Russell Financial and Business Services, Inc.

This is in response to complaint 10#[redacted] submitted by [redacted] against Rhonda Russell c/o Russell Financial Services.

[redacted] retained our services in January of 2014, after interviewing 3 accounting firms in [redacted], and determining she felt most comfortable with...

ours.

We discussed the services she required and she signed an engagement letter (see Attachment) defining the services and charges associated with each, namely "monthly accounting and payroll", "quarterly administration'" and "annual administration and tax preparation". There was no confusion as to the fees and no additional"questionable charges " were applied whatsoever.

I had to leave for an extended absence mid April for a serious family issue and, prior to leaving, made sure all of my clients affairs were in order, they were all aware I would be gone for at least 6 weeks, and that there would be no interruption of current services. During this time, [redacted] notified my assistant that she was discontinuing our services as she had chosen to go with her bank for her future payroll services, and do the accounting segment herself. I told her at that time that I would not  be able to get the 1st quarter reports the bank needed till after I arrived back home in Havasu....Long story short ..I just arrived home at 6:34 last evening, I received an e-mail request from the bank this morning at 10:32 am and my response to them (see attached) defining what they are requesting for prior quarter payroll reports and am preparing to print and forward these reports as soon as I am done with this response!

Any unanswered texts, (which is not how I communicate with clients anyways), emails or phone calls are a result of my being out of town on family emergency of which she was well aware.

Please contact me directly if any further clarification is needed.

Respectfully,[redacted]

Yes, there are two sides to every story. This particular client originally came to me several years ago with a "portion" of her tax issue. There are many discrepancies in her complaint. I am writing, at this time, because of a seven day response time on this complaint. I will have to pull dates and...

documents from what little I have of [redacted] file in my storage for a more accurate response if it becomes necessary.

When she first came to me she asked me to resolve her tax issue with the IRS. She neglected to mention that her husband also had separate tax issues, and that the State of CA was after her as well. This complicates my job as I require full disclosure from a client in order to fully resolve their tax issues.

Last August she came back to my office after over 2 years of non communication. During that time she brought in portions of her documents,  then would come and pick them back up saying she needed to go over them for one reason or another. she did this on three separate occasions. I could not do my transactional analysis without the source documents at hand. So this got delayed.

[redacted] also met with a field IRS agent at her home and scheduled more than one appointment with her subsequently. This violates the terms of our contract.

Shortly after this she called me and said she was going with another professional to finish her case.

I wished her well. 

A good portion of the invoice she is requesting reimbursement of was for federal and state tax preparation, which I completed and submitted to the IRS and States of CA and AZ. I will not reimburse for services rendered. The small remainder was used up in office visits, phone calls, and review of documents.

Respectfully,

Review: In August 2013 we gave [redacted] a $1500 retainer with a promise to pay $300 a month until the total reached $4500, the price [redacted] demanded so as to "represent" us to the IRS in regards to tax issues. In total we paid her $3300 until we stopped the payments due to "suspicious" behavior on [redacted] part....which included, but is not limited to: failure to return phone calls, failure to answer her door at the place of her business and giving one excuse after another why she hasn't made any progress to which we hired her to do. She claimed to be able to stop levies and wage garnishments from the IRS. Well, needless to say the IRS began garnishing my Social Security disability check every month beginning in Aug. 2013 and and then started garnishing my husbands payroll check starting in Feb. 2014.....totaling thousands of dollars so far. Whenever we tried contacting [redacted] in regards to why this was happening all she could say was she was sorry, too busy with other clients, she was sick, she was on vacation etc. etc. She claimed these cases could take a year or more to settle. Finally, we hired another tax professional to represent us. It only took him 3 weeks to stop the IRS garnishments! He told us we were not the first, in fact, there were many more people that came to him after being ripped off by [redacted]. Come to find out, [redacted] is not even an enrolled agent with the IRS nor did she even have a valid business license for [redacted]. God only knows how many other people she has taken advantage of through the years. To have her as a member of your organization does not shine favorably on you!Desired Settlement: To have her return the $3300 we paid her to represent us to the IRS.

Business

Response:

Yes, there are two sides to every story. This particular client originally came to me several years ago with a "portion" of her tax issue. There are many discrepancies in her complaint. I am writing, at this time, because of a seven day response time on this complaint. I will have to pull dates and documents from what little I have of [redacted] file in my storage for a more accurate response if it becomes necessary.

When she first came to me she asked me to resolve her tax issue with the IRS. She neglected to mention that her husband also had separate tax issues, and that the State of CA was after her as well. This complicates my job as I require full disclosure from a client in order to fully resolve their tax issues.

Last August she came back to my office after over 2 years of non communication. During that time she brought in portions of her documents, then would come and pick them back up saying she needed to go over them for one reason or another. she did this on three separate occasions. I could not do my transactional analysis without the source documents at hand. So this got delayed.

[redacted] also met with a field IRS agent at her home and scheduled more than one appointment with her subsequently. This violates the terms of our contract.

Shortly after this she called me and said she was going with another professional to finish her case.

I wished her well.

A good portion of the invoice she is requesting reimbursement of was for federal and state tax preparation, which I completed and submitted to the IRS and States of CA and AZ. I will not reimburse for services rendered. The small remainder was used up in office visits, phone calls, and review of documents.

Respectfully,

I chose Russell Financial Services for a back tax issue based upon the recommendation from another friend who had their tax levy and wage garnishments removed by Russell Financial Services.

I had 7 years of overdue taxes totaling over $235,000 and Mrs. R[redacted] told me not to worry, she would handle it on my behalf. This was in October of 2014. After many consultations and signing of documents she prepared, much to my surprise, the IRS relieved me of that debt. It took 11 months, which she said was normal, and today I feel like I have my life back. Not only did she get the back taxes eliminated she helped me repair my credit report afterwards.

Many thanks for the great .work you did for me, [redacted]

Review: Hired [redacted] services starting January and after some questionable charges for my business I stopped her services April 30th. When trying to retain [redacted] for payroll services, Russell Financial is not releasing the information needed for me to resume my business. I am entitled to have anything she has done to my business and after many unanswered e-mails, text messages and unanswered phone calls she is not responding. I can not do my payroll without the tax information needed which she has.Desired Settlement: just want my information released to me

Business

Response:

This is in response to complaint 10#[redacted] submitted by [redacted] against Rhonda Russell c/o Russell Financial Services.

[redacted] retained our services in January of 2014, after interviewing 3 accounting firms in [redacted], and determining she felt most comfortable with ours.

We discussed the services she required and she signed an engagement letter (see Attachment) defining the services and charges associated with each, namely "monthly accounting and payroll", "quarterly administration'" and "annual administration and tax preparation". There was no confusion as to the fees and no additional"questionable charges " were applied whatsoever.

I had to leave for an extended absence mid April for a serious family issue and, prior to leaving, made sure all of my clients affairs were in order, they were all aware I would be gone for at least 6 weeks, and that there would be no interruption of current services. During this time, [redacted] notified my assistant that she was discontinuing our services as she had chosen to go with her bank for her future payroll services, and do the accounting segment herself. I told her at that time that I would not be able to get the 1st quarter reports the bank needed till after I arrived back home in Havasu....Long story short ..I just arrived home at 6:34 last evening, I received an e-mail request from the bank this morning at 10:32 am and my response to them (see attached) defining what they are requesting for prior quarter payroll reports and am preparing to print and forward these reports as soon as I am done with this response!

Any unanswered texts, (which is not how I communicate with clients anyways), emails or phone calls are a result of my being out of town on family emergency of which she was well aware.

Please contact me directly if any further clarification is needed.

Respectfully,