should have known better then to engage in the advanced marketing services for him. What we find most interesting is that over the past 10 years we have made this client money every year with our marketing campaigns, albeit under constant complaint and pricing pressure.

When our bookkeeper charged the accountant the $3,000 set up fee she found the credit card information on file to be unusable. The customer refused to make the invoice good so this problem was escalated to my desk after my staff could not resolve the matter.

When I called the D grade customer I was told that my material was ineffective and that his past monthly payments to our firm more then made up for any shortages on his account. His claims of others getting the same service for free are unfounded and without logic, his claim that we said we would work for free for him is untenable and quite frankly hard to imagine.

What we find the most exasperating is the many unreasonable customer complaints and request leveled at my support staff while they were under the impression that Mr. Murray was actually a paying customer. Complaints such as unreasonable request to expand his territory by 20 miles, (wiping out 6 potential markets that could be sold to other CPA firms) a request to reprint marketing material because of changes he decided to make after the fact and other minor but time consuming request that went beyond a normal customer relationship.

It was the complaint from my staff about the customer support request that prompted my investigation of payments, turning up the fact that we had a customer who did not pay us for something that he wanted us to keep doing more of at a better level. At this time I initiated a collection call to the customer.

The customer informed me that our services were below expectations and a waste of his money. He conveniently failed to mention the many clients he had captured over the years we did business. It was at this moment that I realized Grade D clients are and always have been more trouble then they are worth. I terminated Michael Murray CPA from doing business with us now or ever again in the future.

He can find another vendor to make miserable and argue with about every dime he is charged. I have had enough of him.

On our web site www.qbexpress.org you will find hundreds of endorsements from other CPA firms that have used our marketing expertise for years. In the future I plan on focusing on Grade A customers and when I see the behavior demonstrated by clients like this one, I will terminate them at the beginning, not the end of a relationship.