Unbelievable incompetence and rudeness
After a series of delays filing my 2023 taxes for his own convenience (which he told the tax authorities were my fault) until December 15, 2024, he finally filed my returns only to have them rejected by the IRS and the California tax authority because of rudimentary errors he made. I had to visit the IRS office in Honolulu with my wife and spend hours on the phone with the tax authority in California to fix his errors. He said he could fix them for an additional fee but I doubt he is actually capable of doing that. In the process, I had to put up with various personal attacks. I suggested to him that we should part ways. His response was to cut off my access to his website (and my personal information) and send me a nasty email telling me, along with several hominin insults, that he was terminating the contract. He did, however, agree to return the advance payment that I had made for the next 2024 year’s tax preparation. After delaying the refund for two months telling me he would pay soon or next month, he reneged, saying I had entered an adhesion agreement when I signed up for his services that said I could not get a refund after some date in 2023. That adhesion contract related to my 2023 return, not my 2024 taxes and, in any event, it had been superseded by his agreement to return my money for services he decided not to provide. Apparently, Mr. Mertz thinks he can enter into an agreement, take someone’s money, then terminate the agreement and keep the money.
January 18, 2025
Unprompted review