H&R Block Confuses Customers
H&R Block is really frustrating me; do they want me as a customer, or not?
I started doing my tax return with H&R Block online last week. Upon visiting the site, I clicked on the “Start Now” under the FREE edition. As returning user, I entered my username and password and clicked log-in. Suddenly, I was thrown into the Premium service, without warning. Thirty minutes went by as I tried to search the FAQ, support, and rest of the internet for a way to switch back to the free edition.
Giving up, I called their support phone number. The gentlemen I spoke to asked for my e-mail address and birth date to verify my account. He verified that I was in a premium account, but was unable to tell me how I got to the premium section without paying or how to get back to a free account, making sure I did not have to pay later. It sounded like he was a complete novice. I must have spent 20 minutes on the phone with H&R Block cycling between representative confusion and hold music.
Frustrated, I asked for the gentleman’s supervisor. He requested my Social Security Number in order to verify my account. Why would I be asked for my Social Security Number when requesting a supervisor? And why now, not before. That made absolutely no sense to me. I refused to divulge the information as it served no purpose, and I had already been verified.
I was about to be late to a Fit-Core class at my gym, so I thanked the gentlemen and hung up.
Now, a week later, I am trying once again to start working on my tax return. I login, and see this message:
What am I supposed to do? Was this proof-read at all?
- The explanation makes no sense to me
- There appears to be internal-use-only jargon and/or industry acronyms within the explanation
- What is this newsletter they are describing?
- What are the implications, other than price, for switching?
- Will my tax data be deleted either way?
- There is a space before a period within the explanation
I think it’s time to file with TurboTax Free edition.
**UPDATE**
Upon publishing this post, an automated Tweet went out on twitter, and I quickly got a response from H&R Block. I responded with my phone number a and the best time to call which they acknowledged. Promptly, at the time I specified, I got a call back from H&R Block! Within ten minutes H&R Block had apologized and solved my problem!
I would have liked to thank H&R Block for their quick response, but it is hard to do that when I had to go through all of this just to solve a problem that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Furthermore: their initial line of support should have been able to solve this just as quick!
This same thing has happened to me. It automatically went to premium somehow, when I never (at least knowingly) explicitly requested that. If this happened because I simply filled out a “Premium” box, then I definitely am switching. That’s not really fair to users to not give at least a warning if that was to occur.
how did they solve the problem, im trying to switch from basic to free. Ive been on hold for a while, and can’t find any support online. Thanks.
Id recommend tweeting about it! It appears that you get better customer service if you do.
same here.. its cheating
It keeps telling me that I have the basic edition now because that is what I used last year (not true, I’ve been using the Free edition for 6 years now, I have never paid!) and same as everyone else, I cannot get it switched back. I wish I had twitter to get their attention! 😦