Complaint Review: John A. Redmond Tax Preparer Notary

Redmond's outfit does both income tax prep and notary work. This review is in reference to tax preparation.

Warning-Stay away from this business. Don't let the clipped, English accents fool you, like it did me. The first time walked into this office was to inquire about doing my 2009 return. Barbara insisted that she MUST re-do the 2008 because my friend had done such a poor job, that it was to my benefit that I paid her to fix it. I agreed. The next week or so I return to the office to do a notary task, I was surprised Barbara stated both my tax returns were ready. Odd, not one call from this office to ask me any questions, unusual.

She asked me to check my returns for correctness. I told her that I really didn't know what I was looking at so I signed the paperwork. About two months later I discovered that 1. My rental property income was typed as $1,700, the correct figure is $11,700 and 2. TWO of my rental properties had BLANK mortgage interest. "No problem, i figured, probably typos, they will repair it for me.." I THOUGHT. When I returned two months later, Barbara was irate that I hadn't noticed it before and stated it wasn't a big deal and wouldn't affect me much.

If I wanted her to repair the errors "Your going to have to pay me again." I PAID a liscensed tax preparer to do a tax return (again, a revision, at Barbara's INSISTENCE) at full price and she wants me to pay her AGAIN?  LADY, YOU WERE THE RE-DO REMEMBER? YOU TOLD ME HOW BAD my 2008 returns were. THAT's why I paid you for both 2008 & 2009, full price $400 for 2009 and $400 for 2008. YOU missed something GLARING, then insist you need to be paid for a revision?  She glared, "WHY DON'T YOU TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR TAXES?"

 If I knew how to do my returns, I wouldn't be paying John Redmond's office to do it. I say, "LADY, that's why I paid you (my responsibility), to do it AGAIN and you agreed to check everything (your responsibility), you need to CHECK YOUR WORK before you turn it over the client." As I sat there debating with Barbara, John Redmond, the CPA, who signs the documents just stood there, QUIET.

I walked out of his office and Redmond didn't say one word, weird. NO pride in the work that goes in and out of this business. I emailed Redmond directly and he insisted he stood by the work in his office. There is a shortage of work ethics in Redmond's office, even when you bring it to their attention and they get a second shot at doing it right, they want more money from you when THEY MISSED SOMETHING GLARING. Scary, they represent, YOU to a governing, policing body, the IRS.

If your considering this office, I recommend you either know your lRS docs like the back of your hand, good at locating errors then inform Redmond's outfit on what is amiss, pay them again of course. How annoying is it to pay someone who doesn't care about quality when it has ramifications for YOU now and in the future in relation to the IRS? And why doesn't Redmond's business have an official name in the front rather than words INCOME TAX? That shoulda told me something. Redmond doesn't appear to take responsibility for that business although charged good hard earned money for mediocre work.

Is this office trying to hide from Yelpers? How is anyone suppose to look them up? I decided to review now (April 2011) cause it's tax time again and I told this story to my new accountant (located on Venice Blvd, north side, east of Lincoln with UPDATED office and NEW computers, 5 minutes from Redmond's joint, also average is price and GREAT reviews on YELP) and he stated it was the WORST STORY in his business that he has EVER heard, stating that the situation was considered BIG ERRORS in the CPA world, confirming my dismay at the above experience, hence my review.