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Jeffrey Fouts not as advertised, did not provide promised services East Ellijay Georgia
Several months ago I decided to retain an attorney to help with my unfiled tax returns. I did a lot of research online, and the only two firms that did not have negative consumer reports were Jeffrey Fouts (until now, anyway), and one of the large tax law firms. I called Jeffrey Fouts' office and spoke with a gentleman at length about their services.
The conversation was comforting and I felt reassured that I was dealing with a legitimate firm that would provide personalized service. My biggest concern was making sure that they could complete my overdue business tax returns - something I didn't feel qualified to do - and in fact the biggest part of the sales pitch was that they would complete the returns, by their own in-house CPA, under attorney-client privilege. In fact the gentleman (salesman?) did a good job of convincing me that it is foolish to file delinquent returns any other way than with an attorney, under attorney-client privilege.
I sent in my $1,200 retainer fee and signed service contract. Then the endless phone calls and emails began, asking when I would have my completed tax returns ready for them. When I told my representative that I was promised that their CPA would do the returns, she informed me that they no longer had a CPA available and that I'd need to either do the delinquent returns myself or have them done by a local CPA.
As if this weren't bad enough, they continued to bill my credit card in $500 increments until I'd spent well over $2,200 on NOTHING. When I finally demanded to know what I had been paying for all along, since they'd provided ZERO services up to this point, I learned that they were charging me $20 for every single "where are your tax returns" phone call, and every email as well! And I was receiving these calls and emails CONSTANTLY, just so they had an excuse to bill me!
At that point I'd had enough and cancelled my services. Then they had the nerve to bill me another $20 for the cancellation letter! I didn't pay that $20.
I signed on with the other tax relief law firm I mentioned at the beginning - the only other one that had no negative consumer complaints (and they still don't). Only a few weeks into my relationship with them, I'm happy to report that they have begun completing my tax returns based on the QuickBooks printouts I sent them. They are also very, very professional and the person doing my returns is not only a CPA but also both a licensed Attorney and Enrolled Agent, so I have complete confidence in their abilities. Needless to say, the experience far surpasses that of Jeffrey Fouts & Associates.
(I am not going to mention who I'm working with now, because if I did, it would discredit this report and come off as an advertisement for the other firm.)
If you have a tax problem, be sure to scour websites like this one, and Google, and make sure the tax attorney or law firm you choose to work with is clean and has no negative consumer reports against them.
Jthorley
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Misunderstanding over our 20-year-old policy.
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, July 15, 2013
We aren’t able to identify who this person is. This person filed a complaint before ever letting us know he was unhappy with our services.
In a tax collection case, we NEVER commit to preparing past unfiled tax returns for a client until after they hire us and we’re able to get to know more about the case and about the client.
Why do we do that? Simple. Some clients who want us to prepare unfiled don’t have any records. Some have horrible records. Some want to take unreasonable tax positions. And some are not truthful. We want to only file "clean" tax returns where we can verify the correctness of the information going on the tax return.
We’re able to prepare tax returns for the majority of clients who want us to, but unfortunately we can’t do it for all clients for the reasons stated above. This is the policy we’ve always had, and still have to this day.
Even in the minority of cases where we must decline preparing their tax returns, we still handle the other parts of the collection case for them.
We have an A+ Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating. We have been in business 20 years, and represented thousands of clients in all 50 states and 29 foreign countries. We are proud that less than 0.4% of our clients have ever complained. We regret this person is unhappy, but we can’t make everyone happy, even though we try.
It appears this person has filed the same complaint several times in an attempt to make it appear that there are more complaints.
You can speak to us personally at 1-800-509-2770.
Sincerely,
Fouts Law Firm
Admitted:
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Tax Court
- U.S. Federal District Court