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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Avoid Milwaukee-area H&R Block Locations

UPDATE: In the spirit of maintaining fairness here, I must report that within 20 minutes or so of publishing this rant and managing to reach someone through H&R Block's main corporate Web site, I received a voicemail letting me know my copy is ready for pickup at Hwy. 100 and Lincoln. --Aaron

I don't want this blog to turn into a forum for bashing businesses over lousy customer service, but I just had to get this off my chest.

Last week, I made a phone call to the H&R Block office on Hwy. 100 and Lincoln Avenue in West Allis to see if I could get a copy of last year's corporate tax return. We had it prepared at that location, and we have apparently misplaced the only copy we had of it, which the non-H&R Block accounting firm (actually a CPA) we are working with this year needs in order to carry some info over to this year's return.

You see, the Hwy. 100 and Lincoln Avenue office is a little out of the way for me. So I was really happy when I got off the phone with the receptionist. She told me that H&R Block will gladly provide me with a copy of last year's return, free of charge, AND that I could pick it up at any H&R Block office. Awesome!

So today, I'm further into Muskego, my hometown, running errands, and thought I would stop into the Muskego H&R Block office on Racine Avenue, near Janesville Road. The woman who greeted me told me her office can't access corporate returns. Okay. So I asked her if she thought the H&R Block office on 76th and Forest Home Avenue in Greenfield, perhaps the next closest location for me, would be able to access it. She said they should be able to provide it to me, since that location doubles as H&R Block's district office.

So I head on over to 76th and Forest Home. The man I talked to there couldn't access it.

Frustrated, I get back in my car and head off to my third H&R Block location of the day. I go out of my way to travel down to Hwy. 100 and Lincoln in West Allis, back to the location that prepared our return last year. The man I talked to was actually sitting at the very desk of the man who prepared our return last year. His business cards are on the desk. But this guy can't access it! He tells me I'll have to come back after 6:00pm when our original tax preparer is in. I told him I won't be able to come back today. He then tells me something like, "Well, give me your name and phone number and I'll leave him a note to see if he can print it out. He can then leave it at the front desk for you to pick up any time at your convenience."

See if he can print it out? He better be able to!

I simply can't believe the service. So let this be a lesson to you. Learn from my example by avoiding H&R Block at all costs. It's obvious that these people don't know what they're doing. And I'm not letting us off the hook here. I acknowledge that we're idiots, too, for misplacing our copy to begin with.

I think someone owes me an apology and a gas card.

--Aaron Robertson

1 comment:

  1. I hate it when you get the run-around like that, Aaron. I'm glad that they did resolve your problem though. But, you would think that a large corporation like H&R Block would have a large file sharing system in place so that you didn't need to drive in to pick up the hard copy.

    Here is another take-away from your experience. If your corporation had a Virtual Assistant, you would have known where the original copy was in the first place. :)

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