HRB Digital LLC - Kernersville

Beware! I discovered (too late) that H&R Block?s pricing procedures have as much or more to do with line items entered as they do with the expertise or time required to prepare a return and/or the return?s fundamental complexity. This was how H&R Block justified charging $478 to prepare our 2012 Federal and North Carolina returns; an amount that, in my view, was outrageous. Outrageous for a return with a combined gross income of less than $48,000, and with deductions below the threshold allowing the use of itemization..
If you choose to use H&R Block?s in-office services, I urge you to protect yourself. The published H&R Block Satisfaction Guarantee for office services states ?We're so certain that you'll have a positive experience that you don't pay until you're satisfied.?  In order to be protected by the umbrella of the Satisfaction Guarantee guarantee, you will need to be armed with two things.

(1)   You, the H&R Block client, must be aware of the fact that the Satisfaction Guarantee exists. If, like me, you are (were) unaware of the Satisfaction Guarantee and regardless of to what degree you express your dissatisfaction, the H&R Block office is (as I was told later by H&R Block Customer Service) under no obligation (nor, frankly, is it in their interest) to make customers aware of the guarantee and/or to suspend the filing of your return(s), offering you the opportunity to take your business elsewhere without an obligation to pay.
(2)   In order to complete an assessment of your satisfaction, you must know how much you are going to be charged well before
being pressed towards signing the return and the processing of your debit card?steps that comingle, creating an irreversible and potentially regrettable event without recourse.
Despite later claims to the contrary, the H&R Block location at 229 N. Main St. in Kernersville, NC never revealed the fee until (1) they had my debit card in hand and (2) I specifically demanded to know how much they were about to key in against my debit card. Hearing ?$478?, I immediately expressed my shock and dissatisfaction?while any mention of the Satisfaction Guarantee was avoided by the cashier and office manager. It would seem that unless a customer specifically invokes the terms of the guarantee,
H&R Block can (and in my case did) sidestep the topic until the customer signs the return and the debit card voucher.
Based on fruitless attempts to discuss the inequities of my experience with H&R Block Customer Service representatives, I?ve learned that by signing, the game is over?despite (what was for me) the empty H&R Block promise of satisfaction. With that said, don?t allow an H&R Block office to get you to their point of no return until/unless you are truly satisfied.
Curiously, the H&R Block website carries a message from the CEO, Bill Cobb, in which Mr.Cobb makes three clear references to their corporate values that are guided by ?doing the right thing?. Any ?values? based on that expression failed to materialize as part of my consumer experience. Moreover, an H&R Block customer Service escalation representative justified their inability and/or unwillingness to intervene with business decisions and or actions made by H&R Block locations because they are independent franchise locations. That compels me to ask? How it is that a corporation?s activities can supposedly be guided
by a posture of ?doing the right thing? when the corporation claims to have no meaningful control over its franchisees in matters of consumer complaint? It seems a very convenient catch 22. 
As a courtesy, I provided this review to H&R Block?s executive offices prior to its posting?giving them the opportunity to rethink their position.  They chose not to do so, citing that they will not interfere with fees levied and decisions made by their franchise
locations.  They added that thier fees were fair and cannot be compared to independent tax preparation services. Making matters worse, when H&R Block?s corporate office spoke again with the franchise location, the manager?s account of disclosing my options under the Satisfaction Guarantee interview was something far from the reality of what took place in franchisee?s office.
We will never again use the services of H&R Block and urge others to use caution when doing so.