LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Complaints

5,730 thoughts on “LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Complaints”

• i hear danny is going to be a promoter on carnival cruise ships

• they are going to have wavers on cruise ships now

• He doesn’t have the legs…………….

• Shouldn’t F&D and Mike be marketing right now instead of wasting time on this board…. I have done 50 returns, average fee $325 so far and IRS just accepted E-files today….. Counting my hundreds and fifties and later will get me some big fat ……..

• JB;

  I don’t know Mike, so I have no idea what he is doing, but I can assure you, I am out Marketing and bringing in customers. And strangely, my Marketing is costing a lot less and is substantially more effective than anything Danny Hewitt ever came up with. What’s more, in talking to other franchisees, they have also realized what a absolute waste of time this franchise is, and are planning their exit as they realize the only thing LT does is cost money, offering no benefit whatsoever. I suggest you do the same, you will be surprised how much better your bottom line is.

• JB

  Please share with us were your store is located? So after giving away $50.00 per return your average net fee is $275.00. Another $52.25 goes to Liberty leaving you with $222.75.

  All of these returns are tied to a bank product of some sort how else could you explain the fee. On average what is the default rate on these type of returns due to the IRS keeping the refund.

  Just for the record in 2011 H&R Block financials show that company prepared 16.4% of all tax returns prepared by a paid preparer. Their average fee for company stores was $189.73 and franchisees $171.86. Depending on the age of the store and location most liberty stores will not average higher. Also they will not do anywhere near the volumne of a Block store. Liberty stores are modeled after Jackson Hewitt stores which after 6 seasons average around 600 returns and that’s a company that does national advertising and has name brand recognition.

• A attorney can review if franchisor didn’t break any trade laws. Attorney can also review your franchise agreement too see if your contract was to fail. Franchise fraud is a serious offense and in any county court room the case can be favorable for franchisee. I read a lot of comments on this forum and many of you should call a franchise attorney. I recommend using marks & Klein llp in red bank nj. The attorneys in this firm do represent most of the 50 states. I used them for a franchise I bought years back and my story wasn’t much different there yours. I at first hesitated to make the call. After using them with very little cost out of my pocket I won the case. I cannot disclose how much was awarded to me or who it was against. All I can say is it feels good knowing the real truth and that I was fooled by a system that was only too fail… Make the call…

• My store is in a suburb of a major east coast city. It is definitely not a high income area but it definitely is not the inner city if that is what you think. Everyone knows high income customers rather go to a CPA than an HR block JH or LIberty Tax. If you opened in a high income area you are an idiot and should blame yourself.

  My average fee that i gave you was already net of the $50. My average net fee for the year will end up somewhere around $250. Most Liberty Tax offices can do 600 returns by the 3rd year and a 1000 by the 6th year. Liberty Tax may not have the name recognition of HR Block but there are not any good unopened territories left at HR block. If you rather buy an HR block franchise and pay 30% royalties, good luck with your venture…..

• John:

  I’m not looking to come to your store just want an idea of where your located do you think you could be a little more specific?

  The reason you buy a franchise is to get the support you need. Part of that support would be for the franchisor to sell you a franchise in an area where their business model works
  .
  The franchise I was involved with purchashed a territory in Somers Point NJ. The franchisee found a store in their territory right on Shore Road, near a bar, a bus stop, a laundromat and within 5 min of a Jackson Hewitt, another laundromat and a check cashing business. (That’s Liberty’s site selection process). However, the AD would not approve that site or any other site in the territory and ultimatily convinced them to swith territories to one in Pleasantville NJ which was about 7 miles further down Shore Road. This territory was a high EIC area but there was so much competition and very little trust from people in the area that the first season was horrible and because of the neighborhood you had no chance of getting any mid season or second peak clients. This is not the kind of help you hope for when you buy a franchise. My belief is had the franchise openned in the original location they would have had a better chance of surviving. Had they not chosen to buy a Liberty franchise and just openned on their own they would still be in business.

  Frustrated and Disquested: I think were starting to watch things unravel. Danny leaving is just the first sign. I believe the IPO will not go as planned as a matter of fact I don’t think it will happen. The financial statements aren’t enough. What is to entice investors? Liberty has no presents in on-line market, Their CEO to his credit did start two tax preparation services but he almost put the first one into bankruptcy on two occassions and was asked to step down and I believe that is where he is taking this business. If you review HR Block’s financial’s you can see where the tax prep business is headed. Liberty is behind the curve. It has no on-line presents, mimimum name brand recognition, had to supply $56,000,000 in operationg loans at the end of the prior year tax season to help it’s franchisees stay in business and now is selling franchises for $2,500 deposit when it use to ask $40,000. How would you like to be the guy who paid $40,000 for a new territory last year to find out Liberty is now selling them for $2,500 deposit and 16% higher royalty fee.

• John:

  As to your comment that a 3rd year store can do 600 returns and a 1000 by 6th year can you show us anything to support this. Both Jackson Hewitt and HR Block publish their stores net fees and Jackson Hewitt published it’s average store sales by age.
  Since JH is the same business model as Liberty the results will be similar. a 3rd year Store at Jackson Hewitt averaged 253 returns and a 6 yr. store averaged 334 returns. Like Liberty Jackson Hewitt stores are mostly owned by franchisees.

  As for name brand recognition the NY Times just did an article about the end of RALS. I looked all over the article and didn’t see one mention of Liberty. Must be because their in the Silent Period of their IPO.

• Barillal

  I can pretty well guarantee that to do the same amount of returns as the nearest block, a Liberty Tax would have to spend in excess of 20% of their gross income on Marketing. How is that a better deal than 19% for Liberty?

• Frustrated and Disgusted,

  Liberty will never do as many returns as the nearest Block, no matter how much money they spend. Block has them out classed by a mile…they are a household name, Liberty isn’t even on the radar.

  John Barilla,

  How are your fees so high, especially less the $50 CIF? Even at $250, that seems extremely high. I use a CPA and he charges $150.00 and there are lots of schedules involved, but no EIC or bank products. Seems really high to me, but more power to you if you can get it.

  Anyone know how much Liberty is charging per form? Can you post the price list here?

  Thanks

• Wow, that must be a beginner CPA. Most CPAs have a $500 minumum per return, as in they will touch a return under $500 and specifically tell you to got an HR Block or Liberty Tax for anything under that much.

• John:

  The National Association of Accounts published survey results of 8000 accounts. The avearge fee for a 1040 with Schedule A and a State return was $229.00.

  Your comments regarding any figures about average fees, total returns etc. are all unsubstaintieted and should be disregarded.

  Please tell me what city your territory is located?

• National Association of Accountants are not CPAs and that survery is a couple of years old so i believe the average is mroe like $250 now. For the whole season, i expect to average about $250. An office doing even 800 returns at $250 should easily be making nice money for working 100 days of the year. Any office doing 300 returns should 250 returns should break even. If you are doing less than 250 returns, after being in business for a couple of years close down and get a job, you are not cut out to be in business.

• John Barilla;

  I think your sole intention was to scare people into coming to Liberty instead of a CPA. Well, let me use another scare tactic. In excess of 30% of the returns we processed from other Liberty stores were done incorrectly. We ended up doing the amended return, in all but a couple cases ended up getting the client more money.
  When you hire CPA’s as I did for my store, you will find that they actually know what they are doing rather than $8 per hour goofballs who only read and answer the questions presented by LibTax. I would suggest that it would probably be worth it for most clients to spend the extra money at a CPA, get their return done correctly, and get a larger legitimate return.

• Frustrated,

  I agree with you but most CPAs will not do any returns for less than $500. I know I would not. That is why i do hire my $8 per hour goofballs and charge $250 per return. There is market for everyone. HR Block, LIberty $250 for an $8 an hour person to do your return. $500 for a CPA to do your return. IT is not different then getting a hair cut at Hair Cuttery for $15 from some new stylist or you can go to a nice salon and bay $45 for a hair cut. Why are you not getting it my friend?

• John:

  The more you talk the less credible you become. For now Liberty will be too busy with tax season to sell franchises. But for anyone that maybe looking there is a lot of good information on here and there also is alot of unsubstantied information that is provided by people like John Barilla. Liberty could easly provide potential franchises with average sales and income on first year stores but deliberalty chooses not to because if they did most people would walk away.

  Buyer beware!!!

• Barilla,

  CPA’s near my local offices are priced competitively as we are. $500 ANF’s are the stuff of myths. They charge $500 for corporate, partnerships, trusts, fiduciary etc….

  I’ve been reading your drivel for months now and you’re clearly not sounding any more intelligent.

• And your $8 per hour hasn’t taken into account your 5% bonus = $12.50 per hour. So your VALUABLE “goofballs” as you call them who make you $230 per return before other expenses appear to be nothing more than the vehicle to make you wealthy. Sounds incredibly like John Hewitt and how he considers his franchisees. In your case, John “goofball” Barilla, your are making John an even richer man! well done!

• Glad I got out from under the Liberty curse. Has anyone noticed that H&R has already done over 60 advertisements on tv since the 1st and just as many for their online business. Turbo Tax is all over the airways since the 1st. How’s your wavers working out for you Barilla? I’ve run 4 successful businesses in my 65 years on this earth and all had a good business plan and we made money. Was with Liberty for 2 years and they have no game plan and offer no help whatsoever after you sign for the franchise. I averaged $312 per return in 2010 but couldn’t get the customers in the door with the doughnuts and wavers like they suggest. What a joke! Where is the advertisement money they collect from their franchisees going to?
  The only advertisement I see from them is to promote their franchise to lure in more unsuspecting franchisees. A law suit should be filed just for the advertisement fees if for nothing else.

• Re; Richie B

  The advertising money JTH rips off from his franchisees for the most part goes to fund a website so that he can sell more territories. What is interesting, is if you open up your email accounts, ie; hotmail, gmail etc. you will see H&R and Hewitt advertising their sites. Liberty does none. So you have a website you are funding through your franchisees, using it to sell your franchises, ( and by the way, the website cost is huge), and making them think it is in their best interest. You of also get Yellow Page ads. Of course YP is pretty useless. Look up your store in any major city and you either have to really want to find it, or you have ratings, which are the ones that show. So you go out and put a bunch of fake recommendations in which gets you to the top. Welcome to Liberty Tax..

• I want every Liberty Tax franchisee to go and look their store up on YP.com. Congratulations, you will not only see your store listed, you will see all of the H&R Blocks listed also.

  That is what you are paying 4% royalties for.

• Just thinking how much payroll was wasted by new franchisees since they were required to open three weeks ago and w-2s in New Jersey are just coming out. Called several stores and there all waiting for business to pick-up. I was pleased to see that most were not staying open from 9 to 9 M-f. Do they still try to push people to be open 24 hrs during some period of peak?

• I did my tax at the grovehall branch in Dorchester. I call to tell them why I was unsatisfied. The boss got on the phone and told me to go screw mysel and that didn’t Want my business.

• I am the owner of Liberty Tax Grove HAll and indeed I got a phone call from Mr. odimegwu on Jan 28. Mr Odimegwu was belligerant on the phone call. AFter speaking to my store manager, a person with a Master’s degree in Conflict Management, who gave up on trying to speak with him, and my General Manager, I tried to find out the problem to try to help MR Odimegwu. But to my surprise, Mr. Odimegwu only vented his anger at me without telling me why he was angry for a nonstop five minutes or so on the phone.

  While patiently letting Mr Odimegwu voice his anger, I tried to ask him to give me a second to speak, and was every time shouted over and could not get in a single word, while Mr Odimegwu continued to speak. I continued to hold my peace. But at one point, all of a sudden the phone went dead. So I thought Mr. Odimegwu had simply went out of gas and discontinued his badgering of us, and decided to hang up. But then the phone rang again, and he was ont he phone again. OF course, I picked up immediately, and he then accused me of hanging up on him. I told him therre was no such thing. And that afteer trying to convince him that I would do no such thing, and him of accusing me of lying to him. I pointed outr to him that I had a land line while he had a cell phone line, and that it was obvious that itwas more likely that his cell line had somehow gotten interrupted and that was why it went dead between us. But he continued to argue that I had hung up on him. I explained to him that I would not do such and thing and that I did not do such a thing. He then repeatedly told me that I was a liar, which I resented very much, as I am a gentleman who would never lie. And he repeatedly said that I was a liar, even after I said that I did not lie to him about the fact that the phone call had disconnected itself with me holding the phone still in my hands and me trying to speak in it previously. So, finally, I realized that it was not getting anywhere and that I was wasting my time with this lunatic, so I asked him to go S**** himself and hung up, while totally giving up on this person in trying to make peace or make a resolution with his complaint, whatever that may be.

  But I know all of my customers, except him, would support me, knowing the kind of person I am, that I would never do something like that. And I also still welcome Mr Odimegwu to come back into our office to talk to me about his complaint and we can try to mitigate whatever his problem has been. I don’t do business the shoddy way. We Chinese people are in business for the long run, not for just today or tomorrow, but for years to come. We will give up the short term for the long term. And I don’t mind building my business slowly. But what I won’t stand for is badgering by ignorant and unstable personalities. ABuse has no place in our society.

• Richard Chen wrote: “I was wasting my time with this lunatic, so I asked him to go S**** himself and hung up”

  This is funny! Mr. Chen is too much of a gentleman to spell out the word “screw” in a blog comment, but is comfortable telling a paying customer to go screw himself!

  Richard Chen wrote: “he continued to argue that I had hung up on him. I explained to him that I would not do such”

  Hilarious! Mr. Chen is insulted by the accusation that he would hang up on a customer so what does he do? He hangs up on the customer!

  Does Liberty Tax teach even basic customer service? Obviously not, so here’s a tip Mr. Chen: Give Mr Odimegwu his money back. You’re supposed to give away free tax returns anyway, right? Make this one of them. Apologize and nicely ask Mr Odimegwu to come back here and leave a nice note that you stepped up and resolved his complaint.

  Here are 2 good reasons to give him his money back: 1) You’re in the wrong, and 2) The reputation of Liberty Tax Grove Hall in Dorchester and Liberty Tax franchisee Richard Chen is getting smeared all over the Internet.

  Do you really want this to come up when people Google your name?

  You’re in it for the long haul, right?

• It would be nice to know what Mr. Odimegwu’s complaint was. I agree the end result was not the way to go. Mr. Chen should have explained that the problem could not be resolved over the phone and invited the customer to meet with him so that they could come to a satisfactory resolution.
  Guest,
  Yep he could have just given the customer his money back but that really doesn’t solve the problem. You have the same mentality as corporate give it away. Let me explain something to you and them. Giving returns for free does not get you new paying customers it gets you new wanting it for free customers and always will as that is the mentality of our citizens in this country today, every one wants it for free. Nobody wants to work for it anymore they just want to jump on the freeroll wagon.
  I don’t see corporate giving anything away for free, Damn I don’t even see them advertising the business anywhere. If you are still with Liberty good luck. If you have gotten away from them thank God. LOL

• You told me that you didn’t want my business. You are forgetting that I payed 300$ to get my tax done with you guys. Then you hung up on me saying I was harrasing your business. Even with your masters degree, you counld’t provide simple customer care.
  I was not satisfied at all with your service or how I was treated as a customer.

• Mr. Odimegwu,
  What was the basis of your complaint?

• Richie B is wrong.

  At this point, it doesn’t matter what the nature of Mr. Odimegwu ‘s complaint is. He paid Richard Chen of Liberty Tax Grove Hall in Dorchester $300 and when he was unhappy with the service, Mr. Chen told him to Screw himself and Mr. Chen hung up on him.

  It doesn’t matter if Mr. Odimegwu’s complaint was the color of the paper clips, you can’t treat customers like that and expect to grow your business. People have too many choices, too many options. Do you think the thousands of people reading this care about the details? All they know is Liberty Tax in Dorchester hangs up on unhappy customers after taking their money and telling them to screw off.

  Richie B: You’re worried about Mr. Chen giving away free tax returns? Mr. Chen is giving away a lot more than that by being stupid and then defending his stupid action spublicly.

  Mr. Chen: The customer isn’t always right, but he’s the customer and the customer has the right to be wrong. Be sure to add “But I was right!” to your going out of business sign.

  Mr. Odimegwu: Demand he make it right AND give you your money back.

• One more thing: Mr. Chen refers to “We Chinese people” as being reasonable and having a long term view.

  He refers to Mr. Odimegwu as “ignorant and unstable”

  I wonder if Mr. Chen would have used vulgarities and hung up on Mr. Odimegwu if he was a member of his beloved Chinese community?

  Was Mr. Odimegwu African-American by chance? If so, the story is a little clearer.

  I love how Liberty Tax franchisees are quick to attack John Hewitt for every little thing, but when it comes to despicable and possibly racially motivated behavior by a fellow franchisee, everyone is silent or comes to his defense.

  Hypocritical much?

• Guest,
  You are obviously a Liberty plant on this site.
  Did you not read how I said it should have been handled.
  I am interested in knowing his complaint because most of the complaints are non existing and people know now that they can get it for free if they complain. Word of mouth is Liberty gives it away free if you Bitch.
  I’m not worried about Mr. Chen giving anything away what worries me is the Business plan that Liberty has set up. It sux. How they help their franchisees, it sux. How they advertise the business, what advertisement, it sux..
  No I don’t agree with the way Mr. Chen handled it ,I would have done it differenty. I definately would not have cursed the man but I would have explained that we would have had to meet in the office to resolve the complaint as their was no way it could be handled over the phone. I would have tried to make an appointment with him to do so. In Mr. Chen’s defense it would be hard to do this if the customer is screaming and calling him a liar and not letting him speak at all. Enough said.

• Guest:

  I don’t know what your point is. This site has to do with unhappy franchises complaining about the franchisor. It’s really isn’t intended for customer complaints.

  But hearing this complaint does speak volumnes about JTH and the quality, training and care they put into selecting, training and supporting their franchisees. The company has a money back guarantee policy and they should be the one making sure that it’s followed.

• The only person that was ignorant and unstable was Mr. Chen.
  I didnt disrespect Mr Chen but he disrespected me. His customer care to me was a zero.
  He brags about his degree but couldn’t complete a simple task. I want my money back Mr. Chen. since you don’t want my business or care how you talk to your customer’s. You should be required to take a customer care class.

• The only person that was ignorant and unstable was Mr. Chen.
  I didnt disrespect Mr Chen but he disrespected me. His customer care to me was a zero. He brags about his degree but couldn’t complete a simple task. I want my money back Mr. Chen. since you don’t want my business or care how you talk to your customer’s. You should be required to take a customer care class.

• From my experience, Liberty Tax corporate could screw up a customer relationship a lot faster than any franchisee could. I had at least (4) situations that went to LT first because they lost the office contact number, and by the time they got done with LT, they were livid. I retained them all, but only after a lot of apologizing for their poor service.

• dEAR MR. chidi odimegwu

  I am a liberty zee also and if you had come to my store i would have kicked your ass out the door and told you to screw urself and ur old lady. But thats just me. I do have to say, that the one thing i hate of first peak, is that the customer are ignorant, unmannered animals. All they care about is scamming the system for there refund or ass they call it gubment check. These colored and noncolored folks are mostly trash and i treat them like trash. thats why i charge them $400 for a return for having to put up with there bullshit. One good way to scare them is to tell them you will have the IRS audit their EIC Credit. that shuts them up so quick and they haul ass oout of the store like lightning.

• I can see your ignorant and Unhappy with your life
  . Why don’t you just kill yourself. Don’t get mad at me because your wife is a cheating whore. With that attitude, know wonder you guys suck.

• chidi odimegwu: Refrain from personal attacks and insults or you will be banned from this website. ADMIN

• I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stoop to his level. Thanks for the warning.

• So Mike has logged on as Chidi, and then pretending to be a franchisee and in his little world, he thinks he is making people not invest their money in this franchise. Why are you not out there making money like most of us are?

• chidi writes “I can see your ignorant and Unhappy with your life
  . Why don’t you just kill yourself. Don’t get mad at me because your wife is a cheating whore. With that attitude, know wonder you guys suck.”

  Ok, I would like to rescind my support of chidi odimegwu. I would give him his money back and then get a restraining order. Where do you guys live again? Psychoville?

  The Rats are jumping ship again writes: “I am a liberty zee also and if you had come to my store i would have kicked your ass out the door… the customer are ignorant, unmannered animals. All they care about is scamming the system for there refund or ass they call it gubment check….One good way to scare them is to tell them you will have the IRS audit their EIC Credit. that shuts them up so quick and they haul ass oout of the store like lightning.”

  Wow. You Liberty Tax franchisees are a classy bunch.

  No wonder you guys are failing.

• Posts regarding chidi odimegwu really need to be on Facebook where they belong. It will have a much more meaningful result if you post there.

• Hi looking for advised. this is my second year and i have done only 23 returns and 4 are free. any ideas from the pros on how to get the momentum going. any help would be appreciated.

• second year zee;

  What Marketing have you done since opening this year ?

• Second Year Zee

  Unfortunately there is no silver bullet that you can use. The first thing I would do is look at last years numbers. Review those logs and figure how much your up over last year and use this % to determine what your results will be for the season. Staff should be cut and wavers kept to a minimum. Liberty’s budget is worthless so don’t follow it. If your in a low income area your season will be over in two weeks if your in a middle income area your season will have two peaks. You can reduce your store hours between those periods. Your pricing is important so you need to stay competitive not cheap.

• Frustrated and disgusted,
  Thanks for trying to step up and help him. We know what kind of help he’s getting from corporate and his AD. Let me see none? We have all been through it and it looks like another zee is out there on that island by himself. Why don’t some of you guys still drinking the kool aid come out and try to help? It’s amazing that all you guys who keep critizing F&D on this site haven’t come forward yet. Just proves that you are all corporate plants on here. You can’t offer advise cause you know that there is no help coming. Not from you, Corporate or his AD. SOS glad i’m out.

• Thanks for all the comments. I went the the Liberty tax school this year thinking it was a good career move after losing my job, and was hired to do taxes. I really like doing them but…..I was considering leaving after seeing that they charge $450 (and sometimes more) for every customer regardless of the forms. I have really struggled with this, many times the company gets all the refund and the customer is no wiser as to the fees they were charged. We are told to not say what they are but play up the big refund. There are a lot of other issues for me (the schedule c and EITC push is bothersome too) but taking so much of someone’s return for a 30 minute job really bothers me. The other day a preparer charged $500 for a 1040 and state return and the customer was left with a $38.00 refund. I was considering resigning and now I know I will. I just can’t do this to people. Thanks for helping me decide.

• Sam;

  It is not too late to open up your own shop and try it on for yourself. You can purchase software for a very low price, find an inexpensive but very visible office, put out a sign and hire someone to walk around in an Uncle Sam costume out in front. If you can’t get 75-100 returns before the end of the season I would be very surprised. You should be able to find an office for a couple of hundred a month, utilities included, and rent it through April. If you charge $150-200 per return, you will be giving good value and bringing in some extra money to cover your expenses. Its a lot better than watching some franchisee pocket $450 per return while you make $8 per hour. Better yet, move in next door and put him out of business……………..