Barbara Sarvis, CPA – Legit or Scam?

I came across a critical review of Barbara Sarvis, CPA on a Scam Reporting website – DirtyScam.com, titled ‘Tax Service’.

DirtyScam allows anonymous submission of complaints from angry consumers and victims of scams. Since the website is hosted offshore (probably in Russia or India), we take this (negative) review against Barbara Sarvis, CPA with a pinch of salt.

Here is what the review says –

If you are a small business, just starting out, hoping to learn more about the proper way to keep books and pay taxes, and you need help setting up your accounting software, you should NOT hire Barbara Sarvis, CPA.Apparently, she is unable provide any sort of guidance and won’t be able to help you at all.This will be accompanied by heavy sighs, eye rolls, and hands being thrown up in the air while she says things like “I don’t know” or “I can’t help you with that”.And she’ll even find a way to make you feel bad about it.My friend and I started a small business in July. We took all of the necessary steps to establish ourselves legally and properly, and have kept up with our accounting to the best of our ability so far.We sat down with Barbara for the first time today in hopes that she could help us get set up with QuickBooks.However, when I showed her that I had connected our bank accounts to QuickBooks and asked her the best way bring in our recent transactions, she literally said “I don’t do that. I can’t help you with that.”Then, when we took it upon ourselves to figure it out and asked her how we should label the accounts, she threw her hands up and again said, “I already told you, this isn’t what I do.”Throughout the meeting, she greeted our questions with more questions.She was rude and condescending, even questioning at one point if this was our full-time job, indicating that maybe two busy moms couldn’t possibly be competent business owners in need of accounting services.She had no knowledge of how the taxes in our industry would work for our state (which is the same state where she works).She encouraged us to “look it up” on the state tax website.That caught us off-guard since we assumed that a CPA would be knowledgeable about how a small business should set up their taxes.She seemed completely confused the entire time and was not able to give us a single piece of guidance regarding our accounting or taxes.In reading Barbara’s other reviews I can see that Stephanie (from 2012) said, “She is very patient with my less-than-enlightened questions and always has helpful suggestions for bookeeping and returns.”Maybe something has drastically changed in the past 5 years because we didn’t see even a glimmer of that helpful, patient person being described.In fact, she was the exact opposite. What I found extra hurtful about this encounter is that Barbara has done my husband’s corporate taxes and my family’s personal taxes for the past couple of years, so we were obviously shocked and discouraged by the disrespectful treatment my business partner and I received today.Needless to say, we will now be seeking accounting help elsewhere for our personal needs as both of our businesses.To sum it up, Barbara can help you figure out everything you need to know, as long as you have already figured out everything you need to know.If you would like to understand your accounting and learn how to set it up properly, go elsewhere.

In case you don’t already know (assuming you came to this page by Googling ‘Barbara Sarvis, CPA scam‘, or ‘Barbara Sarvis, CPA review‘, Barbara Sarvis, CPA is listed under the category Business on DirtyScam.com.

Here is the rest of the contact information for the sole purpose of identification –

• Address: Six Forks Road Raleigh NC 27615
• Phone: (919) 518-0532
• Website: http://sarviscpa.com
• Severity of Scam: Medium [not sure what it means]
• Reported Loss: 2177 $ [unsubstantiated]
• Reported by: Anonymous [obviously]

The entity Barbara Sarvis, CPA was awarded 1.75 / 5 Stars  based on 4 Reviews.

It is difficult to ascertain whether Barbara Sarvis, CPA is a Scam, or Legit, based on this single review. In the coming weeks/days, I will try to research deeper into Barbara Sarvis, CPA, analyze and list more critical reviews and identify a pattern (or lack of) to substantiate the claim mentioned above.

Regardless, until then, we give the benefit of doubt to the reviewer and list Barbara Sarvis, CPA as someone you need to avoid (for now).

If you have any grievances, complaints, or anonymous tips against Barbara Sarvis, CPA, please contact us immediately. If you have lost money to  Barbara Sarvis, CPA, together we can work to recover your loss.