I had my appointment with Valentin Medina and I must say that I was extremely surprised with his strong knowledge base and attention to detail. Please keep in mind that I already did my taxes elsewhere and Valentin took them me out of his day to help me sort through all of my paperwork. Valentin is very down to Earth and easy to talk to. As soon as you start speaking with him you will quickly realize that he is very knowledgeable of most, if not all, tax preparation processes and IRS. My last few experiences at this office have been sketchy due to one tax preparer that was very opinionated and did things the way she felt should have been done. I was going to her because I used to work with her Husband. She would always tell me to get married and have kids so that I could contribute to Society. I would be like, "I'm a Batchelor ma'am. And I am really enjoying my single life right now." She would then say, "Well there's your problem. You will never see a decent tax return while you are out there being young and dumb." I would feel like my Mom was ripping me a new one. She never remembered that I worked with her Husband either. That was odd too. Then I switched to another lady who could literally care less about my presence there. Honestly, there were a couple years where it seemed like someone had a gun in her back forcing her to do my 1040EZ. Literally, the easiest form and she made me feel like she couldn't wait until I left. In hindsight, I don't think she meant to make me feel that way and was just socially awkward. I could be wrong though..... But anyway, check out Valentin at the office located by Target. He will help you with any of your tax needs! read more

This review is specific to one tax preparer...Joann Cox...DO NOT use Joann...if you have to use this branch...be sure NOT to request or be seated with Joann...last year we had the WORST experience with her...she ended up delaying our refund by over a month past the 21 days it is estimated to take...from the beginning of our visit...it was bad...normally we would go to the Merced, Yosemite Plaza branch but we thought we would save gas and go to our local branch last year. We were driving down Winton Way, heading toward the office by the Target on Applegate and Commerce...we were in the forward lane and I noticed a bedazzled trike motorcycle in the turning lane from Applegate onto Commerce...well when our light turned green...this trike decided to leave it's turning lane illegally and cut us off dangerously and head down the forward lane we were in...then I noticed it was turning into the parking lot we were headed in...then I noticed it was turning into the area we were headed...H&R Block...I jokingly told my husband that if that lady is going to the block, we are NOT having her do our taxes...sure enough...we were seated with the lady who cut us off...I begged my husband not to stay with that lady...PLEASE don't let her do our taxes but he is kind and figured it was just a traffic misstep and she must be an effective preparer...well she had my husband sign the wrong areas...put down wrong addresses on our return paperwork...which caused a delay in our return...I didn't have my school tax paper yet, she told me to "guess" the amount of tuition this year...then sent us on our way telling us the usual 21 day shpeel so we left thinking all was well...WELL, we find out a week later that my family members have all have their returns accepted and processing...we keep checking the status with NO progress on our return...i get my school tax paperwork and call Joann to give her the correct amount thinking this might be what is holding it up and she stated, "Oh, it does not really matter...you already got the maximum amount for this year". So I, again, figured she knew what she was doing and went back to waiting...my sister-in-law tells me on Facebook that the IRS is not accepting those particular forms (school-related) until a much later date...we were never informed by our preparer...by this time...we were weeks into waiting for it to be accepted...NEVER ONCE called by Joann to inform us of the hold up...I called the branch and asked for my return paperwork so we could take it to our regular preparer to review and be sure it is not all messed up...I talked to the receptionist...she said I needed to talk to Joann...I said I did not need to speak to anyone...I only needed my financial paperwork so I could go somewhere else...she said, "okay, let me check on this"...what does she do...she goes and gets Joann...Joann, very callously, gets on the line and immediately says, "yeah, this is Joann...I cannot give you back your paperwork because it is already sent to the IRS and is on hold pending the acceptance of the school paperwork which is postponed by the IRS...and if you have an issue with that then you need to call H&R Block because it is their fault for not informing their preparers of the situation..." So there was no apology for the hold up or the lack of communication on her part and instead she throws her employer under the bus by blaming them...what she did not know was, our usual preparer already told us that all preparers knew about it...but either chose NOT to inform us or didn't read the updates they receive. Well, our regular preparer fixed the problem in a day...gave us a credit toward 2013 filing season fees and refunded our tax prep fees for 2012 to say sorry and ensure we stay with H&R Block in the future...I would NEVER recommend this woman to anyone to prepare their taxes...her attitude and behavior about our case was irresponsible and unprofessional. read more