My wife and I are retired and living on Social Security income. We used to own a business for many…read moreyears but turned it over to my sons when we retired. My wife and I made an appointment with Gibson Tax Services to review our documentation to have them prepare and file our 2025 return. The appointment was set almost two weeks from my call to request. We met with Ben for our appointment and he reviewed our documents which only consisted of our two 1099's from Soc. Sec. and some other documentation I furnished from the business. It was a very short meeting in which Ben reviewed the 1099's and the other documentation I brought and said OK. We left without any explanation of how long it would be before our taxes would be filed or if we needed to follow up. I just assumed they would be filed within a week or so.
Two weeks later, when I had not heard anything from Gibson Tax Services, I decided to call them. They answered the call; I identified myself and told her that I was following up to learn the progress of our return. She looked our file up on her computer and said, "Ben is still working on it and as soon as he has finished with it, we will let you know." I was hoping for more information, but I said OK and hung up.
At the end of the third week, when I had not heard anything from Gibson Tax Services, I called back. Again, I identified myself and told her that I was following up to learn the progress of our return. She looked our file up on her computer and said, "Ben is still working on it and as soon as he has finished with it, we will let you know." I asked if there was a problem and she said that if there is, Ben would be in contact. I reminded her that it had been 3 weeks and she replied, "as soon as they are done, we will let you know." Her tone never changed. She was pleasant, upbeat and I basically felt like she was completely ignoring my concern.
At the end of the fourth week, when I had not heard anything from Gibson Tax Services, I called back again. This time I was a little more aggressive but was still given the same cookie cutter responses. Again, her tone was pleasant and upbeat, but she never offered an apology (so I assumed this was normal) or showed any concern. I then got a little short with her and asked if there was someone else, I could speak to and again (with the same pleasant upbeat tone) said she would let them know I had called to check on my returns. I was mad so I said, "that's it, this is the kind of customer service you provide." She did not answer, there was a long pause and I hung up.
This call was on Friday. The following Monday I decided to pick up my documents/files to take them to another tax service that I had contacted to prepare/file my returns. When I showed up to request my tax documents, they acted as though it was common. No questions, after a small wait while they located them, just here you go.
I had already made an appointment at Denver Tax Services for later that week. When we arrived at Denver Tax Services, we were met by Kendell, who took us to his desk without any wait, reviewed our documents, explained everything very thoroughly, then completed our return and filed it electronically while we sat in front of him. Later that evening, I received two separate emails, one from the State and the other from the IRS that each return had been received and accepted.
I would definitely not recommend Gibson Tax Service after my experience with them but would highly recommend Denver Tax Services.
J. V. Wilson
Denver, NC
