The Worst Tax Preparer Reviews

Client Review of

Gerald A. Mowles, EA

London, United Kingdom

South Bend, IN
February 20, 2023

I paid to submit an American ITIN application through Gerald Mowles (who is listed as a Certified Acceptance Agent on the IRS website,) in early May 2022 for £195. This was shortly before the IRS announced severe delays following the April 2022 tax filing (due to COVID), which lead to months of backlog in processing ITIN applications. For context, I applied at the same time as my wife, although my wife (not a British national) sent off her ITIN application herself, without using a certified acceptance agent. Overall the application process was straightforward, clear and professional, and Gerald was personable and clear with answering any questions I had. Which is why I'm sorry to say that the communication has been very poor ever since I paid the fee. I chased up the application once in July, and received an update confirming no news, which was sent two weeks after my email and some further chasing. My wife received her application in early November, and so I messaged again in late November to see whether there was any news. This was ignored and I sent a second reply a week later. Gerald replied promising that he would look into it the next day. Nothing came the next day. In early January 2023 I messaged again to remind Gerald, and received no further reply. In mid January I messaged one final time, again with no reply. Overall I'm £195 short; Gerald appears to have "done a runner"; obviously I have had to hand over sensitive information to complete the application which has left me feeling very uneasy about the possibility of fraud here; and overall I wish I had filed my ITIN myself. Perhaps there is some reason, but the service has been poor overall and I wouldn't recommend BBL&G for this service.
Client Review of

Deborah J. Noble

Kingston, NY

Woodstock, NY
February 6, 2023

I'd like to state that leaving a review is not something that I have ever done before but I cannot let this slide after today. We were referred to Brueckner by family friends and submitted our docs in the first week of April, 2021. During the year, our taxes kept getting rejected. Every few months someone would call/email us, looking for more information. In November, I spoke to Debbie, who seemed nice enough and I was willing to believe her. She explained the IRS is backed up and didn't want to give us the refund. She said check in at 12 weeks if we still did not receive anything. So Today, Feb 2nd, I called again. First, whoever answered the phone told me immediately she wasn’t available. But a minute later, Debbie picked up. She began to say it's not uncommon to have corrections needed and we would be waiting 6 months to receive our refund. When I began to question her- She started to get very defensive, talking over me and began rushing me off the phone. She gives me a phone number to an office in Texas and tells me to figure it out on my own with what happened. I asked her to explain the issue in detail, her reply- "I could explain this all day. I do not have the time, it's tax season." I said “ I am a customer and it’s been almost a year. Please tell me who's fault this is so we can clear it up." She said this just happens and no further explanation could be given. We were willing to own our mistakes if the documents were wrong. She said that she explained everything and if I could not understand it, then that was my fault! I could not believe that someone trusted to handle these matters was frankly acting like a child. I didn't raise my voice, curse or insult her, so why was she treating me this way? She says "I have other customers to attend to, I'm busy" and LITERALLY hangs up the phone. I called back 4 times and the phone kept ringing. I borrowed a phone from a coworker and guess what?- Someone picked up immediately! Funny, right? Now this new woman goes on to say Debbie is with a customer and that she cannot talk to me. That she is ALSO too busy and eventually hangs up on me as well. Which means they screened the calls and had no interest in assisting a customer that needed help with their return. My wife runs a local business and I sell insurance. We aren't nutcases that are calling to harass and scream at anyone. This type of treatment is beyond unethical and disgusting. I'm writing this review now to warn everyone. They basically said they do not care or need us. They do not even need to do the right thing. We are STILL your customer and have paid you for a service. The service is still not complete and now an imaginary time frame is out there for when a return COULD take place. While my wife and I completely understand that the IRS is it's own entity, we trusted the associates at Brueckner to have our backs and this is how they treated us. We also plan on reporting them to the BBB in coming days after this scenario. DO NOT TRUST THIS BUSINESS TO ASSIST YOU IN FILING YOUR TAXES. I'm not sure what is the issue with trying to figure out where our refund is and what happened. Saying that you are busy is simply unacceptable and most of us would rightfully be fired for treating a customer this way. We had a very simple return in 2021, the only difference was that we got married. We now believe that Brueckner made the mistakes in which is delaying the returns and pushing this out until now. In fact, we were getting ready to bring them our 2022 returns because of how Debbie seemed to be helpful back in Nov, 2022. This will no longer be happening and we suggest you do the same. Nothing exposes character more than the way you treat people, that you think you don't need.