Tadricks Tax Service Quoted $160 to do taxes After prep. billed $270 refused to pay Burton Michigan

I called Tadricks, they could get me in Sunday and the best part, only $160 plus or minus $10-15 depending on exactly how many forms, but, certainly NOT more than $175. GREAT!!!!!!!

I get there at my appointment time of 11:00. I waited an hour, finally got up, said "Excuse me, but, how much longer is this going to take? I've been sitting here an hour. I have my own schedule to keep, please find out."

They come back and profusely apologize. The lady accidentally took another customer 5 mins before my appt. I had to just be patient and wait. So finally I get back there. I question "Do you hand write these? Or do you use a computer?" Since there is no computer on the desk. She explains to me that she has to hand write everything, then her supervisor will come in and double check her work and go over my return with me, then I'll have to leave and they'll enter everything into a computer and print it, then I have to come back in an house, they'll go over the return with me, I pay and voila, I'll be done.

Since I'm self employed, I have a few more forms to file. But, I am pretty knowledgeable about my taxes and what I can claim.

So, we get all the paperwork done, I had to correct her about a few things to itemize! The supervisor comes over. He says "Great, well it looks like we're going to get you around $XXXX." I said "Excuse me? That figure is NOT accurate. It should be more like $XXXX. You need to re-check your handwritten numbers." He looked at me like I had 8 heads or something.

I said "Did you get my husbands mileage? Did you get our medical expenses??????.........." Well, No, he didn't figure THOSE numbers into our return.

So we get all done, he said "I think I've got you what your looking for." But, didn't tell me any numbers at this point. He said go ahead and leave, come back in an hour.

I leave, go home, feed the kids. Then it was time to go back up there. We get there. We go up to the counter. The lady asks our name. I told her.

She comes back. She opens this folder and said "Here is your return amount" and points to 2 numbers and this is how much you owe US, $270.00. I said "Excuse me? $270?" She said "Yes." I said "No, I was quoted on the phone before I came here for $160.00, that is $110.00 less than you want now. That is a huge difference. I'll pay you at most $175." She said "Let me go talk to the owner."

She comes back and says the owner is busy and can't talk to me, do I want to come back tomorrow and talk to the office manager. By this point my husband is really upset. He said "No, get the owner." We wait. She comes back with someone else. It's the owner's son. He said "Well, the price we quoted you was for a small business owner, your not a small business owner, your self employed." I said "WHAT? When I called up here for a quote, I went over the exact forms that I needed filed and told them I was self employed. What is the difference between self employed and a small business anyways?" He said the difference is that if you are a small business, you make less than $5000 per year. And since I made more than that, I had to pay more to have my return done. I said "I will not pay you more than you quoted me. If it was going to cost more than $175, then the woman doing my taxes should have told me that it was going to cost me more than $175 to do my taxes. I don't just have $110 MORE laying around my house to just give away." He said "Well, you either pay me the $270 to do your taxes or you will pay us $100 for wasting OUR time."

I said "WHAT? Wasting YOUR time? Your the one that wasted MY time. I sat here for 1 1/4 hours waiting for your tax person to get to MY scheduled appointment. You wasted MY time." By this point, my husband said "If you don' tgive me back my tax papers I'm going to rip them out of your hands." The guy looks at husband and said "You won't be ripping nothing out of my hands and walked away with our papers! My husband said "Ok, I'll call the police.

I sat there talking to this guy for over 30 mins. I was in tears. I said "I can't believe this is how you run your business. I only had to pay you $160 when you knew I wasn't getting much money back. The minute you all find out I'm getting $XXX back you want to charge me $270. And your OK with this? How do you sleep at night? I have 4 kids to feed and don't get any support. How can you do this to us?"

My husband walked out and called the police. We had to wait 1.5 hours for them to show up due to shift change. The finally showed up. We told them the story. The cops said "Well, this is a civil matter and we can't MAKE them give you back your papers." My husband started yelling. "These are MY papers. They belong to ME. They can't keep my papers." The cops said "Sorry, there is nothing we can do." We had to go pick up the kids. We drive down there and then my husbands phone rings. The police called to let us know that they feel real bad and can't believe the tax people. They are still at the tax place trying to get our papers for us. My husband said "Well, let me know if you get them back."

An hour later the police called to let us know that "The man that they dealt with went home for the night and now they can't even find our file!" We tried to go back up there Monday, but, they were closed at 7:00.

On Tuesday, the office manager called my DH and told him "I'm sorry for all the confusion. Please come down here and we'll accept the $160 for filing your taxes and be done with this." My DH said "After all that you people put us through I doubt we'll be giving you a dime. I'll have to talk to my wife." She said "Well, I was the one that quoted your wife on the phone. Obviously, she had more papers, than I thought she had, but, my husband was trying to work with you folks." My husband said "No, your husband was NOT trying to work with us. If he would have accepted the $175 that we offered to pay, then it would not be THIS out of control. You know what, just return the W2 to me. That's the only thing that you have that I need. You can keep the rest. Just return my W2 to me." She said "Well, I"ll have to go talk to my husband about that." She came back and said "I just talked to my husband and he already mailed you back your W2 today in the mail. You should get it today or tomorrow."

So, I check the mail Wednesday. It's not there. I check it Thursday, it's there. I open the envelope and the W2 is there along with THIS letter:

Dear Sam & Amy,

I have decided to return your W2 forms to you. I am under no obligation to do so, without being compensated for our services rendered, however I feel that two people with such hatred in their hearts need someone to show them some compassion. From the moment you entered our office, you had a big chip on your shoulder. Every employee of mine that dealt with you says so. There was not going to be any way we could have made you happy, regardless of the outcome.

First of all, my wife was the person who took your appointment when you called. Obviously there was some miscommunication about what forms you needed to file. She is the one who sets the fees on all returns and the one who publishes our fee schedule. She quotes people every day, accurately. If you had told her exactly which forms you needed, you whold have gotten an accurate quote. There is nothing in it for us to miss quote a fee and have someone act like youdid when they come to pick up. We have over 10,000 satisfied customers. If we didn't give them accurate quotes, great service, and the personal attention they deserve, we would not still be in business. We have given our great service to our clients since 1964.

When I was informed of your demeanor during the entire process, I had no option but to stand my ground with our fee schedule. You proceeded to make a fool of yourself in our office. When I came to our front desk to try and defuse the situation, you coul dhave been polite and said "Mr Tadrick, there is some sort of misunderstanding. We were under the impression that our fee was going to be $160.00. My husband and I are struggling, trying to raise 2 children (obviously he only heard HALF of what I said, we have 4 CHILDREN, NOT 2) and we cannot afford the $270.00 fee." I probably would have lowered it to $160.00. I am a compassionate man; however, I do not respond well to someone who is rude & out of control.

I will still be turning your account over to our collection agency for the $100.00 fee for spending our time with you. Like I said, I am a compassionate man, and I am willing to not turn it in to collections if you call me before February 29th and personally apologize for your behavior in my office. I was never rude to you, nor yelled at you. You were out of control. The Burton Police confirmed that.

You mentioned several times (once idiot) that you have two disabled children. I am so sorry. I understand the pressures you must be under, and that this could possibly cause you to have a short fuse. Give me a call. I am sure we can work this out.

Yours truly,

William Tadrick,
President

Now they are trying to blackmail me to come in and pay them. I never signed a contract. There are NO signs up anywhere with pricing. I was never told a price until AFTER the taxes were done. I was quoted a price on the phone BEFORE I even made the appointment.

Amy
Grand Blanc, Michigan
U.S.A.