Client Reviews of Robert U. Syme, CAA, CPA, EA, EAC, RTRP, SRTP

Bottom Line: Robert Syme of Bob Does Taxes performed grossly negligent services having a fiscal impact of $10,692 to my family. Upon learning about his error, he failed to respond to repeated attempts at communication. His actions leading to this eventuality began questionably and I became increasing aware that what I thought were small mistakes was actually snowballing incompetence, an inability to perform the task for which I hired him, and what appeared to be the possibility of fraud. Mr. Syme’s areas of incompetence as experienced by my family are as follows: · Bait and switch advertising on Thumbtack · Failure to communicate fully, timely, or professionally · Failure to compile, analyze, and synthesize information I provided for completing my family’s tax returns resulting in a large number of errors in 2 years’ worth of tax return preparations · Failure to take responsibility for either large or numerous small errors he made · Usage of a consumer tax preparation software to professionally prepare taxes, a service for which he charged Robert Syme lacks the talent to perform the simple demands of his job, but more importantly, he lacks the integrity to recognize and atone for his mistakes. No acknowledgement, to even the smallest degree, was given as to his responsibility for this situation and no offer of assistance was provided to my family in figuring out what happened, why, or how to correct it. We had hoped that Mr. Syme would cover the cost of the fines, late fees, and return the payment we made to him for doing the tax return. However, he dodged our calls, did not return our messages, and responded to only a fraction of our emails in vague verbiage that was no help. Details: In January 2017 I was looking for a new tax preparer. I found the Thumbtack site where Bob Does Taxes had a number of high reviews. I requested quotes from multiple preparers and Bob Does Taxes came in the lowest at $99, so I hired him to prepare my family’s 2016 tax return. In February I began sending him the necessary documents to complete my tax return via a secure server (mytaxdocx.com). I first became wary when he requested to see my 2014 and 2015 tax information in addition to my 2016 information. I have used multiple tax preparers in the 13 years that I have owned my business but can’t recall a time when I needed to send previous years returns. However, I decided that he was just being thorough and sent the information. On March 10, 2017 I sent Mr. Syme a communication letting him know that I still did not have the 1099 from my consultation fees with my small business but told him exactly how much would be on it when it arrived and, additionally, promising to send it when it arrived. I sent another message on 3/11/17 itemizing the documents I was still waiting to receive, one of which being the 1099. On March 20, 2017 I received a message from Mr. Syme asking for the 1099, in addition to asking if he was supposed to do the 2014 taxes and stating that he was almost finished with the 2015. I had received the 1099 at that point and sent it to him but was confused and slightly alarmed at the rest of his message. I responded that those returns were both completed already and asked him to focus just on the 2016 return. In this same communication he confused information from previous years to that year, believing we had sold a home and were claiming a child that were both listed on the 2015 return but should not have been on the 2016. By 4/1/17, I had not heard from Mr. Syme following the communication on 3/20/17, so inquired as to the status of the return. On 4/2/17 I was sent an invoice for his services, which was for $154, $55 more than his original quote, and an email requesting my bank account information and copies of my and my husband’s drivers’ licenses. Since I had not yet seen the actual return I was hesitant to provide this to him. He told us the amount of return we would be receiving and said that the return was going to be loaded on

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