Last year the taxes for my wife and I were very complicated. She worked in several states, and on top of that her company made some big errors where they said she worked in several other states that she never actually worked in. They said they'd pay for the problem if we got an invoice from a tax person. Normally we do our own taxes but this made it worth it to go to someone.
Our tax lady (also a financial planner) did all of our taxes and charged what I thought was a LOT - $640. Wife's company paid for $400 of that though. She was very helpful though, and answered a ton of questions I wondered about previously. Also our return was much higher than we had expected. Since she was so helpful I decided I would probably go through her more in the future. At the end of our meeting with her she mentioned that we could start a Roth IRA. This was before I knew about Roth IRA's so I wrote myself a note to look into them. It sounded like she offered them through her, so I kept that in the back of my mind too. She ended our conversation by saying "I also do financial planning, so if you guys have any questions feel free to call me about anything - work benefits, financial advice, etc. If it's just a phone call I wont charge you, but if I have to do research on my own time and get back to you later I'd charge for that". Wow that's a nice thing to have - I'll keep that in mind......
So about a month later I looked into Roth IRA's on my own and decided my wife and I should open them. Found MMM, looked into starting with Vanguard, etc. Then I remembered that our tax lady made it sound like she has one through her.. I decided to email her with questions about what she personally offers. A week later she called me and said it would be easier to answer those questions over the phone instead of through email. I agreed.
We had a 20 minute phone call where she went through what a Roth IRA is and answered the questions I had asked previously. She even went off on a tangent at one point where I had to finally cut her off and say "Dont worry, I'm not planning on investing in real estate through the Roth IRA right now". Anyways, after the conversation we hung up and I thought "That's a nice benefit of going through her for our taxes.. Sure, it was $600 to do the taxes through her, but in the future it will be less because they will be less complicated AND we get the benefit of asking her other quesitons over the phone".
Then 2 weeks later I get a bill for $100.
I call her about this and reference our conversation about how we can call her with questions but she got very defensive immediately and said that any business person would charge me for a 25 minute conversation. She said that originally she meant a 2-3 minute conversation would be free, not 25 minutes. My issue is that #1 She said to call with questions and that I wouldn't be charged if she didn't have to do research and get back to me later about it. #2 She never made me aware of an hourly price I'd be paying for the conversation
After another 10 minute conversation I finally said "There's obviously been a miscommunication here.. I thought you were giving me advice on Roth IRA's because you offered them through you, and I wanted to see what you personally offer. Our previous conversation led my wife and I to believe this conversation would not be charged for. Also you never even told me I was going to be charged or how much per hour."
I ended up explaining that my wife and I are young (28 yr old) and have a long working career ahead of us where we'll need our taxes done. I dont feel right about paying the $100. She didn't budge so I said I'll pay the $100 and never do business with her again.
Do I have a point here? Anyone I tell in person is very surprised at her stance on this.
I paid the $100 and am following through about never doing business with her again.