Complaint Review: JK Harris - North Charleston South Carolina

I went with JK Harris because of the television commercials I saw. They inspired confidence. "Settle your debt for pennies on the dollar" went over huge with me. I admit I screwed up. I didn't file returns for 3 years for an online business I run. I tried to get cute and I got caught. Now I was trying to find a way to minimize the damage I'd done to myself. JK Harris "seemed" like a good solution. I only wish now I'd found this website BEFORE I signed up with them.

Anyway, I called their 1-800 number and got an appointment set up. The representative I met with, Anthony Brown in Topeka, Kansas, was as good as they come. He told me that basically I didn't have anything to worry about from that point on. That I should forward any further communication I received from the IRS to them (JK Harris) and that they would deal with it for me. He talked about Offer in Compromise, told me that the IRS would HAVE to accept any offer they made to them. Not true. I only found out later that OIC's are rejected routinely. The IRS isn't bound by anything. They can reject an OIC and do so often. That wasn't what Mr. Brown told me though. He told me point blank that whatever offer they made to the IRS would HAVE to be accepted. The first of many lies I would be told by this company.

The total cost to me would be 1,550.00. I gave him a 500.00 down payment, 500.00 two weeks later and then a final 550.00 two weeks after that (last payment was made September 20th). This was back in August. Toward the end of September I got a phone call from Nathanial at JK Harris. He wanted to confirm my social security number, said he'd been assigned to my case and was going to get things cranked up. I was stoked. This was several days after I'd made my last payment to them. Finally I was going to get this big mistake on my part corrected. These people inspire confidence in you. They tell you EXACTLY what you want to hear.

On September 29th I got a letter from the IRS stating they had received a letter from JK Harris indicating they were no longer representing me and Power Of Attorney had been revoked. The effective date was September 26th. Figure it took 2 or 3 days for the JK Harris letter to get to the IRS which means they terminated my contract 3 DAYS AFTER THEY TOOK MY LAST PAYMENT. No communication from JK Harris whatsoever. I called them dozens of times (it's impossible to get a live person on the phone so you're stuck with just leaving messages). I emailed them, sent them several snailmail letters, left dozens of messages.. no response. NONE! All I have is this letter from the IRS stating JK Harris no longer represents me.

I waited several weeks and finally filed a consumer report with the Kansas Attorney General's office. I also filed a complaint with the BBB. Yesterday I got a phone call from JK Harris. The woman I spoke with was essentially doing damage control. They'd received the BBB complaint and were wondering what the problem was. She did say that they were waiving the normal refund processing time (which is like 2 months) and going ahead and processing my refund immediately. When I asked her how much I was getting back she got real vague and said she didn't know. I'm quite sure I won't get back the full 1,550.00 but at this point anything is better than nothing.

The problem? ZERO communication from their company. An outright lie regarding OIC. The IRS doesn't HAVE to accept an OIC. If anyone tells you otherwise - call them a liar.

I want my money back. I want ALL my money back. I have ZERO confidence in this company at this point. All I see is hundreds and hundreds of complaints and they're all basically the same. Took my money and didn't do anything. It's the same thing over and over again.

For what it's worth... the BBB complaint seems to have done more good than anything else I've done.

Jeff

Topeka, Kansas

U.S.A.