Smith & Associates – Legit or Scam?

I came across a critical review of Smith & Associates on a Scam Reporting website – DirtyScam.com, titled ‘The Most Unethical Company’.

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 Smith & Associates with a pinch of salt.

Here is what the review says –

Smith & Associates was the most unethical company I’ve had the misfortune of working with.We usually do our own taxes, but like many others this year, were estimating to owe a lot in taxes.We thought it’d be best to have them done by a professional as we had questions about my tuition, retirement tax forms, and what our tax rate should actually be.Robin Smith prepared our return. He quoted me $350 at our initial meeting.When I received the return he prepared, there were multiple inaccuracies, from silly things like spelling one of our names wrong to typing in schools we’ve never attended.He also put in a tax credit that my husband was not eligible for to get us a higher return.I asked him to remove this credit twice, which he did not.Because this started to seem pretty shady and I shouldn’t have had to ask him three times, we decided to go with someone else.Once I informed him of this, he changed the fee to $500 for a consultation per the last line of their “Tax Client Info Sheet” that they have you sign.This is basically the equivalent of a health history form in the medical field.Meanwhile, their Engagement Letter lists no costs or fees, even though this is recommended by the Colorado State Board of Accountancy which I now know in hindsight.While I was perfectly willing to pay him a reasonable amount for his time, Robin was insistent on this fee.This company will trap you into filing with them or paying a hefty fee.We chose their ridiculous fee over the possible future tax notice from the IRS.I’d never recommend anyone I know to this company.Little guy beware- they will take advantage of you whenever possible.

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

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

• Address: Urban Street Lakewood CO 80228
• Phone: (303) 274-5500
• Website: http://smithassociatespc.com
• Severity of Scam: High [not sure what it means]
• Reported Loss: 3252 $ [unsubstantiated]
• Reported by: Anonymous [obviously]

The entity Smith & Associates was awarded 1 / 5 Stars  based on 2 Reviews.

It is difficult to ascertain whether Smith & Associates is a Scam, or Legit, based on this single review. In the coming weeks/days, I will try to research deeper into Smith & Associates, 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 Smith & Associates as someone you need to avoid (for now).

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