Instant Tax Service Deceptive Advertisement Houston, Texas
On Jan. 2,2012 I went to this location because of the advertisement of the Instant loan which is a loan that is receive when you present to any Instant Tax Service location when you present your last check stubb of the prior year. Once you complete the application for the instant loan you will get approval up to $1000.00. So I completed my application and submitted in the store. Once it was approved I received $100.00 and the tax preparer told me I had to file my taxes at that location. I was unaware of fees other than the tax preparation fee of $260.00. On Jan. 14,2012 one of the tax preparers named Glenda call me and told me I needed to come in the store to sign documents in order to receive my RAL and my expected date for my refund was Jan. 16 or Jan. 17 2012. So on Jan. 18, 2012 I came in to sign the documents to complete my taxes with the store manager named Jonathan. I did not receive a copy of the documents or a estimate of the fees charge for services other than the tax preparation fee. After two days I called the store to follow up on my refund but no one seemed to know the status of it or the total amount being deducted from my tax check. I asked to speak to the store owner but he was unavailable so I called the customer service number for the headquarters and the bank that processes the refund and still no one wanted to release that information. After researching the information on my own I discovered the owner did not have a contact number and the bank "Tax Tree" only had an email address. I did not receive my check yet and today is Jan. 24,2012 however I spoke to Glenda about the fees and she said I was charged $625.00 for the RAL which will be deducted before I receive my check and they would call me when the funds have been released from the IRS. The charges mentioned were for $260.00 processing, $99.99 efiling, $59.00 bank loan, $93.94 bank processing, $100.00 service, and $17.00 transmission fees. I asked the store manager why I received these charges and he was unable to reply.