ELLISON & CO CPAPC

We began using Kellon Ellison to prepare our tax returns when things became more complicated with our tax issues (we purchased a house and maintained our old house for my mother-in-law to live in 2009). In the beginning she seemed efficient and knowledgeable. While her customer service was never "stellar" (e.g., she often didn't return phone calls or email) we didn't worry about whether she would get our taxes done and filed on time. We have always gotten our tax information to her around the first week of February - what I deem should be plenty of time to prepare and file before April 15th. Last year things proved to be incredibly frustrating. She would say she would call and let us know something, but then she wouldn't. When we finally actually TALKED to her, she said she was moving offices and things were "chaotic". We gave her the benefit of the doubt and dropped our paperwork off with her on February 10th this year & it has been a complete disaster!! My mother-in-law and husband sold some land they owned together in Louisiana so we knew it would be more involved, however, we made numerous calls to her beginning in August of 2014 (at the time of the sale) to ensure we had all the information she needed because we knew we would have to pay something this year, unlike previous years. Numerous un-returned phone calls to her office, cell phone, emails, text messages have gone completely unanswered. NOTHING!! As the 15th drew nearer, we waited and waited. Finally on Wednesday, April 8th my husband reached her and she said she would have numbers for us on Friday, April 10th. Friday comes and goes - NOTHING! Monday - NOTHING, Tuesday - NOTHING! On Wednesday, THE 15TH - TAX FILING DAY - she sends my husband a text after he and I call her repeatedly and says she was working on it and "it will get filed". We never heard another thing from her that night despite phone calls and texts simply asking if taxes got filed and what do we owe?! My husband phoned her the next morning as did I and got (of course) no answer! She finally replies to a text my husband sent asking if the taxes had been filed and writes, "Extended but filed". She says she's working on some things and can they talk at 1:00? It is now 4:05 on that same day, and she has never called him!!! He is headed to her office even as I type this. Last week her father died, and I am not unsympathetic to that. However, she has had our stuff since Feb. 10th!! All she had to do was call us and tell us she had too much going on and could she refer us to someone else!!!! It's ridiculous that we now owe penalties and interest because as I sit here now we still don't know any more than we did on February 10th!! The worst part is to completely ignore our calls and messages. I know reading this it sounds like all we did was call her, but up until the week of the 15th, we have left her alone to get her work done. But when it's clear you haven't done what you said you would do, and you won't even pick up the phone, return a call or an email or a text maybe you need to close your doors and do something else.