Why does Omni-Financial, Berkshire Capital Partners and other tax resolution companies have a decent BBB record but horrible reputations?
Get a call from a tax resolution company due to a federal or state tax lien being filed? Did it sound anything like this video?
Because of the high level of competition in the tax help/resolution industry there are several telemarketing companies slick enough to realize that it is smarter to refund a client in full then to get another BBB complaint. On average, I am able to assist my clients by drafting a demand of refund letter after they realize they had been hoodwinked (i.e. the sales guy tells them one thing, the person assigned to their case tells them another and asks them several more thousands of dollars in the process).
Another trick they use to mislead consumers is to change the business name by using a dba name such as Berkshire Financial Consulting who bought a company called Quantum Financial in 2008.
Quantum Financial had a horrible BBB record due to the amount of complaints and also had several lawsuits pending. All of a sudden an out of state company came in and took over the same clients, same employees, same building, same phone number (i.e. an alter ego of Quantum). They registered with the BBB and overnight had an A+ rating. It is undetermined if Berkshire was a shell company (i.e. if it was even doing business and/or if it provided the same services they do now - it is extremely unlikely that they did). Of course it was inevitable being that they were hit with BBB complaints and when they were they quickly changed their operating name from Berkshire Financial Partners to Berkshire Capital Partners.
The BBB clearly did not do its due diligence even though several competitors reported this to them. When you take into account that the BBB gave the middle east terror group Hamas an A- after a group of joksters registered it in 2010 you start to see the bigger picture (ABC NEWS BBB HAMAS)
If you are looking for help it is smart to use someone who is independent, someone you can talk to-not to their assistants or another sales person. Bigger companies, trust me, view you as a dollar sign and not a person. The ones who do care about their clients are the ones who refuse to continue to work for big companies that require them to squeeze their book of clients every month so they can hit their commission quota. That is the bottom line.
Nicholas Hartney, E.A.
720.340.4065
nick@patriotresolution.com
Addendum:I would like to say that I have been in this industry long enough to see many of my once colleagues go on and either create their own business or become a manager at one of these firms. They all started out with good intentions but after they got a taste of the money they quickly sell out and their ethics go down the drain. Of course they will tell you that they are not boiler rooms but the fact is they are.
They have their managers knock on the doors of their tax professionals offices daily, every hour asking them how much money they have coming in. When I was at Omni-Financial from 2002-2004 I remember the meetings of their management staff every morning in front of the whole company (I would say approximately 100 people at that time)going around the room and asking each Associate (tax professional) how much money they had coming in on that day and throughout the week. They were so much of a boiler room that they would make you pick up your clients checks using Federal Express and you would have to write on the "Money Board" where everyone could see who you "rewrote" (i.e. ask for additional money above the initial sales contract) and throughout the day made you confirm three times by marking x 1, x 2, x 3. They were blood thirsty vampires, and their employees and clients were nothing more than a means to the owners end. If you continued to miss your quota you were fired, the turnover rate was remarkable. It was ALL about money, don't let them fool you. Look up boiler room in a dictionary and you will find Omni-Financial.