I ran into trouble with the IRS and decided I could not deal directly with them anymore as it was agitating me terribly and I worried about my health. I saw an advertisement for JKHarris on the web and contacted them.
I eventually engaged their services and agreed to pay them approximately $1,500 to resolve my issue with the IRS and the Internal Revenue of the State of Oregon. The payments were to be made monthly.
Initially, the case seemed to proceed quickly and I was encouraged; they sent me a request for information and I responded via fax. This occurred in about November.
By January of I had not heard from them, so I called them. I was told that the person working on my case had not received the information. After calling repeatedly, they admitted that they had received the information and were assigning me to another worker. The second worker requested that I resend the information as once it was over three months old, the IRS demanded that it be updated.
I resent this information within two weeks and again waited for a response. The second worker asked for a lot of detailed information and I sent every single thing she requested. I would send her the bank account copies and it took her so long to get around to working on my case that the copies were outdated and I had to send her new ones. This became the vicious cycle and pattern for my dealings with JKHarris.
They did not file the information needed for them to work with Oregon's IRS even months after I sent them the authorization.
The second worker had to have new signatures to authorize the IRS to talk to them about our case, even though I had provided authorization previously.
This request and response, delay, request and response cycle continued into the summer of 2008. I called the office to speak with a supervisor. I assume that because it was a Friday, the staff was thin. A very nice customer service rep talked to me and tried to connect me with a supervisor. The supervisor was there, but refused to take my call. She did not ever call me.
When I wrote a letter explaining what had happened, and demanded that either work be accomplished or they terminate my case, I did not receive a response to my letter for months.
Eventually, their response was to appoint yet a third person to work on my case. The cycle continued with no improvement. I was so frustrated because it was more difficult to work with them than the IRS itself.
When the third worker refused to answer my emails asking for an update and continued asking for updated billings and bank account information, I called again.
They gave me yet another worker and she asked for all the documentation again. I complied with this request. Nothing changed.
By now I could see the pattern and knew that I was not going to get anything at all for my money. I had a terrible time making the payments and had to pay repeated NSF fees when I could not have the money in the bank. I called the Professional Fee Financing Associates a number of times to report that I was not receiving any service for my money, there were no replies and no resolution.
I finally took care of the State IRS myself in about three phone calls and settled with them without any problems.
No resolution was ever reached with the feds and I told JKHarris I wanted my money back. They responded by offering me $180 in settlement. One of the reasons they said they would not give me a full refund was that they had to request information repeatedly... And they accomplished work on my behalf.
I contacted the IRS myself and after some effort was granted a non-collectable status. It took me only a short phone call and some follow-ups to gain this status.
JKHarris is incompetent, they led me to believe that their staff were IRS workers with lots of experience working with or for the IRS. Most of the people I spoke with gave me the impression that they did not know what was involved with my case, a rather unusual one.
JKHarris is without a doubt the most non-responsive company I have ever had the displeasure to work with. They top any bank or phone company I have ever done business with in the category of "I just don't care and there's nothing you can do about it" department.
They promised repeatedly on television and in print that they could take care of any problems we have with the IRS and deliver nothing but frustration and time consuming "busy work."
I have proof of the many times I faxed (sometimes 30 pages of information) requested information to JKHarris because I kept the fax verification sheets. I have faxed hundreds of pages of billing statements, IRS documents, and bank statements to JKHarris and have nothing whatsoever to show for it. They just don't care.
Koichan
Crescent, Oregon
U.S.A.
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