Not fulfilling a service after being paid...

Rob Humanoid

Hi there,

I’d really appreciate some help with someone not fulfilling a service after being paid.:mad:

Basically, I pay someone to do my accounts for tax at the end of the year (been dealing with them for 5 years). However, this year they never fulfilled my tax after saying it was completed and I’d already paid them 350e (check). I only found out recently when Revenue contacted me.

The they went totally ‘off the radar’ and I had to get another accountant to fix the problem. When I eventually got in touch with them they came back with a lame excuse.

However, I asked for my Tax docs for 2017. They came back with a number of dubious excuses. Saying that they are ‘not relevant’ as some one else is taking care of them. I said, I still want them for my Tax records and that I paid for them.

There has been several emails from me asking for them now. This person claims that they were done and submitted through ROS. But when I spoke to Revenue that said they had received nothing.

I guess what I’m asking is, can I do anything about it? I know it’s not a vast sum of money but it’s a lot to me as I’m a small sole trader. Or do I just cut my loses and put it down to a bad experience?

Thanks in advance!

L1011

Moving this to business as you are not legally a consumer in this situation

jimmii

I've had a similar issue this year. Early December they apologised and said there had been family stuff and thats why we hadn't heard from them but it was all sorted now but then we had no contact for over a week in the run up to our filing deadline then on the day they email saying that they've got an extension and that it's fine now as we have loads of time. But when we check online shocker its showing as overdue! Much like you we got it sorted but now stuck trying to get all the old paperwork. Very frustrating! We wanted to use a small local company like ourselves but its things like this that make you just want to go with the big guys as you're much less likely to get this sort of thing going on. Luckily we hadn't paid the entire bill so weren't out of pocket for the full amount. We're just going to cut our losses and hopefully get everything back and move on.

Gloomtastic!

Never pay for a service before you receive it. If they ask you to, then they’re probably in trouble.

You should look at threatening your accountant with reporting them to their professional body or just do it anyway. Leaving you exposed to a revenue audit is totally unprofessional.

http://www.iaasa.ie/FAQs/Complaints

And don’t expect a better service when you hire a big firm. The partners will probably pass your work down the chain.

mickdw

It's not the accountants fee I'd be worried about, more the messing with revenue deadlines.

Rob Humanoid

Thanks guys.. I really appreciate your answers!

@Gloomtastic
I know, amateur's mistake. I should not have paid them upfront and also checked to see if my accounts were actually done. But as they'd done it for the five previous years I assumed it would be okay. Silly me...

Thanks so much! I'll definitely report them to IAASA.

@mickdw
Yeah... I'm pretty worried about it. I've been on the phone to them twice. And I told them I'll get another accountant to sort it out. I'll be fined for it being so late. I'm really pissed as I've never been in Revenue's sights before.

@Jimii
Sorry to hear that you had similar trouble. I'm not expecting to get my money back really. But I'll definitely make a complaint about the person.

Thanks again!!

Gloomtastic!

Good luck to you! Their website/letterhead should tell you which professional body they're members of - I'm assuming all accountants have to be a member of some body.

Rob Humanoid

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Good luck to you! Their website/letterhead should tell you which professional body they're members of - I'm assuming all accountants have to be a member of some body.

Thanks again mate!