I have written the following complaint about my experience with a very rude and disrespectful tax preparer I had the misfortune of dealing with the previous month in February. I have filed a complaint with numerous places such as the IRS and have filled out a form and faxed it over to them, in addition to contacting Liberty Tax itself(the place of business) about her and nothing has not happened.
She herself is the owner/manager of the place, so it makes it that much harder for her to have consequences at all for how she acted towards me.
Andrea Jerome of 967 Hempstead Turnpike Franklin Square NY 11010
On Tuesday evening on February 10 2015, I came to this place as a walk in, in order to adjust my taxes that were already filed a week and a half before. I had the request to change my status from single to head of household. When I arrived at this location I had an interaction with Andrea Jerome, who was cordial at first but then quickly changed. She and her receptionist told me to fill out a form asking for my basic information such as name, address,etc and she told me where to sign.
After doing this, she then told me that she had to get something to eat to go on her break so she is prepared for us when she comes back so she is not sluggish and making mistakes. Okay no problem, she says this will just take from 15 to 30 minutes and she will be back. After about an hour she was not back and I went back home. When I returned home I called the assistant and requested an appointment for 12 noon, when I arrived Wednesday at that time, only myself and two other people were waiting. She was speaking to to numerous people on the phone and I was not called until 12:20(again I was only one of three people). She called me and went through my files from yesterday and pretended like what happened yesterday with her being very late never happened and didn't acknowledge it or apologize.
What she did talk about was how I came on a crazy day and how busy Wednesdays are and she is moving about constantly. Stated she is glad how this is once a year only she has to deal with this. She told me days like Tuesday and Thursday are great days and when I reminded her I came on a Tuesday the day before and how I waited a while for her, no word of apology came out her mouth, she simply just said I was a walk in and appointments are best. She then worked on my the figures for my readjustment and wrote a peice of paper what my figures would be for federal and state and then gave me her business card. I had told her previously my return arrives Thursday morning(the next day) to my bank and she told me after the refund arrives she can only just take my word for it and to call her the next day and then come in with proof that the person i am claiming is my dependent and then I should pay then. When I called the assistant's number I am told by her that "Andrea is not in the office" and asks me if I want to make an appointment for Monday. I say no thanks and realizing I dont' want to deal with this experience anymore.
So I decide to go in and ask for my Form 1040 Individual Income Tax Return. When I walk in without even greeting me she is halfway standing up on the phone and screams out " Do you have an appointment"? "I am on a conference call come back tomorrow" . I tell the receptionist who is looking caught off guard by how she is acting and tell her all I came for is my form 1040 document and nothing else. While Andrea is on the phone the receptionist goes under the desk and is taking out of the folder and Andrea snatches it from her and says in order to get my form back I have to be taken out of the system first and she isn't gonna give me back my documents.
I tell her she is not allowed to do that and all I asked for is to get my stuff and that is it and she tells me she is gonna call the police now. I tell her how nasty she has been acting this entire time and she tells me "Your the one who took a couple weeks to realize you had a child you had to claim". Bringing up something that is not her business. Andrea then told me that I came in when the place was closed. When I walked in it was 8:30 and she said well the lights were off we are closed and I told her the business is supposed to close at 9 pm not when she feels like it.
When I am not leaving yet she tells her assistant to walk over since she is on the phone and call the police and tell them to come. I tell her its okay you can tell them to come I''m still waiting for my documents and Andrea says the police wont get involved in an issue of "claim" and will only tell me to leave and believe her because "I am a tax professional". When I say to her its all about you huh? She says yes right now it is. Yes Andrea was doing all of this while on the phone with someone in her "conference call".. I said to her "your very stuck up " , and she responded back to me "your mother". As I was leaving she screamed out to me I'm never getting my form back and pointed to the assistant telling her to close the door.
When I came up to the place I just rushed and did not bring my phone with me so I could not report this myself to the police automatically.
I have already reported her for employee misconduct and holding on to documents that do not belong to her without approval towards the IRS. If you ask around, I can promise you I am not the only person who has had a bad experience with Ms Jerome at this place.
The number of this place of business is 516 216 5138 for the receptionist, She herself can be reached directly at 609 375 7410.
In addition to what I reported about Andrea Jerome before, during the last day of the standoff with her on Friday February 13th I called the police when I was at the location. At the time only the receptionist was at the desk but I just wanted to handle the situation since she(Andrea) always seems to be out of the office and makes her own schedule. Earlier that day, the receptionist had a copy of my 1040 form in an envelope for me but when I was leaving I realized it was the copy, and called back requesting the original.
If it was someone else, any other tax preparer I would be fine with having a copy, but the previous experience with Andrea, made me uncomfortable with her having my original document in her possession
When the two police officers arrived I explained the situation to them and then they asked "Where is Andrea right now" to the receptionist who then told them she can call her cell phone number. When Andrea was called, she told her that the police were there looking for her, and Andrea then told them to put her on speaker phone. The policeman told her not to disrespect him and if I am asking to talk to you, you can come to the office and speak to me, "I'm not speaking to you over the phone". When they asked where she was she stated "I"m far away from the office now" but did not tell them where.
Andrea told the receptionist to tell the officers that she would be back after 7 pm and the officers told us they could not wait that long but understood our frustration because they saw firsthand how she acts towards people. They told my mother and I it was their third time being called to the location and I assure you we only called them once so they were speaking of previous cases. They did not go into detail about that but I remembered hearing that from them. The one policeman(the other office was a policewoman) made a joke about how "There are Statue of Liberties dancing outside the office all the time but when you come here workers are barely inside" ...."They are telling you outside to come inside to an empty place".
At this time it was minutes to 5pm so we all knew she gave the 7pm time because she knew they would be long gone. They recommended my mother and I to try and call back another time when she is there, to let a civilian board know about this matter, or file a police report. After the four of us walked out the door, one second after, the receptionist closed the front door and turned off the lights. I have mentioned before during my interaction with Andrea, the receptionist was fine and just doing her job. It was painfully obvious that Ms. Jerome must have told her to close the door and turned off the lights.
When this happened the officers just laughed and said she just confirmed everything they said about the business and repeated the steps of recommendation they previously gave us. I believe this was the 5th Precinct Police that came when we called, they would be able to confirm going to that location that day and vouch for what happened. I have been trying to find out the franchise owner for the Franklin Square location but I have had no luck.
Hopefully posting this information on this website will help to warn other people from going to her or involving themselves in business with her. I do hope it gets the attention of the IRS and someone alerts them to removing her privilidge as a tax preparer, I have attached her photos for you guys in this report.
#2Author of original report
Mon, June 01, 2015
Sure...Andrea. This is why your the one currently having a suit filed against you for racketeering right?
Louis v. Jerome et al
Defendant: John Does, JTH Tax Inc. d/b/a Liberty Tax Service, Andrea-Marie Jerome and Kerline Mathieu
Plaintiff: Marie N. Louis
Case Number: 2:2015cv03094
Filed: May 28, 2015
Court: New York Eastern District Court
Office: Central Islip Office
Nature of Suit: Racketeer/Corrupt Organization
Cause of Action: 18:1962 Racketeering (RICO) Act
Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff
Hope your not too caught up to respond back to me young lady...busy with court and everything. Maybe all of this will humble you but once a criminal always a criminal. Its funny how it finally caught up to you and you can wipe that smirk of your face. Arrogance gets you nowhere and its about time someone finally caught you redhanded.
#3Author of original report
Mon, March 23, 2015
She also goes by Andree-Marie Jerome and only started to work this year. The police told others in their precinct not to go to the business and have warned their friends in Franklin Square to avoid it. The IRS has said they will likely take action against her after the tax season is done after April 15 and talk with Liberty Tax about her.
Tax
Bayside,#4Consumer Comment
Fri, March 20, 2015
I also had the misfortune of dealing with the owner of this business. She definitely is an individual who wears her heart on her sleeve. When I called to make an appointment through the front desk, I was confirmed to see her. Then when I arrived she was rolling her eyes at me when my I told her I had an appointment confirmed for that day. If I am not mistaken I believe this was a Monday and she was telling me I should have spoken to her first and not her assistant because I am not thinking about her time.
She then told me to finish signing in and she would be with me in 10 minutes and then put on her headphones and started working on something in front of her computer.
Instead I decided to just walk out and leave. I strongly recommend not going to this place, I am not surprised to see I am not the only person who had the same experience with her.
Tyg
Pahrump,#5General Comment
Tue, March 17, 2015
And YOU did NOTHING to escalate the situation. See when you write, you tell a story. Sometimes YOU tell more trying to defend your position or argument then YOU realize. We can ALL see this for what it is. YOU had to WAIT and when this person DID NOT get back in time, YOU leave and show up the next day FISHING for an apology. YOU make it QUITE CLEAR that was indeed YOUR intention. When no apology came, YOU escallated the situation due to YOUR issues. When this HUMAN BEING gets tired of dealing with YOU, well she was WELL within her rights to call the police on YOU. I swear the self entitlment YOU are displaying is TRULY sickening!!! What gives YOU the right to act as YOU have for NOT getting your way?? Thankfully this person that YOU have defmaed on a MEDIA OUTLET can not only prove YOU wrote this but they ALSO have a legal remedy. YOU DO NOT GET TO PUBLISH YOUR OPINIONS AS FACT!!!! THAT is what YOU have done. Perhaps YOU need to examine YOUR behaviour in public. Just because you THINK you deserve better treatment doesnt mean that you DO!!!