‘They have my $4,036,’ so she called abc27 News, and tax prep firm fixed mistake
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — For 28 years, Virginia Rockmore had gone to H&R Block for help preparing her taxes, and for all those years, she was happy.
“I always get what they say I’m going to get,” Rockmore said.
And sure enough, that will happen again this year — in fact, she’ll get her tax preparation fee back too — after she waited two months for her refund because of what she says started with a mistake by a tax preparer.
Rockmore said the preparer requested a paper check on her behalf rather than a deposit to a debit card, as she had been getting for years and wanted again this time. She said she had visited the H&R Block store on Jonestown Road in Lower Paxton Township back on Jan. 19.
“There’s nothing wrong with last-minute people,” Rockmore said. But she’s not one.
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The paper check arrived. She endorsed it and tried to deposit it via her bank’s mobile app, but they declined it because of a code that was supposed to be written on it but wasn’t. She called H&R Block, which suggested she try a check-cashing store. But check-cashing stores wouldn’t accept the check because she had already endorsed it; to prevent fraud, they require people cashing checks to sign within view of the employees.
Then came a loop, Rockmore says, of trying to get a replacement check and repeated assurances the matter would be resolved soon — but no refund.
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“They have my $4,036,” she said — about $5,000 minus the tax preparation fee. “They haven’t given it to me.”
abc27 News contacted H&R Block.
“This will be resolved for Virginia today,” the company told abc27 News in an email message. “She sent the check back, so we are processing it today and will load the funds to the form of payment she requested. Our team will contact her again once this has been processed. Additionally, her tax prep fee is being refunded.”
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.
